“If I was in a band, I’d sure rather look at a hot girl in the front-row than a big, fat, bald, mother-fucker like you!” I looked around to ascertain to whom this person was speaking, fearing it might be me. As I whirled, I came chin-to-forehead with a young woman who was clearly not as cute as she considered herself, antagonizing this fellow slouching ahead of me. Now Dear Reader, I readily admit the gentleman in question was rather large and quite bald. The base of his skull, where the head met the neck did in fact, resemble a pack of hot-dogs, but none of this justified speaking to him in this hostile manner. I thought they must be friends and this was some sort of inscrutable greeting ritual between them. I searched the young woman’s eyes for a clue. None was forthcoming. Rather it seemed she considered herself entitled to the big man’s hard-won, front-row spot for no reason other than her own perceived hotness. Hmm… This ugliness continued unabated and without acknowledgment for a tense moment, until the Hot Dog guy turned on the young woman menacingly, glared into her now saucer-sized eyes and snarled, “If you wanted to be in the front-row, you should have gotten here earlier. Now shut the fuck up!” Just as quickly he returned his gaze to the stage and threw the horns into the air, perhaps in triumph, perhaps ignominy. Who can say?
Foolishly, I’ve come to expect more from my metal brethren, but sometimes people can be awful toward one another, can’t they? Thus was the scene at Saturday’s Queensryche show at the much-ballyhooed Gas Monkey Live! It was The Hatter’s inaugural visit to The Monkey and oh, the stories to tell. Lest I paint too grim a portrait of lost hope Dear Reader, allow me to refocus, for as you see the once-mighty Queensryche had left me hopeless for years now. With the advent of the band’s frequently changing personnel and ever more convoluted presentation, I had progressively lost interest since the band’s Hear In the Now Frontier era circa 1997, to the point where I simply no longer cared. And so it goes. Just when all seemed lost… enter diminutive, powerhouse vocalist Todd LaTorre and the sun arose again, illuminating the path I tread (See what I did there?) like a Jacob’s Ladder through my musical ennui.