25 YEARS AGO TOMORROW: I SAW VOIVOD, SOUNDGARDEN AND FAITH NO MORE AT THE "NEW" RITZ

It was an amazing show. I can't find my ticket stub (when I do, I'll replace this image with mine). But wow: it was $14.50.

This was around the time I started going to club shows as opposed to arena and theater concerts. I'd already seen Living Colour with de la soul (the first hip-hop act I'd ever seen live) at the "New" Ritz a few months earlier. That show is permanently etched in memory, and so is this one.

Where Living Colour had a lot of hype out of the gate - in large part because of Mick Jagger's involvement in the debut album, and their pretty commercial sound got them radio play pretty much out of the gate - this was a bit different. Voivod was a well-established band in the underground thrash metal community, but didn't have anywhere close to the mainstream recognition of bands like Slayer or Anthrax or even Suicidal Tendencies or Exodus. And despite the fact that they had a video on Headbanger's Ball (a cover of an early Syd Barrett-era, they weren't a band who people outside of the thrash metal community were aware of. I'd been familiar with them thanks to WSOU in New Jersey, which is where I discovered most metal bands that I enjoyed back then (including Metallica and Anthrax). But it was interesting that Soundgarden and Faith No More were opening for them, as neither band ever seemed to want to be classified as "metal."

Faith No More was the opening band, although within a few months, they'd eclipse both of the other bands, popularity-wise. I had their then-new album, The Real Thing, which was their first with frontman Mike Patton. Like Living Colour, they had really clean production, but they were seriously weird. Each guy seemed like he was in a different band: guitarist Jim Martin was definitely the metalhead. Keyboardist Roddy Boddum, for some reason reminded me of someone from a progressive rock band (years later, I'd hear his "other" band, Imperial Teen, and realize he was kind of a power pop guy, something that didn't seem to influence FNM at all). Drummer Mike "Puffy" Bordin was brutal, he seemed like he could be in an industrial band. Bassist Billy Gould was funky as hell and reminded me a bit of Flea sometimes, and Patton was more than a little Anthony Kiedis-like, although he was a better singer (and a better rapper). He was clearly the focal point of the band: the audience loved him, and he seemed to hate them, which made them love him more. (This didn't work as well when FNM opened for Metallica and Guns N Roses a few years later.)

So, they were a bit like the Chili Peppers, but this was 1990 and the Chili Peppers weren't at all popular. FNM released The Real Thing a month before the Chili Peppers released Mother's Milk, so it wasn't like they were jumping on some huge trend. And let's be honest: when you listen to a song like "Falling To Pieces," it's a lot more commercial than anything RHCP had done at that point. I'm listening to The Real Thing as I write this, and it's hard to imagine that it seemed so groundbreaking at the time, but it did. It was an exciting time for music: it felt like different kinds of music were combining in strange and cool new ways, and Faith No More (like Living Colour and Jane's Addiction, two of my favorite bands at that time) really embodied it. They weren't as orthodox about metal as the metal bands that I loved (Iron Maiden and Judas Priest) or the aforementioned thrash bands. They definitely didn't love the hair metal bands (and neither did I). This mirrored the way I felt about music. I still loved the same metal bands I always had loved, but it wasn't all I wanted to listen to. And I definitely didn't have much time for hair metal, and FNM didn't seem to either. They seemed to be a midway point between metal and "alternative" music that I was getting into, now that I was in college (notably the Cure).

Soundgarden were killer. This is notable, because I saw them many times after that, and they were rarely even good in concert, until after they reunited in the '00s. In 1990 they had something to prove, but they weren't really trying to win anyone over. It was more like they were trying to shove their music through your skull. It was really heavy - this was the Louder Than Love tour - but it was almost uglier than metal. It had nothing to do with thrash, it was more about old Black Sabbath. But there was another element to it, and I guess that was the Bauhaus/Killing Joke influence that the band would often cite. But anyway, they were stellar on the night I saw them. They were so abrasive, it would have been impossible to predict that they'd be at the center of the zeitgeist for a beautiful and scary moment, just a few years later. That everyone would try to sound like them, look like them, write song titles that sounded like Soundgarden song titles. They seemed so left of center at that particular moment, and if you loved them, it was like this secret thing. I guess fans of any underground band that later sold millions of records knows what I'm talking about. I was never mad about any of their success though: just like the world knew who Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were, I thought they should also know about Soundgarden. And for my money, no heavy band ever matured as powerfully as Soundgarden, but that's an essay for another time.

