DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS...

I got to New Orleans at about 7:45. As soon as I walked down Decatur St. to the House of Blues, Phil and Opal pulled up in Phil's black GMC truck with a venom sticker on the back. They got out and went inside. We had to stand in a long ass line to get inside. They finally opened the doors at 8:30. That place was packed, I had never seen that many people in there before and several of the employees there said they had never seen that many people before. There was nowhere in the lower section and I had 7 people with me, so we went up to the balcony. We were on the left side of the stage. I got to talk to Kirk and Jimmy before the show. They played the video everyone has been talking about and it was pretty cool. It was old performances by The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Sabbath, old Slayer, Grand Funk Railroad, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Hendrix, Lynard Skynard, and some footage of the band doing some crazy shit while they were recording the cd (mostly Kirk). Then finally at about 9:45, Black Sabbath's Supertzar started playing and they showed clips of the band on the screen and the screen lifted and there came Phil saying "We're fuckin' late".Everyonje in the crowd had their hands in the air and was screaming at the top of their lungs. Phil and Pepper looked at each other and shook their heads. "The power of the riff compels me" and they tore into the "The Seed". They went straight into "Theres Something On My Side". Then Phil starting talking. He started naming opff people he knew in the crowd and started talking about how he grew up with all these people. He was rambling on and just stopped and said "this is fuckin' awesome". He was saying something like, "How many of you motherfuckers would take up on an offer to smoke some shit by the motherfucker next to you? This song goes out to you!". "Temptation's Wings" kicked ass. The he said "In life, there is always some shit coming down the road at you, you can do one of two things: Run and hide like a little pussy or fight. I'm a fighter, this song goes out to the fighters", it was "Lifer". He talked some before every song. before "Rehab", he said "This song is for all you motherfuckers that have had to take piss test with some woman watching and some old motherfucker standing there with his arm around you making sure the piss is coming out your dick". It was pretty funny. He brought his dad out on stage and his dad said "I taught him how to say fuck". Other highlights were "Ghosts along the Mississippi" and obviously "New Orleans is a Dying Whore". They played "Learn From My Mistake" and "Lies" in the middle of the set. At one point, Phil asked if anyone had any dope because he wanted a smoke. Somebody threw one up on stage and he burned it. "Stone the Crow" was awesome, Phil had the crowd sing the chorus every time, he said "That is fuckin' badass". They played "Eyes of the South" and left the stage for like 20 minutes. I could see Phil and Rex over on the side of the stage smoking and finallyb they decided to come back. Phil asked "What do you want to fuckin' hear?". "Bury Me in Smoke" was last and it was badass. The whole show had so much energy. You could tell it was special to them being in Nola. Phil's singing was incredible, Kirk nailed the solos he played and churned out riffs all night, Jimmy was perfect,and Rex was,well,Rex. Pepper was awesome, he played his ass off and headbanged like a madman. I could see Opal standing on the side of the stage, I was hoping she would come out and sing "Landing on the Mountains of Meggido" with Phil, but she just stood there and drank beer all night.
This show was as good as any I'd seen. i knew they would be good, but they were much better than I thought. I had a great time. Kyle Turley from the New Orleans Saints was in the VIP section right in front of me. He was a cool guy, got to shake his hand and talk a little about footabll and metal. He saw my BLS shirt and said he loved the band he wanted to meet Zakk.
Overall, it was as good as any concert experience I've had. And the best thing is that in two months, I get to see them again. Fuck Yeah!
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"New Orleans is a Dying Whore", but she is still fun, goddamnit!