Mixed messages

FOOLISH/HUMOROUS

Last night, after eating at Ming's with Van Cleve, Nicole, and Andy, the three of us went to Helios. I saw Cheyenne for the first time in a while, and also saw Claudia and her boyfriend's band. Folks started getting restless after an hour or so, however, so Eric split and, upon noting how early it was, Andy, Nicole, and I motivated ourselves over to the Proletariat.

Little did we know that trouble was brewing, and not just in the form of a Galaga machine. (I played several games, of course, and did horribly, due to lack of practice and inebriation.) No, the real trouble was that it was karaoke night, and that Andy and I talked ourselves into signing up. He was going to sing "Heartbreak Hotel"; I, "Seasons in the Abyss." As we waited for our turn, I was assaulted by the horrible singing of hipsters doing trendy or kitschy non-hipster songs and a growing sense of dread. What the hell was I thinking? What would I do when I took the stage, aside from talk a lot of shit and wish that I had a death-metal growl?

Thankfully, last call was announced before Andy and I had our chance to make fools of ourselves, and after getting some grub at House of Guys, I came home, watched three episodes of Buffy, and drank some ku ding tea, my dignity still intact.


KILLER

My brother's currently in Norway, and here's an excerpt from an email he just sent me:

Yo dude -

I ran across Matt Pike at Hole in the Sky and mentioned that Lovecraft book,
whereupon he preceded to talk about how kick ass your book was.

This news made my day, since I gave Matt Pike a copy of Axis Mundi Sum the last time I saw High On Fire play, and I wasn't sure if he'd read it or not. Fuckin' A.


Now for the

MISERABLE ADDENDUM

Voivod guitarist Denis D'Amour, AKA Piggy, died Friday night of inoperable colon cancer, which had spread to his liver.

Voivod was one of those bands that nobody I knew growing up listened to, but somehow I heard about them here and there anyway. A few years back, I picked up their Angel Rat record on tape, and never really listened to it. Then, in 2003, they released a new album with the original vocalist, snake, and new bassist Jason Newsted, and I had the chance to go see them play at Numbers. Ever since that spring, I've been a fan of Voivod, and I can say that all the acclaim they earned over the years was well-deserved. It's a shame that Piggy's gone, but at least he left one hell of a legacy.