I posted this on the Destruction forum and figured I ought to post it here as well since a lot of it has to do with IE as well. 
Hopefully I can get the point across without too much confusion as I am still "recovering" from my crazy schedule of doing 5 shows in 5 days along with driving almost 2100 miles and getting 6 hours of sleep in 4 days. DOH I went to this tour on Sunday in Santa Ana and last night in San Francisco.
SANTA ANA -
Man oh man, that was a chaotically interesting day! I had already been to the Dark Funeral tour on Friday and the night before, so I was dead tired before I even set out to drive all the way to Santa Ana. I was very happy to have one of my best friends with me for this ride who flew in from Colorado Springs. We left finally at 950am and somehow I got us to Santa Ana by 340pm, which is INSANELY fast since it's supposed to take 7 1/2-8 hours to get there from my house normally. Let's just say I was in a hurry to get there.
Then things get a bit wacky. Their tour manager was already in town with the bus and most of the gear and their techs were booked on a separate flight from Seattle, so they were already in full swing of getting stuff set up. Unfortunately, the flight that Destruction and Into Eternity was supposed to be on in the morning got canceled. Even though I was absolutely dead tired, I went to change clothes and then put all the stuff in my trunk into the bus. My friend Randy came over and asked what the hell I was doing (I'm guessing it looked pretty funny, hehe), and I told him that myself and a girl from the venue were going to have to go get the bands from LAX (which, mind you, is normally about 45-50 minutes away ONE WAY). I have a Toyota Corolla (a bit small, but I can fit people and stuff in it) and the girl had a Honda Accord (about the same size). Randy asked if we needed his van instead since I wasn't sure how much gear/stuff the guys had and was really trying to figure out if we were going to have enough room. We left right away without actually knowing the flight info or the times or anything and I borrowed DT's cellphone so I could continue to call Schmier until he got off the plane and I'd know where to go. I figured it was better to get on the road and find out flight info later because I knew how damned far the airport was from the venue. All I know is I am REALLY thankful that Randy went with me instead of the girl from the venue because we BARELY had enough room, hahaha! It was quite entertaining playing "Tetris" in our vehicles with the band members and gear, but hey, we got everyone in and that's the good part! We got back to the venue at 725pm and the first band had just started playing. Talk about cutting it close! But both bands are the type that the show will go on if at all possible.
The show did go on and for me was an AWESOME lineup. I did have to miss Gommorah, whom I really wanted to see (because we just got there and was unloading gear still), but I did get to see a bit of my friend's band, Sadistic Intent. I also got to see my friends in Abigail Williams, who also ended up getting caught in some of the traffic getting to the venue. Their set was also very good, despite some of the issues going on at that time. Hirax was next and put on a very energy filled set and man it was nice to them live again.
Then Into Eternity hit the stage. Yes, they had to play with only one guitarist... their other guitarist got delayed and didn't get to come in until the San Francisco show. Their set was still good despite the lack of the 2nd guitarist and the crowd was SUPER enthusiastic. Their setlist was:
Severe Emotional Distress
Splintered Visions
Nothing
Spiralling Into Depression
Out
Drum Solo
Paralyzed
Timeless
Beginning of the End
Destruction hit the stage and fucking HELL that was a kick ass show!!! The crowd was really, really, REALLY crazy and I think the band fed off that energy as well. The setlist was as follows for both the Santa Ana and San Francisco shows:
Curse the Gods
Nailed to the Cross
Mad Butcher
Cracked Brain
The Defiance Will Remain
Antichrist/Sign of Fear/Release medley
Death Trap
Life Without Sense
Thrash Till Death
Soul Collector
Desecrators of the...
Reject Emotions
Eternal Ban
Unconcious Ruins
Deposition (your heads will roll)
Bestial Invasion
Total Desaster
The Butcher Strikes Back
What an incredible setlist... I was definitely happy and got quite sore headbanging so much. LOL I took a TON of photos which will be posted sometime soon on my site. I will try to post at least three or four so you guys have something to look at, including the group shot I took before they hit the stage.
SAN FRANCISCO -
Egads, this was crazy too. I had gone to Dark Funeral the night before in Santa Ana as well and had yet again very little sleep. I left a LOT later than I wanted to - I usually leave at 9am and ended up leaving at 10am instead. I had been staying at my friend Cindy's in Laguna Hills. I got all the way back to Santa Ana and realized I left my damned digital memory card and converter at Cindy's house (that's how fried my brain is) so I called Cindy from the Galaxy. She was sooooooo cool to get off work a little bit earlier for lunch, drove to her house (very close to her work), grabbed that and then drove the 20 minutes to the Galaxy. She did that because otherwise it would've been an extra 15-20 minutes for me had I gone back and met her at the house. I was already running REALLY late, so she bailed me out with that and I'm eternally grateful.
