From The Vault - NILE Part 1 of 2

Death metal kings Nile played Station 4 in St. Paul last week, so here's the first of two posts of some old pictures of the band. First are pictures from March 28, 1999 at the Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kansas that had them opening for Stuck Mojo. A strange billing for sure, but Nile had just wrapped up one the final tours in support of their earthshaking debut album Amongst The Catacombs of Nephren-Ka. The band was slated to drive across Kansas on their way home so the promoter added them since Stuck Mojo lacked a national support band.

Click on either of the pictures to see more live photos of Nile from 1999 (8).

Nile went over better with this crowd than you might expect, and they ripped the place up before Stuck Mojo took over. I interviewed Nile mastermind guitarist Karl Sanders before the show, too. He certainly seemed road-weary, but he was extremely kind and really went out of his way to make me feel at home as we chatting in the RV. Pictures going this far back were taken on a old crappy camera so excuse their low-budget nature.

From The Vault - KID ROCK Part 1 of 2

If anyone is hated in metal more than Fred Durst, Kid Rock would be near the top of the list. Sure, he put out a couple rap-rock records, but not much qualifies him as metal. There was a time, however, when the metal community embraced him (over 11 million copies of Devil Without A Cause were sold in the U.S. alone).

Click on any of the pictures to see more photos of Kid Rock in 1999 (11).

I'll throw a couple Kid Rock posts out here anyways since he just played the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul with Bob Seger this past Friday (March 15). First up are some pictures of Kid Rock playing a club date at the Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kansas on April 16, 1999 - right before Devil Without A Cause took on a life of its own. To be honest, I went to this not knowing who Kid Rock was. I was there for opener Staind, whose major label debut Dysfunction had just come out a couple days prior. I had been given an advance, unfinished mix copy of Dysfunction in late 1998 and was really enjoying it so their label was eager to have me see them.

Not knowing anything about Kid Rock I was stunned that this 500–600 seat venue was sold out. Everyone was going crazy for him and you could tell that something big was about to happen. I've never been a fan, but I'll give him credit for putting on a very lively, entertaining show. As you can tell, I didn't have a decent camera at this time - yeah, these pictures aren't the best but I did with them what I could.