Tour Blog: Return Of The Demon – Part 4

By Andrew Bansal

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Following seven shows in seven days on the East Coast, Night Demon rolled into our most anticipated and eagerly awaited portion of the tour: the Ohio chapter. For Night Demon, this is the heart of it all, and deserves its own blog entry. So this part of the tour blog chronicles our experiences in Hilliard and Cleveland, but before that, check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 first if you haven’t yet.

Day 33 (06/03): Satan’s Den

We arrived in Hilliard, which in itself was historic because it is highly improbable that anyone had done a show in the town of Hilliard prior to this momentous event at “Satan’s Den”, a garage that belongs to one of Night Demon’s biggest fans on the planet, Steve Yoder. As the van pulled in to the parking space outside the garage, the scene was just incredible, with everyone dressed in Night Demon shirts, the garage and the adjoining house surrounded by vast stretches of open fields. It was like a metal oasis in the middle of no man’s land, and all the metalheads were already gathered here even before us. The sheer sight of the amazing Night Demon cake these people had prepared specially for this gig was surely a telling sign of what was to follow. Jim ‘Nostradamus’ Bartek was the first to greet us on arrival. This is the guy who made headlines by listening to Judas Priest’s Nostradamus album for 524 days straight, and now he’s on a 135-day streak with the Night Demon album. Let that sink in for a second. The dude who listened to Judas Priest for a year-and-a-half is now trying to do the same with Night Demon.

The actual setup for the show, including the stage, the PA, the merch area and everything else, was a lot more professionally done in comparison to some of the clubs we’ve visited on this tour, which says a lot for the effort put in by Steve Yoder and his crew. Seeing the unmatchable level of enthusiasm amongst Hilliard/Columbus locals in the leadup to the gig, we expected great things but the show eventually exceeded all of our expectations and turned out to be the best house/garage party we have ever been a part of. Loading in and loading out was easier than ever, with so many people willing to lend helping hands. There were Night Demon picture collages, records, celtic crosses and posters displayed on the wall, and we were treated to a hefty supply of Iron Maiden Trooper beer cans, aptly stored in coolers with Night Demon stickers on them. Night Demon played every song in the catalog to deliver an epic 18-song set to these superfans and they loved every moment of it. I got the biggest cheer I’ve ever had for my appearance as Rocky, and after the set I was being asked to sign autographs on the tour program, which hadn’t happened before on this tour, not to this extent. This will go down as an unforgettable occasion in the band’s history, and I get a feeling only the Yoders can surpass its magnitude with an even larger-scale house party the next time. I would even encourage them to organize shows with other bands performing at Satan’s Den on a regular basis and convert it into a legit venue, because they’ve clearly shown that they can do anything for a band they love.

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The fan-following for the band has been so great in the state of Ohio, it leaves us in no doubt that the band’s most dedicated American fans reside here, and that’s why we invested in a super-limited edition shirt design made exclusively for Ohio, with the state’s outline and motto printed on the front. These shirts sold like hot cakes in Hilliard, as people were definitely thrilled by the fact that Night Demon cared to make them a special shirt, so much so that at one point I was getting worried about whether we’d have any left for the Cleveland show. Hilliard treated Night Demon like royalty, and it felt unreal.

More photos (click to enlarge):

Day 35 (06/05): Ruling The Airwaves

As a prelude to the massive gig at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Bill Peters, the man responsible for it, had Night Demon take over his Friday evening WJCU 88.7 FM ‘Metal On Metal’ radio show and play songs of their choice for the entire three hours. The broadcast center inside John Carroll University had all the infrastructure in place for legit FM radio. Being on this show and reaching out to all of Bill Peters’ listeners worldwide was indeed great for Night Demon. The world of metal is sorely missing real, genuine, trustworthy and respectable voices like that of Bill Peters. I stayed silent for the duration of the show until Bill asked me questions about my involvement in the band. Jarvis, Brent and Dustin handled themselves like pros. Three hours flew by faster than we realized and listeners seemed to thoroughly enjoy both the music and interview portions of the show.

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Afterwards, Bill and his crew took us to the Melt Bar & Grilled for a hearty dinner. People here wanted to get their merch purchases done to avoid the crowd at the Agora, and I had to open up shop outside the van in the parking lot, which was very rock ‘n roll and yet another first for me.

