For some reason I never had the opportunity to watch Down play live; prior commitments, out of town, you name it. To say I was super stoked once their latest tour dates got announced with a stop at the Summit Music Hall in Denver, CO is a complete understatement.
Not so much because of Phil Anselmo, but rather because this would be the third time this year I have had the pleasure of seeing, interviewing and photographing the Mr. Kirk Windstein. His other bands, Crowbar and Kingdom of Sorrow played in Denver already this year and I was joking with him that I will go 3 for 3 with an interview at the Down gig.
This was unfortunately not the case; I went 2.75 out of 3 since I couldn’t do the interview. SUPERSKUM actually talked with Kirk before the gig and I believe he is transcribing the whole thing since the audio part was not up to par. (Link will follow)
Anyhoo, once I got to the venue the opening band Ponykiller was just finishing up their set and In Solitude out of Sweden was getting ready to warm the audience up for greater things to come.
And holy shit, did greater things come! Like I said, never seen Down live before and they blew me the fuck away.
Still playing with most of their original line-up, mainly Phil Anselmo, Pepper Keenan, Kirk Windstein and Jimmy Bower the band enlisted Crowbar bassist Pat Bruders since Rex Brown is or is not in the band or doesn’t play live with them, who knows?
But let me tell you this much; Mr. Bruders fits right on in with this super group of outstanding musicians.
Heard it all; Phil is a douche bag, Phil can’t sing anymore, Phil this and Phil that, but to silence all of the “critics” Mr. Anselmo put down a performance which was one of the best I have seen in a while.
Wow, that man has an abundance of energy and it matches up with his stage performance.
Dude did not stand still; well maybe for a bit when he was talking football with the audience; Who Dat? And he was pretty brave slamming the Broncos in Denver, but the audience ate up every word he was saying. He might off talked too much in between songs, but it worked for him that night. Seriously, Phil is what you want as a front man!
Down started the evening with “Hail the Leaf” from their 1995 debut album NOLA followed by “The Path” from their latest (2007!) piece Down III: Over the Under. Two songs into the set and the audience was already to the point of total over boil; crowd surfers coming over the barricade with no end in site and the mosh pit was going strong from the start.
The next song was a given, but I was surprised that Down played it so early in their set; “Lifer” also off NOLA. Phil dedicated that song to Dimebag and paused to give the about 800 plus people strong crowd a chance to cheer and holler to his statement:
“You know what love is? Love is this, right fucking here. And let me tell you something, Dimebag he is the Equivalent to love. Let me feel this fucking emotion everybody!”
Watch the video by Superskum on YouTube below and make sure you check out some of the other songs he recorded during their set.
Heavy audience participation was also the name of the game this evening and this was ever so apparent on “New Orleans is a Dying Whore” which was actually written well before hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the city.
In a recent INTERVIEW with Kirk he told me that Crowbar is his baby but his main band is Down in part since he does not have to sing. Well after watching him shred I totally concur.
Love me some Crowbar, but Kirk is definitely more active and vibrant playing the Down tunes. He and Pat (bass) alike were all over the place showman shipping their respective instruments.
Pepper was just the god on guitar, but doh we all knew that.
Haven’t seen him in years and it was nice watching him pull out those riffs with such finesse.
Former Crowbar drummer and current Eyehategod guitarist Jimmy Bower was having the time of his live behind his very minimal drum kit.
Being another NOLA homeboy and playing with Down from the get go he was just the icing on the cake.
Yes it would have been nice to see Rex Brown, but honestly I really enjoyed this line up and I hope the Denver region will have the chance to see Down again once they release their highly anticipated set of EP’s.
“If you don’t smoke weed; start …” words of wisdom by Phil Anselmo!
The encore was pretty standard with “Stone the Crow” and the ever so long “Bury Me In Smoke” anthem of their NOLA album.
Down traded their instruments with the musicians from the openers for beers and waters and dragged the last song of the night out for I bet a good 15 minutes. Nobody minded, since the riff of this song is so simple but also extremely addictive. Shit got stuck in my head all the way home!
This was definitely a great end to an awesome concert; well almost. After everybody had left the stage, Phil came back on and told the crowd there is only one way to end a Down concert while him and the audience singing along chanted:
“And she’s buying a Stairway To Heaven” AMEN
Set list for Denver: Hail the Leaf, The Path, Lifer, Lysergik Funeral Procession, Pillars of Eternity, New Orleans is a Dying Whore, Losing All, Ghosts Along the Mississippi , Underneath Everything (???), Temptations Wings, N.O.D, Eyes of the South. And as encore: Stone the Crow, Bury Me In Smoke
This review is dictated to my “partner in crime – reign of evil” buddy Rude-T who moved back to Arizona the next day after a brief stint here in Colorado. Love ya and you will be sorely missed!
And for some more kick ass pictures check out the Slideshow below: