[Yesspaz]

Welcome to the Groove Machine!

Saw King's X last night at The Nick in Birmingham, AL. What a show. Here's the set, with notes, for anyone who cares:


Groove Machine (TAPE HEAD)
Believe (MANIC MOONLIGHT)
Dogman (DOGMAN)
Complain (DOGMAN)
Black Flag (KING'S X 4)
Black Like Sunday (BLACK LIKE SUNDAY)
Finished (BLACK LIKE SUNDAY)
Johnny (BLACK LIKE SUNDAY)
Summerland (GRETCHEN GOES TO NEBRASKA)
Looking for Love (EAR CANDY)
Pretend (DOGMAN)
Screamer (BLACK LIKE SUNDAY)
Climb Up the Ladder (new)
Black the Sky (DOGMAN)
(Happy Birthday to some guy named Josh)
Walter Bela Farkas (TAPE HEAD)
Cigarettes (DOGMAN)
It's Love (FAITH HOPE LOVE)
Static (MANIC MOONLIGHT)
Sometime (EAR CANDY)
We Were Born to be Loved (FAITH HOPE LOVE)

Encore:
Over My Head (GRETCHEN GOES TO NEBRASKA)
Moanjam (FAITH HOPE LOVE)


Dogman - 5
BLS - 4
FHL - 3
EC - 2
MM - 2
GGtN - 2
TH - 2 (if you count WBF)
KX4 - 1
new - 1


I, due to my leg, was able to get a chair and sit right at the stage. The Nick is a small little club, so I was right there. I got one of Doug's bass picks that he dropped. I got high-fives from Doug during a section where he wasn't playing. We made eye contact numerous times and he smiled at me a lot (slightly weird since he's gay and I'm straight) 'cause I was so into the show (KX is a sing-along band, so we were all jamming with every song). We grasped hands one time like we were arm-wrestling and shook each other during a Ty solo. I shook hands with Ty and Jerry too. Ty said at one point, "Ya'll are neighbors to my home state, Mississippi." I yelled out, "I'm from Brandon!" (Brandon is the next-door-neighbor to Ty's hometown, Pearl). He said, "Hey my parents live in Brandon!" That was fun. Ok, so you know now just how close I was to the stage. Wow. I almost got Doug-sweat on me. Thankfully, No....

They started at 11:30 and played till 1:35. The show started with a bad mix. Too much bass and they played Groove Machine and Believe too slow (nice popping and slapping on Believe). So cool to start a show with a song that has a drum solo. Once they hit Dogman, it was all good. They decided to play Complain and Doug had the lyrics taped to the floor because he couldn't remember them, but it was too dark for him to read it, so he kind of mumbled and laughed through most of the song. The crowd loved it. Then they hit Black Flag, a good sing-a-long. They introduced their new album and did three songs from it. Black Like Sunday ruled, especially that part where they don't sing the word "down" but instead just bend the E to the Dropped D - "He always brings me *BBOOOWWWW*" Sweet.

Isn't it weird how songs that you think, "why would they pick this to play live" sometimes turn out to be some of the best concert pieces? This was the case with Finished. I'd not have picked it from BLACK LIKE SUNDAY to play, but it ruled. Next, they played Johnny. Holy Crap. They did the full 11 minute version, but they probably got in 10 minutes. SOOOOO good. Ty's solo went for about 5 minutes, and was killer, and what a bass line! Summerland was moved from the first song of the encore (I could see the setlist) to here because some girl was begging them to play it early 'cause she had to leave. Whatever. Great song. Next was Looking for Love. Good stuff. Then they did another song from the new album, Screamer. This song kick maximum glute live. I finally figured out how Doug gets that big bend in his bass tone on this song. He reaced up and pressed down on the Dropped C# on the headstock, between the nut and the key. This song was so good. The crown was singing along quite loudly with the - DOW DOW DO-DOW "no" DOW DOW DO-DOW "NO" DOW DOW DO-DOW "AAAAAYYYYEEEEE!!!!"

Next they played a new song (I think he said, Climb Up the Ladder). It is as progressive as anything they've ever done. Very fast, very heavy, very showy, very good. It bodes well for the next album. Then, one of the the highligts of the show, Black the Sky. If any of you know this song, you will understand that's it's one of the few times I just had to stand up. The whole crowd just went nuts on the Dropped C riff with the gutteral yell, fist-pumping, "HUH!" Gracious, what a show.