I remember it was freezing that night, but I'm glad my brother and I went to the show; when we were there, it felt like we were seeing something special. All these years later, I know that we did. It's been amazing watching Soundgarden's comeback: their initial reunion tour was spectacular, their reunion album King Animal was way better than I could have expected and that tour was amazing as well. And I got to see one of Faith No More's reunion shows a few years back, and that blew my mind too. But I'm so glad I got to see both of them when I did.

NATIVITY IN BLACK: CLASSIC TRIBUTES

In honor of tonight's Black Sabbath documentary airing on The Biography Channel, I wanted to do something Sabbath-centric, like a list of my favorite Sabbath songs. But I can't whittle it down to ten or twenty.  But it did get me thinking about how I first experienced the band.

I started listening to music, like a lot of other kids, with classic rock radio (and like lots of people, got bored with it quick and soon stuck with my own tapes).  But I am pretty sure that's where I first heard songs like "Paranoid," "Iron Man" and "War Pigs." Or maybe it was MTV's "Closet Classics" or even "Headbanger's Ball." I really heard a lot of the songs for the first time on Ozzy Osbourne's live album, Speak Of The Devil, which features all Sabbath tunes. And also Black Sabbath's Live Evil, released at almost the same time, which featured Ronnie James Dio on vocals (that album featured Dio singing his songs, as well as a few Ozzy tunes). At the time I didn't get why Ozzy and Sabbath had the same songs on their albums.  There was no internet to look this stuff up on! To make things more confusing, soon there was another new Black Sabbath album, Born Again, with a different singer! But as I got more into metal, I learned about the band's different eras (and by then Glenn Hughes was the singer!). 

I picked up the greatest hits album, We Sold Our Souls For Rock And Roll, and loved it, then got Paranoid.  I caught up and realized what an awesome band they were. But the tribute album Nativity In Black, released in 1994, really re-ignited my interest in the band, and made me listen more closely to some of the songs. That may not be a hip thing to admit, but it's true.  The same was true for me when I listened to the live recording of the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary tribute concert. I don't remember if NIB got good reviews, and I've read some bad ones of the Dylan tribute concert. But the fact was, both of those tributes made me re-examine each artist.  

Anyway, Nativity In Black was pretty great, and had a lot of happening bands of that moment.  The first single was Biohazard's cover of "After Forever," which has gone on to become maybe my favorite Sabbath song. That song made the collection for me, although today the rap-metal does sound a bit dated.  But it also had White Zombie's re-imagining of "Children Of The Grave," Corrosion Of Conformity's "Lord Of This World," and my other highlight of the album, Sepultura's "Symptom Of The Universe." It also had previously released covers: Faith No More's live version of "War Pigs," which I liked, but I didn't feel like it belonged, because Mike Patton was clearly making fun of the song (I felt the same way about Type O Negative's "Black Sabbath"). It also had 1000 Homo DJs' version of "Supernaut" (the "DJs" were Al Jourgensen of Ministry and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails). The whole album got me to go back and listen to the original versions of "After Forever," "Children Of The Grave," "Lord Of This World," "Symptom Of The Universe" and "Supernaut" and appreciate them even more.  I think that's the job of a tribute album! 

A couple of years later, they went back to the well for Nativity In Black II. It didn't have as big of an impact on me, but again, some cool versions of the songs made me listen more closely to the originals: Pantera's "Electric Funeral," Slayer's "Hand Of Doom," Soulfly's "Under The Sun" (another one of my favorite Sabbath songs) and Monster Magnet's "Into The Void." 

I hope that they do a third: it may not have any bands that I like, but I think that every generation of hard rock kids need to know where their music started.  Long live Black Sabbath! 

FAITH NO MORE IN NYC - AWESOME

First off, I should mention that I took this photo from Roddy Bottum's blog. In his post about the show, Roddy said that the Brooklyn shows (Faith No More played Friday and Monday) was one of the highlights of his career.  Wow! I was lucky enough to be at the show last night, and it was indeed amazing.  I'm sure they did some shows that were as good, or better, back in the day, but maybe it's just that Roddy was able to enjoy this one more.