Day 36 (06/06): Home Away From Home

The big day was upon us. Upon seeing the historic Agora from the outside, entering it, loading in and soundchecking, the magnitude of this event finally sunk in. Night Demon was going to headline the Agora Ballroom, and permanently etch themselves in the books amidst a long list of great names that have come through here over the years. The merch area was well-placed and spacious, allowing me to fully organize myself and prepare for a very, very busy evening.

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Support acts Shok Paris, Destructor and Deadiron, hand-picked by Bill Peters himself, added further to the legitimacy of this event, and even though I couldn’t hear them properly during the show as my merch table was in the room adjoining the ballroom, I’ve listened to their music on Bill’s show and it was great to have these established Cleveland bands support the gig.

Night Demon undoubtedly got the loudest response they’ve ever had from any crowd in a US show, and it was such a thrill and a trip to hear the chants at the beginning of ‘Curse Of The Damned’ that I was completely overcome by it and as a result, arrived half a second late with my first lighting hit on that song. This was the most I ever enjoyed doing my Rocky act, seeing how crazily people were reacting to it. Night Demon fan Chris Hunter surprised us by bringing a custom-made studded chalice for my act, and of course I debuted it on stage at this gig. The most unbelievably amazing aspect of his gift to us is the fact that the chalice itself looks exactly like the one I was using, is of the same brand, and this happened despite Chris not having any idea whatsoever about what our original chalice looked like. It was just meant to be. Henceforth, Rocky will make fans everywhere drink from the Cleveland Chalice.

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The amount of work I had at the merch table after the show was insane, but I was able to tackle all of it and fulfilled everyone’s orders extremely fast. When all was said and done, I could not believe how much merch I had sold in such a short time. At one point my limbs might have been moving independently from my brain. I was extremely glad to have successfully handled such a large-scale merch night, and it gives me confidence that I can singlehandedly do it for shows of this level on a nightly basis. Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at the best merch guy on the planet.

Shortly after, Jarvis, Brent and Dustin made their way to the merch area, and hung out with the fans, signing autographs and taking photos. A very young Night Demon fan, at his first ever concert, drew a picture for the band and it came across as a very heartfelt gift. Another fan got the guys to sign his arm and vowed to get the signatures tattooed. Cleveland is certainly Night Demon’s home away from home now, and I can only imagine the fan-following increasing with every gig in this town.

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Photo by Jon Lichtenberg

Even though completely contrasting in many ways, Hilliard and Cleveland were both equally spectacular for Night Demon, and without doubt the most successful shows the band has done in the US. From this dream-like four-day sequence in Ohio, it’s time for us to come back down to earth and move further into the mid-West in the next week of the tour, which will be discussed in the next part of the tour blog.

Update: Read Part 5

Photo by Bill Peters
Photo by Bill Peters

Remaining Tour Dates:
06/07 – Detroit MI @ Corktown Tavern
06/09 – Chicago IL @ Livewire Lounge
06/10 – Fort Wayne IN @ Skeletunes Lounge
06/11 – Louisville KY @ The New Vintage (w/ Savage Master)
06/15 – Nashville TN @ Springtime Supper Club
06/18 – Kansas City MO @ The Riot Room (w/ Starkill)
06/19 – Wichita KS @ Lizard Lounge
06/21 – St. Louis MO @ Fubar
06/23 – Madison WI @ The Wisco (w/ Cognitive)
06/24 – Minneapolis MN @ Palmer’s Bar
06/25 – Appleton WI @ The Poison Estate
06/26 – LaCrosse WI @ Warehouse
06/27 – Des Moines IA @ Vaudeville Mews
06/29 – Omaha NE @ Hideout
06/30 – Denver CO @ Seventh Circle Music Collective
07/02 – Salt Lake City UT @ Club X (w/ Visigoth)
07/03 – Boise ID @ The Shredder
07/04 – Missoula MT @ VFW Post 209
07/07 – Seattle WA @ High Line
07/09 – Portland OR @ Rotture (w/ Spellcaster)
07/10 – Eugene OR @ Wandering Goat
07/11 – San Francisco CA @ Thee Parkside (w/ Brocas Helm & HellFire)
07/12 – Los Osos CA @ Sweet Springs Saloon
07/17 – Ventura CA @ Bombay

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