Dive Bar, Volume 11 to close

(Batillus at Dive Bar, Sept. 29. 2010)

I wrote about the closing of Dive Bar for the Independent's music blog, Scan. You can read it here. In the post, I briefly touched on the fact that Volume 11 is also closing, and that as of Jan. 1, the Triangle will no longer have a dedicated metal club.

The timing of these two closings is coincidental, but still terribly disappointing for me. I admit that I wasn't a Volume 11 regular, but I still saw some amazing shows there -- notably Carcass and Trouble, both back in 2008.

Dive Bar, however was probably my favorite local club to see bands. I can't say enough good things about The Dive's booking agent, Robby Rodwell, who booked some of the most adventurous metal shows I've ever seen in this area. I was also very pleased to hold the last two Mann's World Hopscotch Day Parties at the club. Robby and Dive Bar deserve a lot of credit for offering great shows that were almost always free. The club owners told me that they are looking for another location. I hope they find it soon because I will seriously miss this club.

Karen Weatherman is a true Metal Mutha

Pick up the latest edition of Decibel Magazine, with Phil Anselmo on the cover, and you'll see my first piece for them: A Metal Muthas feature on Karen Weatherman, mother of COC's Woody. In case you're not familiar with this monthly feature, it profiles the mother of a noted metal musician. Anyone who knows Karen (and her husband, Toney) knows she loves supporting COC. I spent an entire afternoon with her, hearing the most outrageous, entertaining stories. I only had room to include a select few in the article, so unfortunately Decibel readers won't get to find out that Woody's first show ever was at the opening of the new Rex Hospital (???) with a band called Middle Earth. That's a story just for you.