By Andrew Bansal
After the incredible experience in Ohio, the Night Demon tour cruised through Detroit, Chicago, Indiana, Kentucky and Nashville during the past ten days. This part of the blog brings you stories from these towns, but before you get into that, read Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 first, if you haven’t yet.
Day 37 (06/07): Harbinger Of A Change
The Detroit stop on the Raven tour wasn’t particularly memorable, and all that comes to mind when I think back to November 18 2014 is 10-degree weather, frozen feet and a sparsely attended show. But this time, it was infinitely better in every aspect. The show at the Corktown Tavern, a cozy venue in a decent part of town, drew a great crowd and with local bands Harbinger (featuring Michael Erdody from Acid Witch) and Demon Bitch on the bill, a legit section of the Detroit metal scene came out to attend the show. The live music room was on the second floor, so we had to load in and out through a flight of stairs which is always a solid workout. This was obviously a complete contrast from the previous night’s Cleveland show in every way imaginable and the stage was small, but I actually enjoy the small stages more because the Night Demon live show becomes that much more powerful in such a setting, both sonically and visually. That said, it was the most uncomfortable show of the tour for me as I found myself positioned directly in front of and an inch away from the speaker on stage left, with Jarvis’ bass and Dustin’s kick drum blasting and threatening to literally blow me away the entire time. The end of the set simply could not come soon enough. Every night, I have to set up my lighting control board wherever it works best in relation to the stage, plus I have to keep in mind that I don’t repeat the Providence fiasco ever again and ensure a good vantage point to get up on stage during ‘The Chalice’. The board setup varies at every show, and it just so happened to be in front of the speaker on this occasion. Anyway, this show definitely added Detroit to the list of cities wherein Night Demon turned things around from previous visit(s), and small victories like this contribute to the positivity of our overall mindset when on the road. Detroit Rock City actually rocked this time.
Day 38 (06/08): Tornado Watch
After Detroit, we had a day off and with nothing better to do, drove straight to the next destination, Chicago. En route, we stopped at a gas station and gazed at the sky overhead, tripping out on the deadly black clouds hovering and twisting in all directions. Being from California, I hadn’t seen anything like it before. Dustin, our in-house weather expert, predicted a tornado and we bolted from there as fast as we could. Smashed by torrential rain, we reached Chicago in the evening and went straight to Kuma’s Corner, a famous metal-themed restaurant. Our orders included the Pig Destroyer, Metallica and Iron Maiden burgers. In all honesty, Kuma’s Iron Maiden burger is better than Grill ‘Em All’s Powerslave, but the overall vibe at Grill ‘Em All probably beats that of Kuma’s. Afterwards, we watched ‘The Lost Boys’ on Netflix, a movie I had never seen previously. Every single day on tour with Night Demon, I invariably end up doing something I’d never done in my life. I absolutely loved ‘The Lost Boys’. Cheesy 80s horror movies and metal seem to go hand in hand, and thanks to the guys, I’m getting turned on to this stuff quite a lot.
Day 39 (06/09): Livewire Duet
We started the day with some absolutely terrible and ridiculously overpriced Mexican food. We should seriously vow to not eat Mexican food anywhere outside California, specially not in Chicago. The venue for the show was Livewire Lounge, which brought a discernibly hipster vibe through the evening, and out of the three venues I’ve been to in Chicago so far, Reggies still remains my favorite and I look forward to going back there someday soon, but this show at Livewire was still solid, and Night Demon got to share the stage with two good local bands Relentless and Satan’s Hallow. Amanda, the singer of Satan’s Hallow, joined Night Demon on stage for a great duet rendition of ‘Save Me Now’. Good times, overall.
Day 40 (06/10): Cop Problem
The short drive from Chicago to Fort Wayne, Indiana brought us to the venue called Skeletunes Lounge, although we lost an hour because of the time zone change from Central to Eastern. Changing time zones within a three-hour drive is something that’s amusingly ridiculous to us California residents. Just like Detroit, I remember Fort Wayne being hellishly cold in November, temperatures around 6 degrees and icy roads throughout. This was a much more pleasant experience, hot, humid and bright even at 9 PM. For a four-band bill on a Wednesday night, the show started surprisingly late, but this has been a trend on this tour and I honestly find late weeknight shows a little hard to understand. Anyhow, opening act B-Movie Monsters were entertaining to watch and listen to, while main support band Exterminate All Rational Thought presented some really well-crafted proggy jams and were the first band of that kind that I got to see on this tour. I would have bought a t-shirt and CD from them had they not bailed immediately after their set and stuck around for Night Demon. On yet another small stage, our show blew away those that did stick around, and apparently it was too loud for some neighbors’ liking, as cops were called on us. Half-way through the set, the venue owner came up to the stage and politely asked us to turn down the volume, which we did. In the after-hours we went to the Brass Rail, the venue we visited on the Raven tour. The bartender remembered us and gave us a free round of beers. The rest of the night was spent watching 80s horror movie ‘The Hidden’. Our initial interest in watching the movie was piqued solely because Cleveland band Shok Paris is on the soundtrack, but it actually turned out to be a great movie, worthy of being heralded as a cult classic.
