RED LAMB - March 24, 2013

Shame on you if you missed this recent show by Red Lamb, the new band from former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz. Not only did they play newly the entire debut album, but Red Lamb performed some awesome versions of some classic Anthrax tunes such as "Only", "Caught In A Mosh", "I Am The Law", "Be All, End All", and "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)". You can read my full review of the show with tons of pictures here. Red Lamb's version of "Caught In A Mosh" was a show-stealer; the double-bass drumming during the chorus helps make this the best performance of the song I've ever heard.

The download link is here. As always, please share, but share the link to this post rather than the direct Mediafire link. Enjoy!

Red Lamb

Decrypting The Puzzle Box

March 24, 2013

St. Paul, MN, Station 4

mp3@192 kbps, 117 MB zip file (artwork included)

1. It’s A Small World/Watchman (6:45)

2. Runaway Train (5:52)

3. Be All, End All (6:44)

4. One Shell (In The Chamber) (4:35)

5. Keep Pushing Me (4:42)

6. Standby Passenger (4:12)

7. Only (5:34)

8. Angels Of War (4:42)

9. Caught In A Mosh (5:19)

10. The Cage (5:50)

11. Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) (5:27)

12. Puzzle Box (6:45)

13. Don’t Threaten To Love Me (4:22)

14. Temptation (4:58)

15. I Am The Law (8:17)

Total time: 84:04

RELATED CONTENT: Since both Red Lamb and Anthrax are playing show within two weeks of each other, there's been a lot of Anthrax related stuff posted lately. Click on the links to check out reviews of the Red Lamb album (7/10) and concert on March 24, 2013, some old concert memories and pictures from Armored Saint, and an audio download of Anthrax from 1991 on the Clash Of The Titans tour.

Concert Review - RED LAMB and CANDY MACHINE GUNS

Red Lamb and Candy Machine Guns

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Station 4, St. Paul, MN

Former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz has been largely quiet since his last stint with Anthrax in 2007, but he returned with Red Lamb, unleashing their debut album last year (reviewed here, 7/10). This, the band’s first tour, billed Anarchy for Autism, is a benefit for autism. Thankfully the light rail construction right outside Station 4 appears to be completed, and the venue now sports a cool new sign.

Click on the photo to see more pictures of Candy Machine Guns (17).

Milwaukee’s Candy Machine Guns has been on tour with Red Lamb for a couple weeks, and they were already underway when I got there. The 30 minutes of their set I saw was quite impressive. Candy Machine Guns play a very heavy style of modern-sounding metal that is a full-on assault of the senses. Singer Hobbes Caltous is at his best when screaming, and the band charged through many of the songs off their debut album Here We Come. They have a two other area shows coming up, and they’re well worth checking out.

Click on any of the pictures to see more photos of Red Lamb (49).

It was highly disappointing that only about 50 people turned out for Red Lamb, but if it bothered the band they didn’t show it. A tape of “It’s A Small World” served as the introduction before the band took over with “Watchman”. It was immediately apparent that the band was playing tight, and seemed out to prove that Red Lamb isn’t simply a fun side project. Following “Runaway Train”, “Be All, End All” was the first Anthrax classic broken out. This, along with the other Anthrax songs played, actually sounded great with only one guitarist and allowed Dan’s solos to figure more prominently.

Back to Red Lamb material, the band stormed through “One Shell (In The Chamber)”, “Keep Pushing Me”, and “Standby Passenger”. An awesome version of “Only” came next, and vocalist Don Chaffin really proved his versatility and incredible voice with this one. This seemed to bring new energy to the crowd, and the band responded with a firey version of “Angels Of War”. Red Lamb’s version of “Caught In A Mosh” simply has to be heard to believed – drummer Kevan Roy juiced up the chorus with some intense double-bass that brought new life to the Anthrax standard. I’d love to have a studio recording of this version from Red Lamb. “The Cage” was another highlight before “Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)” brought another outsized response from the sparse crowd.

Dan had been a bit reserved on stage up to this point, but he gave a heartfelt introduction to “Puzzle Box”, talking about the challenges he and his wife have in raising twin boys with autism and explaining his hope that the metal community can be supportive of raising awareness and support for the disease. “Puzzle Box” was  clearly a crowd favorite, followed up with “Don’t Threaten To Love Me” and “Temptation”. “I Am The Law” closed the show, unfortunately halted mid-song when Dan’s guitar malfunctioned. The band handled it gracefully and with humor, and Dan had a smile on his face and took it in stride as his showed the band where to pick it up again at the fast guitar break before the solos.

In all, Red Lamb delivered an inspired, nearly 90 minute set where they ran through nearly the entire debut album (only “Warpaint” and, disappointingly, “Get Up” were missing) and five Anthrax classics. Vocalist Don Chaffin is an amazing front man, and his range and talents were impressive in the live setting. The whole band is incredibly talented and their show gave me new admiration for the album. Hopefully this tour is only the beginning of more tours and recorded output from Red Lamb.

Dan Spitz returns to the band's sponsored bus to promote autism awareness.

Candy Machine Guns return to perform two other area shows: Sunday, March 31 at the What’s Up Lounge in Mankato with Screaming Mechanical Brain and Evasive Maneuver, and Tuesday, April 2 at G.B. Leighton’s Pickle Park in Fridley.

RELATED CONTENT: Check out my review of the debut album from Red Lamb. There's also an audio download of Anthrax in 1991 on the Clash Of The Titans tour. In my From The Vault series, you can read about past experiences and view of photos of former Anthrax vocalist John Bush in Armored Saint, with more to come from the legendary Anthrax side project S.O.D.

