Mushroomhead...From the Trenches...

[Jim Price]

Below are some photos I took from this past Saturday night's Mushroomhead show at City Limits. One disclaimer: flash photography wasn't permitted, so I took my photos without flash, which means a slower shutter speed and thus some blurrier images. Still, I caught some good ones.

What a wild show! City Limits was jam-packed; hopefully enough so that more national caliber shows will happen there in the future.

I didn't get to see Dragon Fire's set, as the start time of the show reportedly kept getting juggled around (Black Flood Diesel cancelled out of the show the night before, causing the schedule shifting), and Dragon Fire had just finished when I arrived shortly after 8:30.

As Summer Dies was all right. Their sound reminded me a lot of Marilyn Manson. They had their moments, but there wasn't anything truly unique about their sound that stood out to me.

Psyclon Nine was pretty insane. Heavy, aggressive, industrial grooves, and a lot of action onstage. Some friends helped pull me up next to the stage for their set; I'll be interested in hearing more from this band and perhaps checking out their CD's.

And then there was Mushroomhead. Wow! On a personal note, I'm proud that at my age, I can still hold my own in a pit! (And I have a bruise from somebody's chin impacting my right shoulder to prove it!) Mushroomhead definitely brought it; it was turbulence and mayhem from start to end. I recognized several of their new songs off the Savior Sorrow CD, and at least one off their first CD. (If anybody can email or PM me a setlist, I'd much appreciate it!) It was intense, brutal, visual, and an adrenaline rush start to finish. I was a little disappointed that the show was over with before midnight, but that allowed me to head to the Hitching Post to finish off the night with Half Tempted. More on that in a future "JP's Corner" recap...

Anyway, some pictures...from the trenches...














The one photo I didn't get that I'm kicking myself for missing was Danette's vault over the side bar to singlehandedly prevent a catfight in the ladies room! It was classic!

Anybody else who attended, feel free to post your thoughts below...

[onegunguitar]

Not much of a Mushroomhead fan-don't quite get the masks, but whatever-I will say one thing good,I see a DEAN bass!!!

[rreihart]

Haha, awesome JP! The last pic has the back of my head in it.

Scott, the masks started at the very beginning. Mushroomhead was the result of a bunch of guys from different bands wanting to put a band together, but they didn't want other people in the Cleveland scene, including the band members from their main groups, to know who they were. So, they wore masks to hide their identities. They got a good response, so it stuck.

Great show, though. What a time. I am glad we have people in this area like Jim Price and Chris Peters who work really hard to help the scene.

[onegunguitar]

Haha, awesome JP! The last pic has the back of my head in it.

Scott, the masks started at the very beginning. Mushroomhead was the result of a bunch of guys from different bands wanting to put a band together, but they didn't want other people in the Cleveland scene, including the band members from their main groups, to know who they were. So, they wore masks to hide their identities. They got a good response, so it stuck.

Great show, though. What a time. I am glad we have people in this area like Jim Price and Chris Peters who work really hard to help the scene.

Thanks Russ!! At least that makes more sense,haha!

[WitchChic]

I had the greatest time!!! The Show was AMAZING!!! I was upfront for Dragon Fire, Psyclon Nine and Mushroomhead, It was soooo much fun... I had never heard Psyclon Nine before and I am totally in love with them... Great band, as well as really cool guys... Jp did you get any pix of them???

I cant wait to see them again... Show was great... From beginning to end...
Everyone with The Underground and Underground Street Team, AMAZING JOB and thank you for the show love you!!!

[Danette]

Wow!
Amazing is definately the word that comes to mind when describing Saturday night. All of the bands & crew were amazing - and really cool to work with. No diva-tudes that I have experienced with other national acts during my tenure at City/ Sabs.

The music .. OMG! Mindblowing. I will be honest - at first my main interest was the Dragon Fire set since it is such a rare occurance these days. During MRH sound check I actually stopped dead in my tracks and almost trance like gravitated toward the front of the room. WoW!

I am also super appreciative to the band members who took the time to chew the fat with our barback (my son). Not only did he have a great time meeting, greeting and running his little butt off but the event inspired him to dust off his guitar.

I can't speak for the offical powers that be, but from my vantage point the entire event went great with only a few very minor glitches or hitches. Losing power to the ladies room temporarily was probably the worst of it - unless you ask the poor bouncer that got nailed in the jewels while trying to settle some raucous dancers, but with some careful TLC he will be back to 100% in no time Kudos to Chris and the Underground team for arranging such an amazing night. Getting to work with the UGST was an added bonus. Anytime you need help with the cauliflower give me a call .. lol Hoping this was only the beginning of similar amazing nights - sans bar-vaulting and knees to the nads .. lol

[ugtvstreetteam]

we love you dani...hopefully we will have many more shows that we get to work with you at...

[Danette]

Awww thank you
I love you guys too. It was alot of fun working with you and have my fingers crossed on more shows together in the future.

[UNEARTHA7XMatt]

Hey JP I give ya credit you are a real trooper... You stuck it out in the front the entire show... You ROCK MAN..........Great Pics Too....

[The_Underground]

Everyone here at The Underground TV wants to thank each and every person that helped and supported us with this event.

Now that we've taken a week to collect our thoughts we are very excited about continuing to bring national bands into our area. We're working on plans right now and as soon as something is set in stone, we will let you know.



Again, thanks to everyone and we can't wait to do more!!!

[FreebirdSucks]

hey man that's sweet what you're doing to get nationals in altoona. Maybe just lay off the Nu-Metal hot topic bands would be my only suggestion, but thanks alot for doing what you're doing!

[SpellboundByMetal]

hey man that's sweet what you're doing to get nationals in altoona. Maybe just lay off the Nu-Metal hot topic bands would be my only suggestion, but thanks alot for doing what you're doing!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA!

