By Andrew Bansal
Night Demon’s tour with Skull Fist and Elm Street entered its final week for a run of West Coast shows, and after several ups and downs in the first three weeks, things came to an extremely eventful and action-packed conclusion. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy this rollercoaster installment of the ‘Rise Of The Demon’ tour blog, but before doing so, check out parts 1, 2 and 3 if you haven’t yet.
Day 24 (01/20): Heavy Metal Heat
Everyone on the touring package was relieved to be in Arizona’s warm weather and the general mood surrounding the gig at the Nile Theater in Mesa AZ was filled with positivity. But the show itself was a little strange, as the venue put us in the bigger of their two live music rooms, certainly too big for a show of this nature. The show taking place in the smaller basement room the same night was booked in-house by the venue, and hence they made every effort to promote that show and shelve all promotions for our gig, even removing it from the concert listing on their website. The die-hards still came out to show their support, and performing on such a big stage was an interesting experience for all three bands. The sound inside the room was very echoey and I could hear very little of Night Demon while I stood by the back right corner of the stage to do lights. Arizona has been a tough market to crack on these last two tours, but we know there are plenty of heavy metal fans in this area, so we’ll keep trying to come through here on future tours, in the hope of being part of a well-run, well-attended show.
Day 26 (01/22): Home Stretch
The first in a string of California shows to finish out the tour was at the Hub in Colton, near San Bernardino. The guys were perfectly rested after another off-day at home and more than ready to give it their all for these last few shows. On the way to the gig, we had to deal with the frustration of discovering that the ‘Curse Of The Damned’ album was uploaded in its entirety by somebody on YouTube. Luckily we found out about it quickly and got Century Media to report the upload and get it removed. The gig in Colton was run in a timely manner even with two stages in operation side by side. The light turnout was disappointing but didn’t deter any of the bands from putting on their best performance. Local band Novareign played a great set, and it was good to catch up with some of their members whom I go a long way back with. As has been the case with every gig on this tour including the poorly attended ones, the hardcore supporters turned up at this one as well. From the band’s perspective, even though it’s great to perform for these people and interact with them on and off stage, based on this event and the last time we were in the area on the Raven tour, I can’t help but come to the conclusion that it’s simply not worth the investment of time, money and effort for touring bands to do a separate San Bernardino/Inland Empire show. That being said, Night Demon was happy with the evening’s work and treated this as a good dress rehearsal for the two big events coming up on the weekend.
Day 27 (01/23): One Wild Night
The day of reckoning had finally arrived. The first of the Night Demon ‘Curse Of The Damned’ album release shows was at the Airliner in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles. The US release date of the album wasn’t until the 27th, but we got CD and vinyl copies of it from the label as soon as we pulled into the venue. We were excited with how the finished product came out and it felt great to be able to put them up for sale at the merch table. Fans showed the same level of excitement upon finally seeing and holding the physical product in all its glory. The turnout was good and steadily improving as the evening went on, and by the time the main acts took the stage, the place was completely packed. As the merch area was set up on the patio outside, I couldn’t catch any of the opening bands but based on attendees’ feedback, the awesome LA classic metal quintet Blade Killer impressed one and all, as they always do. Night Demon were the headline act for this event and went on last, at around 15 minutes past midnight, playing an hour-long set. I was feeling nervous, certainly the most nervous I’ve been on this tour, but by showtime I was ready for it. I thought the band’s performance lived up to the occasion, the set list was perfect, and people really enjoyed it. I had a great platform on stage to Jarvis’ left to do my lights from. I was concealed behind a stack of PA speakers and I would later emerge from there as the reaper. It was the perfect scenario for my role in the set.
As amazing as the gig felt to all four of us, things took a sharp turn for the worse the moment we got off stage. We were told that the entire patio had been shut down, my merch display was taken down and packed away, and people were being kicked out of the venue immediately, a lot of whom walked up to the merch table during the evening and said they would buy the new record and other items at the end of the show. It’s common and natural for most people to buy at the end of the night, as they don’t want to hold on to things throughout the show and risk it being damaged or lost. The show ended at 1:15 and on a Friday night, it made absolutely no sense for the Airliner to force such a brutal curfew, specially with so many people in attendance. They not only lost the money they would have made in bar sales, but caused Night Demon a huge loss in merch money, with this being the record release show and people clearly wanting to buy the record. The promoter Daniel Dismal from Church Of The 8th Day was least pleased with the situation, and said he had no intention of working with this venue ever again. I thought he did a great job handling matters, and paid Night Demon and Skull Fist a bonus on top of the guarantee, making this easily the most profitable gig for us in terms of performance pay. After being ousted from the club I was on the sidewalk trying to sell records, but by then everyone had already been forced to leave. This anti-climax definitely ruined what was otherwise a triumphant night for us. But of course, it was great for me to catch up with all of my LA friends, and I decided to pound a couple of beers, simply because the occasion demanded it. The Trooper beer I popped open after dealing with the fiasco at the end tasted specially righteous.
