A Night of Mischief with the Misfits
Show date: October 31, 2008
Venue: B.B. King’s Blues Club & Grill
Bands: The Misfits, Until Destiny, Johnny B. Morbid, Martyrd
Halloween is one of the few holidays when you can wake up and automatically know it’s Halloween. It’s spooky out there. Many spend their night at haunted houses or costume parties, but I chose to spend my Halloween with the original Horror Punk band.
The Misfits were celebrating their 31st Halloween at B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill on a night that promises tricks and treats. Adorned with bats, ghosts, devils, and demons (not to mention the Misfits fans themselves) B.B. Kings provided a fitting décor for the evening’s festivities.
The night’s line up promised a variety of genres for the audience to enjoy. First we were treated to some Progressive Power Metal courtesy of Until Destiny. This unsigned band from Brooklyn crept onto the stage along with a cloud of fog and brought with them quite a show. Robert Katrikh’s technical guitar solos were quite impressive as were Chandler Mogel’s clean vocals. The addition of some quick fingers on the keyboards rounded out their sound very well. While Until Destiny’s sound wasn’t original they were quite enjoyable, even reminding me of Queensryche and Sonata Arctica at times. I wouldn’t mind hearing more from these fellows in the future.
The only other punk band of the night followed suit and helped the crowd get into the mood for what was to come. Hailing from New Jersey, the home state of The Misfits, Johnny B. Morbid followed in their footsteps with the same Horror Punk sound. I’ve never been a big fan of the monotony that is punk music, which leaves me with very little to say about it. I got bored after the 5th song. Frankly, if you’ve heard one punk band you’ve heard them all. I did enjoy their stage presence. The costumed quintet was quite animated on stage and their energy flowed right into the audience. This was the night Horror Punk was invented for, after all.
Another band brings another change in genre for the evening. Local Thrash Metal band Martyrd returns to B.B. Kings fresh off of two big shows; playing with Overkill in Rochester, NY and the guitar god Yngwie Malmsteen at the Starland Ballroom. Martyrd once again brings their spin on old school thrash to the stage. The audience responded with much vigor; culminating in a mosh pit and even a crowd surfer (believed by lead vocalist Aaron Pollard to be the band’s first).
The crowd’s praises were well earned as I’ve never heard Martyrd perform so well before. Every member of the band was on their A-game that night. Even drummer Adam received some well earned kudos from The Misfits drummer Robo. With any luck, the evening’s performance spurred sales of Martyrd’s first recorded album “Maniac.”
After 31 years in the business one would think that The Misfits would call it quits. Especially after so many in-band quarrels and more line up changes than the New York Yankees. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “They aren’t the real Misfits without Danzig.” But the way I see it, if a band sticks to their roots in order to please their fans they deserve some respect. And this is coming from a guy who isn’t even a big fan.
With Jerry Only at the helm, The Misfits took the stage to a cacophony of cheers from the crazed fans in the audience. They played a mix of their pre and post-Danzig songs for the raucous crowd. One problem I had with their performance was that the bass was turned up incredibly high. There were some points where I couldn’t hear even the drums over the bass. This made some of the songs hard to listen to. The crowd didn’t seem to mind though, keeping up with the pace and singing along to their favorite songs. Ending the evening to Die, Die My Darling, Jerry stuck around after the show and thanked his fans by signing autographs.
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