Mar
Posted on 8th March 2009
This past Friday, I went to see Pentagram, one of (if not THE) greatest American heavy metal bands of all-time, at Webster Hall. I missed the first opening band, Devil’s Blood, but caught some of Priestess from Montreal, who rocked it and had good facial hair (half the battle sometimes). As a side note, a while back I wrote “A Night Out With” piece on Priestess for the popular New York Times newspaper. You can read it right here. I mean, hey, why not? You’re already on the Internet.
Getting back to Pentagram, the band took the stage as “Sub Intro” from their awesome “Sub-Basement” album played over the house P.A. Pentagram mainman and lead singer Bobby Liebling is only original and/or old school member in the current lineup, though the guys playing with him brought the heat. My only complaints would be that the bass player should loose the doo-rag and just embrace his baldness (or whatever is going on under there) so he doesn’t look like some dude in a cover band playing on wing night somewhere. You’d think Bobby would have taken a sidebar with him on that one, but whatever. Also, the guitar player, while really great and all, was not bringing it hard enough in the shredding department. I would much rather have seen Pentagram alum Joe Hasselvander up there. To be fair though, I was kind of hammered by the time Pentagram went on so maybe it was just some weird mood I was in that made be start complaining in my brain about the guitar player. Don’t get me wrong- he could shred, just not enough for my taste. I am a man who demands full-on shredding. It’s just how I live my life. I mean, is there another way?
Despite my alcohol-induced complaints, Pentagram were awesome, especially Bobby Liebling, who seemed really coherent compared to what I was expecting and sang great. I’d heard all sorts of stories about him not showing up for gigs or just passing out before he could hit the stage, so it was nice to actually see him out there tearing it up. He’s got a lot of party miles on him, but he sure can sing. He and the band played a bunch of the classics plus one or two new songs that were rocking my head big time.
After the show, I bought a cool Pentagram shirt and wore it around for the next 24 hours like I was fifteen years old. It felt awesome. Pentagram rules, dude. In an alternate universe, they would be playing arenas and I would be right up front with my shirt off and just, you know, partying and stuff. I hope they come back and play again soon. I’ll be all over that shit like a motherfucker.
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