By: Cory Farris

Type O Negative came back to 328 Performance Hall in Nashville on March 19 after a ten month absence. Only this time it was all ages, so it had to start early. Drain went onstage right at 7. I'd heard that this was an all-girl band from Sweden that rocked. I had heard right. I must say that the drummer was extremely cute, and the singer looked pretty good, too. Oh yeah...the music. They're a slower, sludgier type metal band. I noticed that the bass was overdriven giving off a cool distortion sound. Too bad her bass went out in the middle of the set, but the rest of Drain kept on playing. It got fixed pretty quick. They were really good.

After Drain's set some guy was walking around with a box of tapes he was giving away. Turns out that the tapes were of Drain and they were a 3 song promotional tape. It includes the songs "I Don't Mind", "Serve The Shame", and "Stench". All were played at the show and they're from their album "Horror Wrestling". I definitely want to check that album out, since the tape rocks.

Stuck Mojo from Atlanta was next and they were a more up-beat, mosh-happy band. I freaked out in the middle of the set when they said that Type O Negative had requested a song for them to play. They started in and I knew it sounded familiar, and then I realized it was a cover of "Balls To The Wall" by Accept. They only did one verse of it. SM put on a good show as well.

Roadies were scampering around doing a sound check, and one brought out a big wine bottle to set on a rack onstage. This could mean only one thing......Type O Negative were about ready to come out. The lights went out and "Glass Walls Of Limbo" was played. One by one here come the band members on the dark stage, the last being Peter Steele who got a huge pop from the crowd. Like the last time they were in Nashville, "Prelude To Agony" was first. It took awhile for the crowd to get moshing, but once they did, it was every person for theirselves. I was about 12 feet from the stage in front of Kenny Hickey, so I was sort of safe.

"Love You To Death" was the next song, and Peter was playing his bass along to the beginning keyboard part, unlike on the album. Gave it a new twist. "Cinnamon Girl" was next, after which Peter played a few bars of Led Zepellin's "Dazed and Confused", after which he stopped and in his best Robert Plant impression said "Thank you very much", complete with English accent. This immediately led into "Kill All The White users". After that song Peter said that David Duke wasn't real fond of that song, but Louis Farrakan would probably want to make them honorary members of the NAACP.

Type O then played the beginning of "A Death In The Family" which led into "I Know You're F*cking Someone Else". Afterwards Peter was apologizing for all the profanity in the album, but everybody was hollering as if to say "We don't care! It's all good!" Then he started talking about a song written by the Doors in 1967, which obviously was "Light My Fire". I was curious as to how they'd play it, but they did really good with it. Same tempo as the original, but with the proverbial Peter Steele twist.

One of my "October Rust" favorites, "In Praise Of Bacchus", was next, followed by Peter's rendition of "Smoke On The Water" which led into "Too Late: Frozen". The "Frozen" part of the song was complete with snow machines which made everybody's head look like snow cones. I was cracking up at my friends who were in front of me, but I didn't get snowed on. Before "Wolf Moon", Peter was saying that the song was about a man who turns into a werewolf after having oral sex with a menstruating female, and anyone who didn't believe that was possible could meet him at the bus afterwards and he'd let them smell his breath.

"Christian Woman" featured some more of Peter's onstage banter, when before the song he said "In my Catholic school days the nuns would spank me every day after school, but unfortunately for them I liked it." "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend" was then played, but it was in a different (read: higher) key than on the album. Then before introducing "Black No. 1" Peter was talking about everybody being out late and that he'd write abscence notes for everyone. After the song Peter took his strings off his bass and said the obligatory "Without you we're nothing", and then threw his empty wine bottle out saying that if it was dropped then everyone could have a piece. Then it was over.

Type O Negative just keeps getting better and better onstage everytime I see them, this being my 3rd time. The pit was wild, and a few kids would crowd surf and grab on to this big pipe in the ceiling, which was about 12 feet high. One kid hung for a really long time which got Johnny Kelly's attention. He was cracking up at that. Kenny's guitar playing is phenomenal, and Josh Silver compliments everyone with his keys. As for Peter, I noticed that for the first time that I've noticed, he'd use a clean tone on his bass on occasion. Usually it's all distorted, but for a few bits here and there it was clean, which was a big boomy sound. He's definitely an influence on me as a bass player. Type O is just great in concert. So, in their honor, my band, tentatively called D.O.D., is doing a cover of "Black No. 1", or at least we've been working on it. I hope we make the guys in Type O Negative proud. :)

Stay Negative!!!

Return to the '97 US Tour, part 2 or read the other excellent review by Cory (if you missed it).