Photos and video of Inquisition, -/- and Old Painless

I don't think I'm alone in saying that Monday's show by legendary black metallers Inquisition at a cramped sports bar in North Raleigh will go down as one of the weirdest, and most awesome, shows I've ever seen. It was a last minute show. Word went round on Facebook late last week that the band had an open date and wanted to play in the area. Ira Rogers, who books a lot of punk house shows in the area and who ended up putting the show together, told me the story:

 "I got a call on Thursday night from my friends from Richmond, Mark Osborn and Andy Horn; they also book shows/tours. Inquisition was planning out a tour, and their old tour manager flaked out in the middle of booking it, so basically, they had about 7 open days without shows, and this was one of them. They needed something between Richmond or Asheville, and told me they would be down to play a DIY show on their day off. At first I didn't know exactly what to do, but then slowed down and figured that I've done plenty of last minute shows before, and that surely if I call some others to work out some tweaks, that it should be fine. I called "partner in crime" Alex Taylor, because I knew he really liked Inquisition, and he freaked. He got all the bands together to play the show. I called Tyson Dale, to see if he had any ideas, and he usually pulls some tricks out of the hat.

We emailed several all age venues, and if that were to flop, called a friend to ask if we could use his garage JUST IN CASE nothing was open. Tyson had Six Forks agree to do the show within minutes, and Alex had the bands already, so essentially, we booked this show in just a couple of hours. We put up some homemade flyers the next day, just so it wouldn't be exclusive to the internet, and then waited it out.

Some people talked a lot of shit about how the show should have been at DiveBar or Slim's in downtown Raleigh. I think those places are fun and the people running those places are great, but half the people at Monday's show were underage. I only do all-ages shows, and I'm sticking to that.

 From what I gathered, Inquisition seemed excited to play with some hardcore bands, because it's out of the element and more creative, with multiple crowds of people as one. They were very nice guys and told me they'd love to hit me up again next year for if they set up a DIY gig tour. I'd definitely book them again. All the bands were KILLER last night!"

I have to echo Ira's sentiment that the band seemed really excited to be playing the show. They were extremely gracious to me, and from what I understand, everyone who talked to them. Dagon thanked the audience profusely many times, and mentioned at one point that we were getting the most stripped-down version of Inquisition ever because they were using absolutely no effects on stage.

But there was a totally surreal element to the whole experience. Six Forks Pub really is a sports bar. If I lived up that way It would probably be my venue of choice for watching the game. The decor consists of beer signs and posters of classic rockers like Hendrix and The Who (though, to be fair, do does the decor of most bars). Bryan Reed summed up the atmosphere with this photo. But my friend Keith basically said it best while watching the band set up: "It's so weird to see a guy in corpse paint set up his drums while Ke$ha plays in the background." But I think that surrealism is part of what made this show so great. Everyone who was there will be talking about this one when we're all trading stories in the rest home.


I wasn't terribly happy with my photos, but if you know Tara, who goes to all the metal shows, she has a GREAT set on Facebook. I was pretty happy with the video, not because it looked like much, but because it sounded a lot better than I expected it to, especially since I was standing in front of a screaming guitar amp the whole time.

Double Negative (above) and Old Painless (below), opened the show. It was my first time seeing them in a good while -- certainly since singer Cameron Craig and drummer Bobby Michaud joined the band. Unfortunately this video is a little blown out. Double Negative were a lot louder than Inquisition! See more photos.