Superjoint Ritual was back in my neck of the woods in lovely Los Angeles after only appearing here three months earlier. Not only was I going to get my photos at the show this time, but I was going to interview Phil Anselmo, too!
Okay, well upon arriving at their bus near the venue, I knew within one minute the interview wasn’t going to happen… Phil was running very behind and was at a poster signing somewhere, and still had a photo shoot to do. Yep – I was bumped.
He did make it down to our studio earlier for a nice chat with Philthy Phil, who got him to admit sacrificing an animal for some type of ritual purposes. Haha! Anselmo was very calm and coherent, sipping on water the whole time, ready to discuss anything and everything, including the “Vinnie and Dime” situation, in which you could detect a small hint of sadness in his voice.
Anyway, on with the show! Again, I did just write about the last show a few months ago – so I won’t reiterate myself too much.
There were three opening bands, one of which was Devildriver, Coal Chamber’s Dez Fafara’s band. I forget the names of the first two bands, but there was no need to remember them. They were both very similar: weak and uninspired. And, hey, I’m the first to give someone a chance! But these bands… *sigh* One of them looked like Doogie Howser, M.D. slapped on some tats and got his frat brothers together to play on some equipment that mom and dad bought for them. The other band had these big, clean-cut bouncer type guys playing guitar, and they just looked so out of place – it was bizarre. The music of both bands --- ZZZZZZZ. Sounded forced and fake. Sorry – that’s the way I saw it. Devildriver was pretty cool, and they got the place finally rocking. At this point, I was just getting anxious for Superjoint to hit the stage.
This time, the venue was smaller – usually SJR plays the House of Blues. I personally prefer the smaller venues. However, my task at hand was to take photos, and being a Superjoint junkie, I felt the need to be right up in the very front of the mosh pit. No photo barricade here. Just a little ol’ 5’ 3” girl in a swarm of drunken, sweaty men clinging for dear life to my camera! You can check out the photo gallery below: You’ll notice the pics aren’t great – but that’s what happens when you have a headbanger crashing on top of your head every 20 seconds, not to mention the three beers I was doused in. Hey, I’m not complaining – that’s rock n’ roll, baby!
Superjoint came out and busted things wide open with “It Takes No Guts.” The masses stormed forward, and there was constantly someone on stage, hugging or high-fiving Phil, then stage diving back into the depths of mayhem. SJR kept the show simple and hardcore. This time, Phil didn’t talk all that much and pretty much stuck to the music.
They continued on with such tunes as “The Alcoholik,” “4 Songs,” “Personal Insult” and “Fuck Your Enemy.” I couldn’t write down the setlist, obviously – sorry. But it was pretty much the same as the last show, but the order was different. They finished off their set with “Ozena” and “Permanently.” It was just as consistently brutal as the 3 times I had seen them before. Superjoint never disappoints!
If you want more details, check out my previous review here.
Enjoy the photos… click to enlarge!