I left Santa Ana at 1110am and was FLYING down the freeway the entire way back to SF and managed to get there right before 5pm. That's damned near 2 hours faster than I should've gotten there in! hahaha Get out of my way if I am in a hurry. I also only stopped maybe twice for 2-3 minutes in each stop. Somehow, I miraculously was able to get to SF with VERY little traffic and no accidents on the freeway whatsoever. I don't think that's ever happened in SF during rush hour!
Got to the club RIGHT in time for Destruction's soundcheck. I did a bunch of photos during this time and also after the show for Marc since he just got endorsed by Ddrum. The place got really packed by the time Hirax hit the stage and there was no photo pit. They were having issues with me at the front door even though I had the right wristbands and all that stuff. Because of those two things, I didn't get pics of Hirax. I was able to finagle my way to the front left for a little while for Into Eternity (thanks Michelle!) and got a few pics for them. The setlist is the same as above.
I stayed on the side section during Death Angel and did not get to take photos because of the angle I was in... besides, they had their own new photographer up on stage with them anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter that I didn't do pics. Their set was INSANE and so was the crowd... damned, their setlist was awesome. I don't know the whole setlist (can't remember), but they played Welcome to the 3rd Floor, Seemingly Endless Story, Voracious Souls, a couple things off Art of Dying and a bunch of other tunes.
Because the place was so packed, there was just NO WAY I could get in the front. So they put me on the stage all the way on the edge and I put myself behind a monitor stack so people wouldn't see me barely. Didn't think I was going to get any good shots from that angle, but it was quite the contrary. Eric did a super good job with the lights and I even wasn't completely pissed at the fog because I tried to use it to my advantage this time. Despite a few sound problems at the beginning, the show sounded just fine and was really cool when Marc had to do an impromptu drum solo. It really showcases how good of a drummer he is because he did things in a way that most drummer won't. I also think, even though Mike's guitar wasn't working properly at the beginning of the first song, it actually sounded cool with the bass and drums starting and then having the guitar come in. Setlist is the same as Santa Ana, other than the addition of the drum solo.
So, all in all the shows were "chaotically interesting". Had a great deal of fun and was happy to raise hell with them until 3 and 4 in the morning. Can't wait to do it again!
Hopefully I can get the point across without too much confusion as I am still "recovering" from my crazy schedule of doing 5 shows in 5 days along with driving almost 2100 miles and getting 6 hours of sleep in 4 days. DOH I went to this tour on Sunday in Santa Ana and last night in San Francisco.SANTA ANA -
Man oh man, that was a chaotically interesting day! I had already been to the Dark Funeral tour on Friday and the night before, so I was dead tired before I even set out to drive all the way to Santa Ana. I was very happy to have one of my best friends with me for this ride who flew in from Colorado Springs. We left finally at 950am and somehow I got us to Santa Ana by 340pm, which is INSANELY fast since it's supposed to take 7 1/2-8 hours to get there from my house normally. Let's just say I was in a hurry to get there.
Then things get a bit wacky. Their tour manager was already in town with the bus and most of the gear and their techs were booked on a separate flight from Seattle, so they were already in full swing of getting stuff set up. Unfortunately, the flight that Destruction and Into Eternity was supposed to be on in the morning got canceled. Even though I was absolutely dead tired, I went to change clothes and then put all the stuff in my trunk into the bus. My friend Randy came over and asked what the hell I was doing (I'm guessing it looked pretty funny, hehe), and I told him that myself and a girl from the venue were going to have to go get the bands from LAX (which, mind you, is normally about 45-50 minutes away ONE WAY). I have a Toyota Corolla (a bit small, but I can fit people and stuff in it) and the girl had a Honda Accord (about the same size). Randy asked if we needed his van instead since I wasn't sure how much gear/stuff the guys had and was really trying to figure out if we were going to have enough room. We left right away without actually knowing the flight info or the times or anything and I borrowed DT's cellphone so I could continue to call Schmier until he got off the plane and I'd know where to go. I figured it was better to get on the road and find out flight info later because I knew how damned far the airport was from the venue. All I know is I am REALLY thankful that Randy went with me instead of the girl from the venue because we BARELY had enough room, hahaha! It was quite entertaining playing "Tetris" in our vehicles with the band members and gear, but hey, we got everyone in and that's the good part! We got back to the venue at 725pm and the first band had just started playing. Talk about cutting it close! But both bands are the type that the show will go on if at all possible.