Then some chick handed Doug a napkin with "Please sing Happy Birthday to Josh, he's 23 today" written on it (told you I was close). So they did a really fast Happy Birthday.

Now, all this time, since at least Dogman, people were yelling songs they wanted to hear. See, KX hadn't been to the Steel City in 8 years, and they knew we wanted to hear certain songs. Doug said it was the first night of the tour and they were loose and he and Ty were commenting on songs we yelled. We were giving good crowd feedback, so they were laughing and Ty said, "You guys are yelling for 'Flies and Blue Skies' and 'Lies in the Sand' - I don't even remember how to play those." Doug laughed when someone yelled for "The Difference." Ok, so by the time they were goofing off doing Happy Birthday, Doug joked, "We've got ten albums, how can we play it all?" Some guy yelled, "We've got all night!" Doug laughed and said, "I don't! You really want us to play all the songs?" And the guy said "We like them all." Doug: "YOU like them all, but what about everyone else? Hey, do you guys like all King's X songs?" We went nuts. So, Ty goes, "Ok, how about Walter Bela Farkas?" So they started playing it and we laughed and laughed. Doug was doing Wally's screaming parts. It was horrible. Then Doug and Ty told a story about when they recorded that. It was in Boston and they're were a lot of Berkley people there, who were "watching our fingers and counting time and s*~^ like that, so we did WBF on the spur and one guy yelled, 'you're ruining the show!' So we played it like, two more minutes." It was fun times.

Ok, so then they played Cigarettes. Need I comment? Well, I will. The crowd was all over the song, singing along. KX took it easily to 8 or 9 minutes. Ty's second solo used an e-bow. His gain was so high that he had the e-bow on and was just pulling and hammering the whole solo. Perfect technique. Then Doug pulled out the 12 string bass for It's Love. Static didn't work so well live as I thought it would. It really is a studio song. But it was fun and they jammed it out for about 10 minutes. They'll probably drop it from the set. Next up was Sometime (the Ear Candy one, not the Out of the Silent Planet one). This funky number was a great jam. Next on the set list was Visions, but they skipped it without saying why...

Then, the highlight of the show, without question. They played We Were Born to be Loved, and they played it note-perfect. During the long stop-start ending, Doug and Ty came up and stood on these two huge speakers that were laying on their sides in front of the stage, so they were literally in the crowd, but higher. They were having a blast. One of the best Prog-rock songs of all time right there. AMAZING. As they were leaving the stage, we all started chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, Jerry." Drummers never get that much respect because they sit in the back, so I think this made him feel appreciated and he was grinning and being bashful. He's such a good drummer, eh Jim?

Then they took the encore with Over My Head. Well, folks, before they even started playing, the crowd was singing the chorus over and over. So instead of counting in, the band kind of joined in at the chorus and then kicked in the whole song. When they got to the bridge (where the piano comes in), they stopped playing and we sang the chorus 3X (Doug came out onto the speaker again [he did this often] and lead us in the singing with no mic).

"Music, music, I hear music.
Music, Music, I hear music.
Music, Oh, oh, oh Lord...
Music over my head."

We did it three times a capella, and at the end of it, Doug got in front of the mic just in time to scream, "Just like yesterday!" and BaM! Back into it. Then, of course, they killed Moanjam, with Doug and Ty out on the speaker for the whole part after the vox were over. They easily made this 6 minute song 8. Ty's guitar playing is immaculate. He's flawless in his technique.


The only downside of the concert was that there were so many other songs they should've played!!! I'd have loved to hear "The Big Picture," "Prisoner" (Ty doesn't like to do these live because they both have three guitar parts, and there's only one of him), "Goldilox" (this is their "Shiny Happy People" - the song everyone wants to hear that they refuse to play because they hate it - Whenever they do play it, the don't sing - They let the crowd sing because everyone knows every word), "A Box," "Mr. Wilson," "Fade," "Dreams," and my personal favorite, "Ono." Also, they didn't play anything from PLEASE COME HOME, MR. BULBOUS. I'd have liked "Smudge" and "Fish Bowl Man" from that one. But I dare not complain. I've waited years to see King's X. I will definitely see them again. The band really seemed to have a blast and Doug said he had so much fun that he promised they'd be back on each tour because he liked the Steel City.




En Finale, if you have a chance at all of seeing this band live, GO! Dang! One of the four best concerts of my life - the others being Iona, Stavesacre, and Blue Man Group.


Long live the King!