Day 28 (01/24): Bringing The Haus Down
The second record release show was at the Riff Haus in Fullerton, and was a very different affair. The venue has much more of a DIY vibe to it and was friendly in its treatment towards the bands, both touring and local. Novareign and Blade Killer played excellent sets once again, Blade Killer’s cover of Armored Saint’s ‘Can You Deliver’ standing out in memory, not just for the quality of their rendition but also because they are perhaps the only band I’ve ever seen and heard covering Armored Saint. Handling merch duties at this show was quite a challenge, as there were no lights and no tables available for me to use. But, thanks to Jarvis’ spontaneous and out-of-the-box thinking, we put a wooden plank on top of Blade Killer’s guitar cabs to make a table and let them use Night Demon’s cabs, and fired up one of our LED stage panels for lighting. It totally worked, but the crazy winds in Fullerton and trains rumbling across a mere few feet away made it an ordeal to do merch. The show itself went well and Night Demon enjoyed some really solid fanfare, including folks that have been longtime supporters of the band, although it was a shame that many of Skull Fist’s hardcore fans chose to leave and didn’t stay for Night Demon despite us going on at 11:15, not too late by Saturday standards. It’s always disappointing and frustrating to observe this memtality in concert goers, as one fails to understand what exactly they’d be able to accomplish in that extra hour on a Saturday night. Other than that, it was a fun event for us amd it was specially great to catch up with friends from Exmortus, Cellador and Warbringer.
Day 29 (01/25): Over The Top
After nineteen shows with Skull Fist and Elm Street filled with nothing but wild adventures, it had come down to the last show with them at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. Following a beautiful drive along the Pacific Coast Highway and a traditional Califoria meal at the In-N-Out joint in Santa Maria, we arrived at the venue at 6 PM, and after loading in, Jarvis and Brent walked to a record store next door, only to be handed a Bay Area welcome with a flurry of gunshots and a group of people surrounding a victim of these shots. This was only the beginning of the incredibly eventful night this would turn out to be. The turnout was good for a Sunday, the gig went well, all bands sounded great, and everyone was having a great time together. Even the sober ones on the tour were drinking. I interviewed Elm Street vocalist/guitarist Ben Batres before doors opened, and did one with Skull Fist guitarist Jonny Nesta after the gig. The latter was a constantly interrupted conversation, firstly by a drunk cyclist taking a tumble near us, and then by Dustin backing the Night Demon van into a tree. We somehow controlled our laughter and finished the interview. Some members of all three bands were hanging around outside, exchanging stories amd merch items, and the vibe was absolutely great.
I headed to the green room to gather the rest for a group shot. The scene I witnessed upon entering that room shocked me, and what happened a few seconds later sobered me instantly, erasing the impact of the three IPAs I’d consumed upto that point. Apparently, Jarvis, Dustin, Skull Fist drummer JJ and Elm Street bassist Anthony listened together to one of the worst songs in history, Anvil’s ‘Pro Wrestling’, and Anthony asked JJ to execute a WWE-style moonsault over him. Anthony laid down on the floor and completely consented to this actiom being performed on him. JJ got up on a table and did the moonsault, but the landing went wrong and his right knee slammed into Anthony’s face. He was knocked out for a few seconds and all of us freaked out. He came back to his senses, very groggy amd bleeding from his lip and ear. He felt better a few minutes later and we were able to laugh it off, but it was quite an amusingly bizarre incident all around. The group photos were finally taken care of, and after we said our goodbyes to Elm Street who had to drie back to LA that night to catch their flights back to Australia the next day, it was decided that Night Demon and Skull Fist would spend the night in the same motel and hang out together. This is where things got even weirder.
We drove around in search of a motel with reasonably priced rooms, and landed at a Knights Inn in the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk area. The guy at the reception stared at the vans as we rolled in, and not only charged us outrageous prices for horrendous rooms but asked us to put down a $250 deposit ‘in case we break something’. It would be returned to us after checkout, upon ‘thorough inspection’ of the rooms. Seeing a bunch of long-haired musicians doesn’t mean your property is in jeopardy, folks. This was clearly a case of profiling and we were more than a little miffed to be treated in this manner by a motel where nobody was staying anyway. We laughed it off and moved on, as always. Some of us hung out and drank into the early hours of the morning. Goodbye hugs were exchanged with the Skull Fist dudes and girl in the morning, and we were on our way to the last gig of our tour.
Day 30 (01/26): Crossing Paths
We had one final show on the way home, at Strummer’s in Fresno opening for mighty NOLA sludgelords Eyehategod, and we were part of a strange lineup from top to bottom. Eyehategod were on their own West Coast run, Seattle female-fronted stoner metal band Witchburn were on their own tour, and so were black thrashers Nekrofilth and Weaponizer. The gig brought bands from four different tours together along with two local bands, and took place across two stages. All bands played good sets, Nekrofilth and Waeponizer providing the extreme metal element and Witchburn putting on a particularly impressive show. The last Night Demon performance of the tour was satisfactory to our own sky-high expectations. But to me this honestly didn’t feel like the last show of the tour, specially after saying goodbye to the two bands we had shared the stage with for the past four weeks. It was interesting to blend into this show though and to tap into the stoner metal scene, albeit for one night. Eyehategod played a typically powerful set, even with vocalist Mike IX Williams wasted out of his mind on stage. We chatted with the Witchburn girls for a little while after loading out and departed for the drive home.
Night Demon amassed a total driving distance of 10,400 miles this time, exploring unchartered territories, revisiting previously conquered towns, seeing family and old friends, and making new ones. From the people we stayed with, to the promoters, venues, fellow touring bands, local bands, the guy who designed the mask, the friend who lent us the pair of skeleton gloves and the one who lent us the chalice, everyone has ben part of our journey and will continue to be. We have laid strong foundations at every step of the way, to return bigger and stronger next time. The demon has truly risen.