Day 41 (06/11): Mexican Nightmare
On we went from Fort Wayne to Louisville, Kentucky, for a gig at the New Vintage with fast-rising hometown old-school metal band Savage Master. We didn’t get a chance to eat before setting out for the drive and had to do it before the show, so we took the only option near the venue, a Mexican restaurant called El Tarasco that served us totally abysmal food. But it was either that or the White Castle next door, which is always a complete no-no. We hereby vow to not eat any Mexican food until we get back into California. Still internally suffering from that meal, we loaded into the venue and got ready for the show. The heat and humidity was insane and air-conditioning was non-existent. The guys said this was by far the hottest show they played on this tour, in terms of the temperature on stage. But the performance did not suffer at all, and the crowd loved every moment of it. Savage Master with their highly visual live presentation were a great fit as well. It’s always hard for a band like Night Demon, pursuing a traditional form of heavy metal, to find fitting bands to play with, but Savage Master is definitely one of them and we probably would not have done a Louisville KY show if they weren’t on the bill.
After this, we had three days off and ended up spending the entirety of it in Louisville itself, staying with Savage Master. Activities included some decent locally recommended BBQ food, making a visit to the countryside in the middle of nowhere, nearly falling down an elevator shaft, and eating tried and tested low-quality American fast food. Believe it or not, sometimes when you’re in a town you’re totally alien to and you have no idea about the good restaurants, it’s actually better to eat generic fast food, because at least you’d know exactly what to expect. All that aside, this down time was definitely frustrating for all of us, and this is what makes tours feel long and induces feelings of home sickness. This is the most I have ever slept in a three-day period. On the other hand, time really flies when we have consecutive shows. Simply put, with no disrespect at all intended towards the residents of this town, we could not wait to get out of Louisville, not just to move forward but also because cigarettes are ridiculously cheap here and for the sake of the one smoker in this band, it was going to be good to move away from the cheap-cigarette zone.
Day 45 (06/15): Nash-Devil
At long last, the day of the Nashville show was upon us. We changed time zones yet again but thankfully this time we gained an hour, and will stay in Central Time for the next two weeks. Nashville is widely known as a city with a rich musical history, but as a metal band it was really hard to predict the outcome of this gig at Springwater Supper Club. That said, it was exactly how I personally expected it to be, all three opening acts hugely different from each other and together making it the most diverse show of the tour. A female singer-songwriter opened the show, sitting on a stool in the center of the stage and singing while strumming on an acoustic guitar, and much to the amusement of many in attendance, doing so in front of the Night Demon stage backdrop which was already in place. But in all seriousness, she put in a good performance, and so did Western Star, a Baltimore-based heavy blues rock band who were on their own tour. Main support band Howling Giant certainly impressed the most, with some delightfully heavy and groovy stoner metal jams. I wouldn’t have expected a city like Nashville to produce a band of this kind, but it just goes to show that the influence of Black Sabbath and stoner/doom is universal. Besides playing a commendable set themselves, the Howling Giant guys also stuck around to rock out in the front row during Night Demon’s set. These dudes were so stoked, the reactions on their faces were some of the best I’ve seen on this tour. On the flip side, I did not enjoy inhaling secondhand cigarette smoke, which was abundant even inside the venue with Tennessee being an indoor-smoking friendly state. The drummer of Western Star even had an ashtray by his side on the stage, which was another first for my eyes. After the gig, the bartender and sound guy complimented me on the light show. It means a lot to hear these things from Front Of House guys who do this on a daily basis. I match the lighting patterns note-for-note with the music. Those keyboard lessons I took in seventh grade are finally paying off, it seems. But the most hilarious series of conversations came at the very end as we were loading out. The Western Star guys told us that we summoned ‘the devil’ with our show and pointed to an old gentleman standing near the bar. The staff at the venue said the same thing, and they seemed dead serious about it too. ‘The devil’ himself came up to the merch table and said, “That was very demonic. Very … energizing.” The Night Demon live experience is now officially devil-approved.
This very eventful night in Nashville was followed by a long 600-mile drive to Kansas City the next day, which ended with a VHS viewing of the 80s action flick ‘Remo Williams’. Move over Mr. Bond, here comes Remo! I’m loving these cheesy 80s movies. Feel free to send some recommendations my way while I’m on this tour. Anyway, during the down time in Louisville and here in KC, we have restocked on CDs, vinyl, patches and shirts of all four designs, and are now ready to provide fans with all the merch options in all sizes. The next show is at the Riot Room here on Thursday, and the next part of the tour blog will bring you stories from that show and beyond. Until then, I have just one question. When I ask for a glass/cup of soda, why do folks fill it up entirely with ice? Come on America, get your shit together.
Update: Read Part 6
Remaining Tour Dates:
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
07/30 – Los Angeles CA @ The Viper Room