Thursday night, I had the pleasure of being invited along with Dr. Espling to scope out a show he had assisted in setting up featuring MOD and hardcore metal legend, Billy Milano headlining out at The Garage in Oakland. Now, the last time I was at this place, it was called the Oakland Cafe, and it was a hip hop night.
So we get there and hang for a bit. First group was Stick Palm Death. They’re your typical hardcore. About a minute long songs with inventive song titles.
Next up was Crown the Lost. These guys were some classic Thrash metal. The whole time I watched these guys, I kept thinking how much Kyle needed to see them.
Then there was Gutrench. These guys were more akin to some oldschool Biohazard and started to get the crowd moving in this small club.
Finally, MOD popped up. And I was introduced to some old school metal. So here’s this big dude, dropped jokes, messing with the crowd, talking about blowing up the Mideast. Y’know, real hardcore politics. And the crowd knows every damn word. There were plenty of power and band mess ups. We stuck around, and Doc wanted to get an interview. He was pretty psyched to talk to Billy. Said he’d been into this group for years. So we end up having to wait a bit though. It seems they had driven from a show the night before in Little Rock, and then the van broke down in front of this place in Pittsburgh. And Billy brings his dogs on tour with him. Some shadiness on their hotel room and what was happening with the dogs led to us being invited to their hotel room to conduct the interview. So I got on the camera, and we got a few minutes with Billy, talking about the album and the tour, before he got a call about the van and had to leave. But the rest of the guys were able to fill in on the “real” stories of MOD. Learned how the two new guys got in the group just this past April, it seems. And the guitarist, Scott had all this experience in touring in several bands over the past 15 years. It was a great discussion, on and off camera. Just a little rough to get up for work the next day after getting home at 3 AM.
So I went into this having no idea who Billy Milano was. Now I learned another piece of music history.
But that’s alright. I had posted witht he G-Child interview on Faygoluvers that I was looking for more undergroung talent that needed to get their names out there to hit me up. I have at least 4 other acts interested in interviews. Two with CDs coming out in July. Good stuff.