Faith No More had such a weird history.  They were sort of a cult thing with former frontman Chuck Mosley, but when Mike Patton joined, they exploded. Their first album with Patton, 1989's The Real Thing, sort of accidentally invented rap-metal.  They were doing the rap-metal thing with Mosley, but it got much more popular with Patton, which is ironic, as Patton seems to disdain anything popular. With their next album, 1992's Angel Dust (my favorite FNM album by far), they left rap behind and got more experimental, and continued on that path for their next two albums, King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime and their swan song, Album Of The Year. But they would only get less and less popular and that was probably a bummer to them. I remember one of the last times I saw them they did a Halloween gig at Irving Plaza for a radio station, and Monster Magnet were on the bill.  Great show, but it didn't even sell out! After that, I remember not being able to get tickets to what turned out to be their last NYC show at Roseland. It was sold out, but I think that was because of the opening act.  Believe it or not, that was limp bizkit. I remember being bummed out that I couldn't get a ticket, and even more bummed that limp bizkit was what people were getting excited about.

Cut to last night.  I was wondering if Patton was going to be into it. He has been ambivalent on the topic of Faith No More reuniting over the years (and has occupied himself with lots of other projects like Fantomas, Tomahawk, Peeping Tom, solo projects and collaborations). From the second song of the show, it was clear that he was way into it.  The first song was FNM's cover of "Theme From 'Midnight Cowboy," but then they played "The Real Thing," and Patton just went off. And from there it was on.  There was a lot of the easy listening music that FNM love, or love making fun of, like their classic covers of Lionel Richie's "Easy," The Bee Gees' "I Started A Joke" and their own "Just A Man." But they also roared through "Last Cup Of Sorrow," "Be Aggressive," "Midlife Crisis" and especially "Land Of Sunshine." The show had everything that was great about the band.  Lots of aggression, but also the soft rock stuff, and Patton's cutting and cynical sense of humor. Sometimes I hear about people feeling ripped off by reunions because the artists are just there to get paid, and I was worried about that with this particular one, but in fact, the band were awesome. Mike Patton gets a lot of attention, but the band's secret weapon is the unrelenting super powerful drumming of Mike "Puffy" Bordin. I've seen him in Ozzy Osbourne's band (and even in a 75% reunion of Black Sabbath) and I'll say he's one of the best drummers of the past 20 years.

I don't know why they are only doing a handful of U.S. dates - but I hope they come to the area again, I would definitely want to see this tour a second time (and my wife missed it, much to her chagrin).

FAITH NO MORE ADD SOME MORE DATES

The great blog Brooklyn Vegan points out that Faith No More have added a few extra US dates: the band themselves didn't reveal it on their website, but on their t-shirts that they were selling at their first US gig last night at the Warfield in San Francisco.

It seems like they could do a much more extensive US tour, maybe they are planning more dates later in the year or next year.

Meanwhile, I hear frontman Mike Patton has a solo album coming out called Mondo Cane, featuring him singing orchestra versions of Italian pop songs from the '50s and '60s.  And why not?

FAITH NO MORE NY SHOW: PRESALE TUESDAY

Faith No More bassist Billy Gould and keyboardist Roddy Bottum have been tweeting pretty frequently lately. Today Gould tweeted that pre-sale for a FNM show in Brooklyn on July 5 will start this coming Tuesday.

FAITH NO MORE - COMING TO AMERICA!

Faith No More have done a lot of touring since reuniting last year. They've said that they will play the U.S. as well - they recently were announced as one of the featured bands on the Coachella festival. Now, they've annoucned three San Francisco dates as well. I follow the news on bass player Billy Gould's twitter.

OZZY: OZZFEST WILL RETURN, ZAKK WYLDE WON'T

In his new interview in Rolling Stone, Ozzy Osbourne says that Ozzfest will return this summer after taking last summer off. He didn't mention if it would be a one-weekend "destination" festival as it was two years ago, or a summer tour, which is what it had been for years before that. He also confirms that Zakk Wylde is no longer in his band, and that he has replaced him with someone named Gus G. I wonder if Mike Bordin is still the drummer, since his band Faith No More has reunited. 

Anyway, I just started reading his book I Am Ozzy, which really shows how hard he had it growing up.  It's amazing that he got to where he is today, given the conditions he grew up in.

COACHELLA: MUSE, FAITH NO MORE, THEM CROOKED VULTURES

I'm probably not about to go camping in the desert, but if I were going to, I'd do it for this year's Coachella festival. The lineup has some great artists: Them Crooked Vultures, The Specials, Muse, Faith No More, Les Claypool, Devo, Sly & The Family Stone, The Dead Weather,  and de la soul. Plus some younger artists who I like, including LCD Soundsystem, She & Him, The Avett Brothers, MGMT, Coheed & Cambria, The Raveonettes, Sia, Corinne Bailey Rae, Porcupine Tree, Shooter Jennings, Band Of Skulls, Spoon and King Khan & The Shrines.  And "Thom Yorke???"  I presume that name is because Thom Yorke hasn't named his new project. Great lineup.  I love that Pavement - the big deal reunion of the year - are billed beneath a cartoon band, Gorillaz.

FAITH NO MORE - THE ROAD WILL GO ON!

Faith No More have done some reunion shows at a few European festivals this year, but what U.S. fans want to know is, when will they play here? Bassist Bily Gould just tweeted this: "In response to all of our concerned US brethren...YES...we yare now actively planning US dates." HELL YEAH!

CHUCK MOSLEY WILL RAP OVER HARD ROCK FOR FOOD

Chuck Mosley was Faith No More's original singer, who left the band after their first two releases, We Care A Lot and Introduce Yourself. He also briefly replaced H.R. in Bad Brains. Now he has a new solo album, Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food. Just based on the title, I want to check this one out. Guests include Jonathan Davis of Korn (who have taken a lot of FNM's tricks, and to my ear, dumbed them down), John 5 of Rob Zombie's band, and FNM's Roddy Bottum.

ARE FAITH NO MORE IN CAHOOTS WITH EUROPEAN TRAVEL AGENTS?

An odd question, but why would Faith No More be reuniting to play European festivals with "absolutely no plans" to tour America? It's payola!  Travel agents are bribing them, so that their American fans will have to cross the pond for a last chance to see the group. 

Apparently, this reunion was mentioned in a press release, billed second behind the fact that frontman Mike Patton has scored the upcoming film Crank 2: High Voltage. No word on what festivals the band is playing, or who will be playing guitar, but supposedly it will definitely not be original six-stringer Jim Martin, who I've read is now a competitive pumpkin grower.  Wikipedia says that he was responsible for the 235th biggest pumpkin ever, which weighed 1,064 pounds. Anyway, here's hoping that FNM tours America. 

TOMORROW ON OUTQ

Two weeks ago on OutQ, I planned on talking about some reunions to look forward to in 2009, but I didn't get to it. So, I'm making up for that this week. I'll be talking about as many reunions as I can get to, including The Kinks, The Faces, Mott The Hoople, The Specials, Faith No More, blur, Pavement, Phish and No Doubt (who never broke up, but lots of people probably thought Gwen Stefani wouldn't return to the band after her solo success). I don't know if I'll get to all of those bands though.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ

I'm glad to be returning to the OutQ airwaves tomorrow. Since I usually go on the air on Thursdays, and the last two Thursdays were New Year's Day and Christmas Day, it's been three weeks.

I don't have a theme, per se, but here's what I will be talking about:

• The late great Ron Asheton of The Stooges who died earlier this week.
• How cool a subscription to (RED)wire is. I just got my third issue, which inlcuded a new Joseph Arthur song, and a live mashup between Elvis Costello & The Imposters and The Police of "Watching The Detectives" and "Walking On The Moon," which was recorded for Elvis' new TV show.
• Some great releases that I didn't get to talk about on the air last year (and some I still need to write about): The Drive-By Truckers' Brighter Than Creation's Dark, Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs, Lucinda Williams' Little Honey and the Lu In '08 EP, Mavis Staples' Live: Hope At The Hideout, the deluxe reissue of Steve Earle's classic Copperhead Road and Neil Young's Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968.
• And stuff to look forward to in 2009: new albums by U2 and Bruce Springsteen, and possible reunions by The Kinks, The Faces, blur (who I don't care about but I'm sure a lot of people do) and one of my favorite bands ever, Faith No More (more on that as I find out about it).

MIKE PATTON DOESN'T TOTALLY RULE OUT FAITH NO MORE REUNION

In a recent interview with Artisan News, Mike Patton discussed Faith No More and didn't totally rule out a reunion! I know I've gotten a bit excited here about reunions by The Kinks and R.E.M., so I shouldn't even repeat this.

But Patton, an artist with a vision if ever there was one, and a guy who has absolutely no use for nostalgia, usually bristles at the idea. So the fact that he doesn't totally rule it out is cool. Although he does say "I wouldn't rule it out. I don't think we would need to reform the band, but maybe there's other things we can do together." But, what are they gonna do, get together and not perform Faith No More songs? Although, knowing how perverse Patton is, I could see that happening. He loves to mess with an audience. But that would just be cruel. Here's hoping this is the first step in a reunion.