[Mistress_DB]

hey man that's sweet what you're doing to get nationals in altoona. Maybe just lay off the Nu-Metal hot topic bands would be my only suggestion, but thanks alot for doing what you're doing!

Why not just stay home if they book a national you're not interested in?

[SpellboundByMetal]

hey man that's sweet what you're doing to get nationals in altoona. Maybe just lay off the Nu-Metal hot topic bands would be my only suggestion, but thanks alot for doing what you're doing!

Why not just stay home if they book a national you're not interested in?

Thats what I did. That freebirdsucks dude prob went. sorry dude.
I should email a list to the UGTV of bands to get that dont suck.
Of course, they will prob think the bands suck.

Here's a band to get to play altoona..... DEVILDRIVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FreebirdSucks]

hey man that's sweet what you're doing to get nationals in altoona. Maybe just lay off the Nu-Metal hot topic bands would be my only suggestion, but thanks alot for doing what you're doing!

Why not just stay home if they book a national you're not interested in?

i did. i refused to pay that much to see Mushroomhead, 3 or 4 other terrible bands and Dragon Fire. Dragon Fire was probably the best band that night..

Devildriver, Gojira, Necrophagist.. these would be good bands for Altoona

[The_Underground]

We are working on Devil Driver right now. We can't promise anything except that we are working on getting as many nationals as we can into our area.

It's not an easy thing to do and we put a lot on the line every time but we have faith that their are enough people in this area that don't cry about every little thing and will actually support what we are doing.

We know, we know..... If "YOU" were doing it, what band you would have come in. The fact is "YOU" arent doing it and we are. We are the ones putting up THOUSANDS of our own dollars to bring in national bands and taking a chance on losing everything so "YOU" can have a show to go to.

We don't work for anyone. This is our business and our life. We don't tell any of you how we would do your job, so don't tell us how to do ours.

This only goes to the small few that seem to cry about everything. Why don't you stop complaining and actually get up and do something with your life. All we ever hear is how "this town sucks", "there is never anything here to do". Well, when we give you something to do all you do is bitch and moan about it. Why don't you stand up and fucking do something about it instead of falling into the steriotype of "this place sucks" by constantly bitching and making it suck even worse.

This is a very simple concept. If you like the band we bring in, go see them. If you don't, then stay home. Then when we have the next band in if you like them, buy a ticket and have a good time. Just because you don't like the band we have now doesn't mean no one else does. It's the same for the next band we get it in. It might be your favorite band, but that doesn't mean it's everyones favorite or that you suck for going because someone else doesn't like them.

Give me a break people.


Again as I wrote in my other post, we want to thank those who support us and have open minds to the fact that things can change if you make them.
We are doing what we can to break this area out of it's mindset and we will continue to do as we see fit regardless of how a small percent feel it should be done "if they were doing it". Even though "THEY" will never do anything except tell everyone how "THEY" would do it. Don't actually put the time or money into it, just tell everyone how they could do it better.
While your out telling people how you'd do it, we'll ACTUALLY be doing it.


To eveyone that had a good time and can't wait until the next one. We thank you!!!

[SpellboundByMetal]

Chris- I agree with the whole 'dont go' thing. I sure didnt go to that show. As you can read from the orig post, it was for many reasons.

[ugtvstreetteam]

we are glad that we live up to your expectations we are hoping to get devildriver it should be one hell of a show if we get it and i hope that you will have a great time missing it

[Mistress_DB]

I gotta agree with Chris' long rant up there. Booking nationals is a whole different ball game from booking small club bands. Instead of bitching about the quality of the bands being brought in, why not help bring in someone you like? If you know a national act that would be interested in playing in the
Altoona area pass on information for their management, if they have an album or a demo, share that. Point out how you think that this particular band will draw well in this area. Instead of bitching and working against what Chris is trying to do here, work with him.

[BDR]

I heard great things over the weekend about the Mushroomhead show, the great crowd and how smoothly everything went. Congrats on the successful show and good luck with future stuff ...

If you know a national act that would be interested in playing in the Altoona area pass on information for their management ...

I think it's about time someone coordinated with Halestorm to get them back in the area now that they're chugging forward. Haven't seen those folks around since '02. They're not death metal but I think it would be a successful endeavor.

r:>)

[DirtySanchez]

Bitching vs. Working

Bitching will always win. Complaining and making excuses is easy.

Luckily the rewards for working are much better and a small percentage of people actually recognize this.

I hope everything works out with Devildriver.

Chris, don't let'em get to ya, you have many more people who support and appreciate what you do. Let those with "better" ideas put up or shut up.(but of course we know that that would involve leaving fairytale-dream land aka. Mom's basement, so whatever.)

[VENTGtr]

Not familiar with any of the bands that played but it's great that someone's
bringing national touring bands in. Great work and a lot of respect for
putting in the effort.

Glad to hear it went well on all fronts. Good sign that it could be a more
regular occurence.

[rreihart]

Everyone has their own opinion and idea of what is good, what is bad and how things should be done. I appreciate the fact that I was able to see one of my favorite bands and not have to drive a couple of hours.

As far as the other bands that have been mentioned in this thread, I highly doubt I would go to see any of them. However, I wouldn't get on here and bitch about it. I don't like DJ's, so I don't go to clubs that have them. But, I don't blog or post in forums about how much I dislike DJ's.

I think this area could and should have more events like this and I hope that people who are willing to put some time into making these things become reality, like Chris and his team have done, keep doing what they are doing.

[SpellboundByMetal]

Urine Sane

[Plastered Bastards]

It's all well and good what is going on, but look at the reality that your band isn't going to be on the bill but his sure as hell will be.
So that is a little strange.
Cheers!