By Andrew Bansal
The Night Demon tour moved into its eighth week, going through Kansas, St. Louis, Wisconsin, Minneapolis and Iowa. This part of the ‘Return Of The Demon’ tour blog brings you stories from this phase. But before you check that out, read Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 first.
Day 48 (06/18): Headbangers Ball
It felt good to return to the Riot Room in Kansas City, at a venue that treated us well on the Skull Fist tour. This time Night Demon was main support to label mates Starkill, and the response from the crowd, including many repeat attendees from the Skull Fist show, was even better than the last time. The load-in, stage setup and merch area was perfect and my favorite beer (Guinness) was only $5 at the bar, but beyond anything, the headbanging of Night Demon fan Mike Ducey will always emerge in my memory whenever I think about this show. This dude was front row and center, headbanging the whole time like there was no tomorrow. It is disappointing for me to note that headbanging is severely out of fashion at metal shows these days, and it’s refreshing to see that at least some people are still carrying out the activity when they see a band they like. Mike Ducey reminds me of the time I was going to Night Demon shows as a fan and headbanging like a maniac in the front row. Good times, Kansas City.
Day 49 (06/19): Wichita Road
From Kansas City we went to Kansas the state, as the next show was at Lizard’s Lounge in Wichita. This was our first visit to this town and venue and certainly won’t be the last, as the show was fruitful for us in every sense. There’s quite a scene here and this being a Friday night, they came out in good numbers to support the event. But the set itself wasn’t as enjoyable for me because my lighting control board started messing up, specially on the ‘strobe’, which as Night Demon fans would know by now, is the lifesblood of our live show. It was extremely frustrating because this device was basically making me look bad as the lighting operator, and I could not wait for the set to end. But other than that, it was all smooth sailing and Wichita took great care of Night Demon.
Day 51 (06/21): Crossover Fans
Following a day off, we revisited yet another venue we had already been to, Fubar in downtown St. Louis, and headlined the bigger of its two rooms. Main support Cryptic Hymn from Kentucky played an impressive set, and Night Demon enjoyed playing on this big stage as the stage sound was great, the sound guy knew what he was doing, which isn’t always the case, and the lights looked good, although my board was still giving me trouble on the strobe, which was no fun. There was a hip-hop show taking place in the other room, and some people from there sneaked into our show and really liked Night Demon, which was awesome to see. Throughout my travels with this band I have constantly noticed that there’s just something about them that non-metalheads like.
Day 52 (06/22): Monday Madness
We had a day off between St. Louis and Madison WI, and we decided to spend it in Chicago. I did not expect to be back in this city so soon, and in all honesty, had more fun here on this occasion. The skies looked so menacing that people were exiting houses and businesses to take pictures of it, but we somehow escaped thunderstorms. We went to a bar called Delilah’s and thanks to their Monday night specials, altogether had 9 beers and 6 whisky shots for a total of $21. No joke. I cannot imagine many people living near that bar being sober on a Monday night. The comparison between bar prices in Los Angeles and some of the other parts of the country is truly jaw-dropping. Best Monday of the tour, hands down.
Day 53 (06/23): Pizza Forever
The gig at the Willy Street Pub & Grill in Madison, Wisconsin was the first in a run of five consecutive shows. It is clearly a whole lot better to do a string of shows because the tour goes by so much faster that way, and off days just drag and stretch it longer than necessary. This gig was put on by the hard-working Randy Kastner who did the Skull Fist show for us in January at the Metal Grill in Cudahy, and this time he combined us with a death metal touring package headlined by Cognitive from New Jersey with German support bands Placenta Powerfist and Stillbirth. So, Night Demon played second out of five bands, and even in front of a death metal crowd, made a strong impression. I was never in doubt about that even when the show was first booked. The Germans loved it too, and one of them said it was a refreshing change for him from all the death metal bands he’d been hearing on their tour. It was an interesting setup with there being no elevated stage, but we pulled it off. Cognitive really impressed me with a brutal yet technically skilled performance. After the gig, a fan, who missed our set because of work but still came to the venue to buy our merch, took us to a pizza place called Ian’s, and their speciality slices were the best pizza I’ve ever had.
