Black Label Society – Astoria 2005

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An unannounced signing session with Zakk Wylde at HMV, Oxford Street prior to the show left a lot of fans queuing in the rain outside the Astoria in high spirits. It didn’t rain for long, which was good, but the expectation of a poor support band and the worry that Zakk would have had so much to drink in the time between the signing and the show that everything would go wrong in two hours time still lingered. All worries proved to be unfounded. Just.

The support band, Meldrum, came on around 19:30; three girls and a male drummer. Everyone was expecting them to suck. However, suck they did not. Rock, they did. Powering through a quick half hour set of hard rocking songs with some seriously cool riffs and ending with a cover of Pantera‘s Walk as a tribute to departed ex-guitarist Dimebag Darrell, the masses were happy. And having a large-breasted girl cavorting around doing the singing didn’t do any harm either.

One worry remained. Would Zakk be too drunk and mess things up? We’d heard it had happened in Barcelona, and California on this tour. And after the show the previous night in Bradford had been cancelled because Zakk wanted a day off to rest his voice, hopes were not high. However, for an hour, the band was perfect. The sound was a little sludgy for the first couple of songs, but by the third song, all was well. Opening with Stoned And Drunk from The Blessed Hellride, it was pretty difficult to hear Zakk’s guitar and vocals, but the song was easily determinable. From the word go it was clear James Lomenzo (bass) was on fire; absolutely full of energy and enthusiasm, which he maintained for the entire show. Nick Catanese (guitar) was likewise completely into the show.

The band ripped through song after song of material culled completely the last three heavy albums (1919 Eternal, The Blessed Hellride and Mafia). Second track, Destruction Overdrive from 1919 Eternal also sounded a little sludgy. But by the time the band started up Been A Long Time from new album Mafia, all was well with the sound. Without pausing for breath Zakk and the band powered through Funeral Bell and Suffering Overdue from The Blessed Hellride before we got the first break in the music, save for the odd “thank you” from Zakk in an altogether non-plussed voice.

Zakk took a little more time to introduce the next song, In This River, as he performs if every night as a tribute to “Dimebag” Darrell. On the record (Mafia) it’s essentially a piano ballad with an electric guitar solo. Live, it’s not. It’s a seven or so minute searing guitar solo, with an electric guitar version of the song at the end and the vocal melody of the chorus is different; there are more pauses. It was a truly beautiful thing to observe and the undoubted musical highlight of the evening. It really is something that has to be seen to be believed. Zakk even played a fairly long part of the solo with his teeth. And not picking the odd note and hammering-on/pulling-off for the rest, proper playing. I don’t believe he actually uses his teeth, personally. I think he uses his beard. Moreover, I believe there’s a tiny mammal living in his beard, which pops out with a tiny plectrum and picks the notes for him. Rock on, tiny mammal!

From there it’s full-tilt into heavy cuts Suicide Messiah (Mafia), Demise of Sanity (1919 Eternal) and Spread Your Wings (Mafia). All executed perfectly. Now, here’s where it starts to get “interesting”. At the end of Spread Your Wings Zakk says “Who wants the guitar?” and hurls his Buzzsaw Les Paul into the crowd. I kid you not. He then just walks off the stage. Nick and James follow. Craig tries to start the next song, but fades out and stops and just sits there.

The crowd became noticeably nervous. Any fans who knew of the recent comings and goings of the band knew only too well that the last time Zakk had done this was when he stopped a gig in California half-way through after having had some arguments prior to going on stage. After just a couple of minutes, however, he came back out and asked for his guitar back. With a little coaxing from Zakk it gradually crowd-surfed its way back to the stage, where a roadie took it away. Zakk picked up his Bullseye guitar and had a little rant about how if you go to a Britney Spears show or something you know what you’re going to see, but you never know what you’re going to get at a BLS show. I think he was trying to make a point. This would become clearer later. The rest of the band came out and band launched into new single, Fire It Up.

