My Night at HAIL!

So I had quite the interesting night going to see Hail! at B.B. King's. Hail! is a metal super group cover band that has been doing gigs all over and they hit NYC tonight. Some of the highlights include:

- Backstage and free entry!
- Interviewing Mike Portnoy and David Ellefson.
- Mike spent half of the interview with no pants due to swampass (they were sound checking earlier). Mind you that this is the drummer of my all-time favorite band. It was a very bizarre experience. Yet, I thought I creeped him out by telling him that I met him exactly three years ago at the Systematic Chaos fan recording and having him sign my Awake album cover(already signed by John Petrucci), thus making me look like a Dream Theater trekkie (which I admittedly am). I'm sure he's used to trekkie like worship. I'm not used to interviewing my favorite drummer, much less having him not wear pants when it happened.
- Getting Tim "Ripper" Owens to record a rendition of "Happy Birthday" for our buddy Ed (who he told to fuck off in the recording without hesitation for shits and giggles).
- Ripper later gave us shit (again, jokingly) for taking food while getting a sound bite from the guys. I took another chip when I left (as part of a joke) and later ran into Andreas Kisser (who was in the room while Ripper was giving us shit) and I literally said to him: "Fuck Tim, I took another chip." Andreas laughed his ass off. Ripper and Mike are neck and neck for the grand prize of "Craziest musician meeting experience ever".
- Actually watching the show. Holy fuck! Then they had Bobby Blitz, Frank Bello and Chris Caffery also join the band on stage for random songs. They did everything from "Territory" by Sepultura to "Balls To The Wall" by ACDC to "Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden. Great set, very entertaining!
- My buddy Matt nearly breaking his arm (but ripping his shirt) to grab an Ellefson pick tossed off stage. We both wound up walking away with one at the end of the night.
- I met Don Jamieson again and having a conversation about Paul Dianno in the process.

I just realized how fanboyish this entire post sounds, but I don't care. I had a fucking awesome time, not to mention I'm left with plenty of stories to tell. This was probably one of the craziest nights I have ever had without a drop of alcohol in my system.

Till next time.

Cheers!

-M.E.K.

Blogger: Round 2

I deleted my old blog because it became a derelict vessel sunk by bullshit ridden nonsensical banter yet also a lack of content, seemingly on my behalf. So here is round two of an attempt at a blog, hoping that the content will be a little bit more to my liking.

Cheers!

-M.E.K.