Day 54 (06/24): Half-Stacked
After doing two tours that skipped the city, it was great to finally be in Minneapolis for a gig at Palmer’s Bar. Judging from the number of people that came up to the merch table and told me that they already had the new album, Night Demon had quite a fan-following in Minneapolis even before playing a show here. The venue was strange, to say the least. The stage was so small that it could only be suitable for open-mic or singer-songwriter type acts, not metal bands. But that’s the stage all bands were forced to play on, and it wasn’t pretty. Probably for the first time ever, Night Demon had to use half stacks for the bass and guitar simply because the full stacks would not fit on that stage. To make things worse, the stage was very high, and situated in such a way that the audience could not get up close to it. One of the monitors had to be placed on the bar facing Jarvis, that’s how small this stage was. I had to do the lights sitting at the bar too, which was ridiculous. I also had the hardest time getting on and off stage for the Rocky act, and almost crushed Brent’s pedal board. I don’t think Night Demon should play on a stage like that ever again, but on the bright side, people were still blown away by the show and the turnout was excellent for a Wednesday night show that started as late as 10 PM. One of the security guys at the venue enjoyed the set so much that he took the chalice from me when I got off stage and held it up high, and later on came up to the van during loadout to tell us that he wants to tour with us. Local band Noble Beast had to play after us, starting at 1 AM, and I felt bad for them because they played a great set of old-school metal. Opening act Deterioration, a two-piece power violence act, played the shortest set I have ever seen, lasting a total of 8 minutes. A strange show but a great experience nonetheless.
Day 55 (06/25): Basement Rock
Dustin, taking on most of the driving duties on this tour, has changed the voice in his phone’s GPS to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator voice, and while he loves it, I think it is basically the worst thing ever and gives me all the more reason to stick to my own music through my earphones. Anyway, the next desination was the Poison Estate, a basement venue inside a house in Appleton, Wisconsin. This basement was tiny and we had to once again go with the half-stack setup. With the fog filling out the entire space, I absolutely could not see anything when I went to do my thing with the costume, and did not know where to place my step. But we somehow blazed through the set, made some new fans and left the place. It is definitely a challenge to pull off this level of show in this type of setting, but that’s what makes these experiences equally memorable for us and attendees alike.
Day 56 (06/26): Get Ripped
The stage at the Warehouse in La Crosse, Wisconsin was bigger than that of our last three shows combined, and the concert hall was located on the third floor of the building. Loading heavy gear up and down three flights of stairs was the best workout I’ve had on this tour. This place even had designated ‘merch rooms’ which was another first. Every aspect of this venue was very professionally handled, and made it far easier for us to put on the best show for the audience. Even on a Saturday night at a venue that does not serve alcohol, there was an appreciable number of people in attendance, and those are the true die-hards. I saw some of them going nuts in and near the front row, and the applause between songs was loud. The vibe in this college town was extremely lively, before, during and after the show, and we will most certainly be back here on the next full tour.
Day 57 (06/27): Early To Bed
The experience at Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines, Iowa, was completely contrasting to the last time we were here with Skull Fist. This time there was actual promotion behind the event, local openers and a far better turnout. The show still ended at 9 PM and it’s crazy to think that we were completely loaded out and packed up by 9:30. That’s the beauty of touring America, the wild variety from one town to the next, some shows not even starting till 10 while others ending by that time.
With two more weeks remaining, we are gunning to end the tour on a high. In the next part of the blog I will bring you updates from Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise and Missoula. Until then, I have just one question that I haven’t been able to find an answer to: What’s with there being so many bathrooms in houses and public places with no lock on the door?
Update: Read Part 7
Remaining Tour Dates:
06/29 – Omaha NE @ Lookout Lounge
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
07/30 – Los Angeles CA @ The Viper Room