The show did go on and for me was an AWESOME lineup. I did have to miss Gommorah, whom I really wanted to see (because we just got there and was unloading gear still), but I did get to see a bit of my friend's band, Sadistic Intent. I also got to see my friends in Abigail Williams, who also ended up getting caught in some of the traffic getting to the venue. Their set was also very good, despite some of the issues going on at that time. Hirax was next and put on a very energy filled set and man it was nice to them live again.
Then Into Eternity hit the stage. Yes, they had to play with only one guitarist... their other guitarist got delayed and didn't get to come in until the San Francisco show. Their set was still good despite the lack of the 2nd guitarist and the crowd was SUPER enthusiastic. Their setlist was:
Severe Emotional Distress
Splintered Visions
Nothing
Spiralling Into Depression
Out
Drum Solo
Paralyzed
Timeless
Beginning of the End
Destruction hit the stage and fucking HELL that was a kick ass show!!! The crowd was really, really, REALLY crazy and I think the band fed off that energy as well. The setlist was as follows for both the Santa Ana and San Francisco shows:
Curse the Gods
Nailed to the Cross
Mad Butcher
Cracked Brain
The Defiance Will Remain
Antichrist/Sign of Fear/Release medley
Death Trap
Life Without Sense
Thrash Till Death
Soul Collector
Desecrators of the...
Reject Emotions
Eternal Ban
Unconcious Ruins
Deposition (your heads will roll)
Bestial Invasion
Total Desaster
The Butcher Strikes Back
What an incredible setlist... I was definitely happy and got quite sore headbanging so much. LOL I took a TON of photos which will be posted sometime soon on my site. I will try to post at least three or four so you guys have something to look at, including the group shot I took before they hit the stage.
SAN FRANCISCO -
Egads, this was crazy too. I had gone to Dark Funeral the night before in Santa Ana as well and had yet again very little sleep. I left a LOT later than I wanted to - I usually leave at 9am and ended up leaving at 10am instead. I had been staying at my friend Cindy's in Laguna Hills. I got all the way back to Santa Ana and realized I left my damned digital memory card and converter at Cindy's house (that's how fried my brain is) so I called Cindy from the Galaxy. She was sooooooo cool to get off work a little bit earlier for lunch, drove to her house (very close to her work), grabbed that and then drove the 20 minutes to the Galaxy. She did that because otherwise it would've been an extra 15-20 minutes for me had I gone back and met her at the house. I was already running REALLY late, so she bailed me out with that and I'm eternally grateful.
I left Santa Ana at 1110am and was FLYING down the freeway the entire way back to SF and managed to get there right before 5pm. That's damned near 2 hours faster than I should've gotten there in! hahaha Get out of my way if I am in a hurry. I also only stopped maybe twice for 2-3 minutes in each stop. Somehow, I miraculously was able to get to SF with VERY little traffic and no accidents on the freeway whatsoever. I don't think that's ever happened in SF during rush hour!
Got to the club RIGHT in time for Destruction's soundcheck. I did a bunch of photos during this time and also after the show for Marc since he just got endorsed by Ddrum. The place got really packed by the time Hirax hit the stage and there was no photo pit. They were having issues with me at the front door even though I had the right wristbands and all that stuff. Because of those two things, I didn't get pics of Hirax. I was able to finagle my way to the front left for a little while for Into Eternity (thanks Michelle!) and got a few pics for them. The setlist is the same as above.
I stayed on the side section during Death Angel and did not get to take photos because of the angle I was in... besides, they had their own new photographer up on stage with them anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter that I didn't do pics. Their set was INSANE and so was the crowd... damned, their setlist was awesome. I don't know the whole setlist (can't remember), but they played Welcome to the 3rd Floor, Seemingly Endless Story, Voracious Souls, a couple things off Art of Dying and a bunch of other tunes.
Because the place was so packed, there was just NO WAY I could get in the front. So they put me on the stage all the way on the edge and I put myself behind a monitor stack so people wouldn't see me barely. Didn't think I was going to get any good shots from that angle, but it was quite the contrary. Eric did a super good job with the lights and I even wasn't completely pissed at the fog because I tried to use it to my advantage this time. Despite a few sound problems at the beginning, the show sounded just fine and was really cool when Marc had to do an impromptu drum solo. It really showcases how good of a drummer he is because he did things in a way that most drummer won't. I also think, even though Mike's guitar wasn't working properly at the beginning of the first song, it actually sounded cool with the bass and drums starting and then having the guitar come in. Setlist is the same as Santa Ana, other than the addition of the drum solo.
So, all in all the shows were "chaotically interesting".
Had a great deal of fun and was happy to raise hell with them until 3 and 4 in the morning. Can't wait to do it again!