Next up the band went into a very interesting little jam, featuring another lengthy Zakk guitar solo before playing the first single from The Blessed Hellride, Stillborn. Following this the band went into a serious jam without Zakk, allowing Zakk to introduce each band member one at a time and allow them to do a short solo spot each while Zakk had a bit of a sit down. We got a monstrous bass solo from James Lomenzo, and slightly workman-like drum solo from Craig Nunenmacher and something that would please BLS fans the World over, a guitar solo from Nick Catanese. For many, many years Nick has been in the shadow of Zakk, only ever playing live and never once being allowed to contribute to an album. And yet, live, he can mirror many of Zakk’s guitar solos when required, and lay down some of the tightest rhythm guitar since James Hetfield. Many fans for some time have been praying for Nick to get the recognition he deserves. Maybe this is a step in that direction.

Zakk then begins a lengthy rant about the BLS family, and how his wife and the record label filming tonight’s show for a new live DVD had essentially told him to behave tonight. Evidently, he didn’t like that. He said how he wanted his rock and roll shows to be proper unpredictable rock and roll shows, so “f**k the record company” etc. That’s all well and good, until you come across looking like an idiot on DVD. But let’s be honest, we all know it’ll all be edited out anyway. Especially as they’re going to film the show in Manchester and combine it with the London footage for the DVD anyway. Something tells me Zakk will “act-up” during different songs at that show, so there’s a perfect version of every song to be used in the final edit…

From here, with a tribute to the soldiers overseas in Iraq etc, the band begin the final song of the night, Genocide Junkies from 1919 Eternal. For much of the night Zakk had been complaining to the soundman about the monitor to his left. During this song, however, he took particular offence to the two monitors in front of him, kicking both of them off stage, one either side of a security guard. Given the narrowness of the bit in front of the stage at the Astoria for the security personnel to do their jobs in, the guys quite rightly hefted the monitors back onto the stage. Zakk, as you’d expect, took offence to this also, kicking them back off again and shouting at the security guys. Once again, they put them back on the stage, but cunningly pointed them away from Zakk. Zakk left them there until the end of the song, when he laid his guitar on the ground and strummed all the strings, as he’s always done, so that the notes ring for a long, long time. Then, he picked up the monitors, and threw them into the crowd. At this point, James Lomenzo also pushed over a bass amp (one that was noticeably different to all his other bass amps) and jumped on it. Zakk knocked over a couple of stage decorations (skulls on sticks) and his microphone stand and stormed off stage. All the while, Nick stood on his side of the stage looking completely dumbfounded.

And that was it. No encore. But that was OK, because it had been a full two hour show. And what a thoroughly insane show. A classic “rock n roll” show of the kind that used to happen in the ’60s and ’70s. And that kind of behaviour was just as stupid then, too. However, regardless of Zakk’s idiotic antics, the show was amazing. All the songs, and the rest of the band were superb. Zakk’s playing was superb. The material from all three albums had never sounded better. Mildly disappointing that they didn’t play at least Spoke In The Wheel from the first two albums, which Zakk normally plays solo acoustic, but I guess he wasn’t in the mood (or the state of sobriety) for that.

Prior to this show Zakk had reportedly screwed up a few shows, had to cancel one in America because he smashed up the bar earlier in the day, and cancelled the previous nights show in Bradford because he wanted a day off. The day after this show, the band didn’t turn up at the Waldrock festival in Bergrum, for which there is still no explanation at the time of writing this. And now most recently, the band cancelled their show in Copenhagen because the promoters “could not meet the concert rider requirements”.

Things do appear, at least on the surface, to be going a little wayward in the BLS camp, but they pulled out the stops for the London show and made it a truly special night.

“ insane ”

Setlist: Stoned And Drunk / Destruction Overdrive / Been A Long Time / Funeral Bell / Suffering Overdue / In This River / Suicide Messiah / Demise of Sanity / Spread Your Wings / Fire It Up / Jam > Stillborn / Jam / Genocide Junkies

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Heavy Metal, Black Label Society, Meldrum