From The Vault - ARMORED SAINT

This is the first of some Anthrax-themed vault postings here (more coming on Anthrax and S.O.D.) since Anthrax is coming to town very soon (and Red Lamb just played here on March 24 - show review coming soon). Armored Saint singer John Bush fronted Anthrax through arguably the band’s most creative and critically acclaimed period. I was fortunate enough to catch Armored Saint twice in the late 80s, then again during 2000.

My favorite show was on Memorial Day, May 26, 1986 at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand in Des Moines as part of the Iowa Jam, an annual Memorial Day festival (sadly long defunct now). Check out this monster lineup: the bill was topped by Aerosmith (supporting Done With Mirrors), Ted Nugent (out for Little Miss Dangerous), Dokken (promoting Under Lock And Key), Metallica (with Cliff Burton on the Master Of Puppets tour), and Armored Saint (supporting Delirious Nomad). Armored Saint was on first at 11 am and fired up the crowd with an inspired 35–40 minute set of songs from the first two albums. I’ll post the audio of this show later, so I’ll save additional comments for then. As you might expect, Metallica stunned an unsuspecting crowd, while the remaining bands all put on great shows.

I must’ve gotten lucky because the next time I saw Armored Saint was on the Raising Fear supporting Grim Reaper (supporting Rock You To Hell) with Helloween (touring for Keeper Of The Seven Keys - Part I) on October 17, 1987 at The Rimco Center in Rock Island, Illinois. This was an MTV Headbanger's Ball-sponsored tour. Helloween was amazing as they closed their opening set with “Halloween” and “How Many Tears”. Armored Saint a set similar to what I heard at the Iowa Jam the year before with the addition of some new songs like “Chemical Euphoria” and “Raising Fear”. Grim Reaper got upstaged by the openers, but they still put on a great show playing the title tracks from their three albums amongst other songs.

Click on any of the pictures to see more photos of Armored Saint live in 2000 (14).

Finally, the show from which the pictures are from was May 28, 2000 at Brick By Brick in San Diego during promotion for the Revelation album. This was a rapid, packed crowd eager to hear Armored Saint after an absence of many years while John Bush was in Anthrax. The main attraction for me was finally being able to hear songs performed from Symbol Of Salvation, standouts such as “Reign Of Fire”, “Dropping Like Flies” and “Tribal Dance”. With no security barricade it was difficult getting great pictures at the packed club, and it should be evident from them that everyone, both band and crowd, was having a fun night.

Anthrax performs Thursday, April 4 at First Avenue in Minneapolis with support from Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste, and Holy Grail.

Tonight - RED LAMB in St. Paul

Tonight is the night that former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz brings his new band, Red Lamb, to St. Paul on their inaugural tour. They're playing at Station 4 with support from Milwaukee's Candy Machine Guns, Prophets Of Aether, Monster Of Creation, and Pandemic. Doors open at 6:00 with the show starting at 6:30 - tickets are only $10 at the door, and a $40 VIP ticket also gets you a meet and greet opportunity with the band. The show is also a benefit for children with autism.

Check out my review of the Red Lamb's debut self-titled album (7/10), as well as the audio of this 1991 Anthrax show while supporting Persistence Of Time on the Clash Of The Titans tour.

Here's a short video of Dan Spitz introducing his band for the current tour, and below is the official video for "Puzzle Box".

ANTHRAX - June 8, 1991, Cedar Rapids, IA

Anthrax

June 8, 1991

Five Seasons Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Anthrax and Red Lamb (featuring former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz) are both coming to town soon, so it’s time to dust something off that goes way back into my analog archives! Here is a completely uncirculated recording of thrash icons Anthrax at the height of their popularity with singer Joey Belladonna on the legendary Clash Of The Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer, and special guest Alice In Chains. This was a rotating triple bill, so the sets of Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer were limited to around 50 minutes each. If I remember correctly, Megadeth was up first this night, followed by Anthrax then Slayer. Alice In Chains was well on their way to stardom by this time, and their opening set was notable for leading off with the then unreleased song “Would?”.

Don’t expect a great sound on this audience recording, I’d probably rate it a C. These were the days before cheap, high quality portable recording equipment was available. This was recorded on a Sony WM-D6 Walkman cassette recorder, the best recorder at the time since you could adjust the recording level and connect an external microphone. The recording level was kept low to minimize distortion; following digital transfer from the master tape, digital mixing was done to keep the bass distortion and tape hiss out as much as possible while keeping the guitars and vocals loud. The quality is what it is, but if you’re a bootleg buff you’ll probably want this.

The download link is here. As always, please share, but share the link to this post rather than the direct Mediafire link. Enjoy!

Anthrax

Thrash Titans

June 8, 1991

Cedar Rapids, IA, Five Seasons Center

mp3@192 kbps, 72 MB zip file

1. Blues Brothers Intro (1:20)

2. Time/Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) (6:23)

3. Got The Time (2:46)

4. Caught In A Mosh (5:16)

5. Keep It In The Family (7:40)

6. Indians (6:45)

7. Antisocial (6:38)

8. I’m The Man (5:25)

9. Won’t Get Fooled Again/I Am The Law (8:16)

Total time: 50:29

Anthrax performs Thursday, April 4 at First Avenue in Minneapolis with support from Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste, and Holy Grail.

Red Lamb performs Sunday, March 24 at Station 4 in St. Paul with support from Candy Machine Guns, Prophets Of Aether, Monster Of Creation, and Pandemic.