Post Fifty-Four: Slayer Show

Went to the Unholy Alliance Tour in Dallas last Saturday. My brother and a couple of his friends from Aggieland made the trek, and we even made it on time.

As a side note, what is it with people who reside in College Station and their tendencies to get lost? My brother got lost on his way to our niece's first birthday party (no real surprise there, since he does this regularly), and his friends traveled beyond downtown Fort Worth before realizing something was amiss. Oh, well. No harm, no foul.

Anyway, as a first-time attendee to a Slayer show, I expected much more deviltry. Araya actually came off as a nice guy. As my brother said while we were discussing the show, "He has a nice smile." Not the evil blood-drinking Satanists you kind of expect judging by their album covers. Maybe the fact that one of their 10-year-old daughters was standing on the wing of the stage toned them down.

And their show was kind of short, too. Think it was about eight songs, mainly a run through of some of their greatest hits, plus their new one, "Cult." They were off the stage before 11:00, and no friggin' encore. Not that it matters: we were all pretty friggin' exhausted by the time they wrapped things up. I must be getting too old for this shit.

However, Lamb of God and Mastodon simply killed. They were great, and the new stuff (particularly "Redneck" from Lamb of God) was heavy. I highly recommend that anyone who has the chance to go see them. And Children of Bodom were hugely entertaining, too. Check out their latest album, Are You Dead Yet?. As for Thine Eyes Bleed . . . well, nice job on their manager's part getting them on this bill.