Fozzy
Northern Lights
Clifton Park, NY
February 20, 2003
This column is brought to you by 106.5, NY ONLY classic rock station.
I say that, because I got to go see Fozzy last night on them. The one good thing anyone can say about college is that it gets you contacts the better part of everywhere. I’ve been out of Siena for about three years now… and I’m six months away from having a lawyer, a few years away from having a doctor, and I have random contacts in every walk of life. Including Clear Channel entertainment. So basically, I got stuck on the guest list + 1 and got to go check out Chris Jericho’s band.
The doors opened at 7 or 7:30, but knowing the venue’s irritating tendency to having 173 opening bands for every show, I decided to show up an hour or so late. I’m only half kidding, by the way… I went to see Corrosion of Conformity there, which was actually the LAST show I saw at the venue (Passing up Collective Soul and Saliva on different occasions) and there were SIX opening bands. Doors opened at 7:00, I didn’t get home until 3am. Regardless, by the time I got there, the first opening band was just about done. Some band I didn’t know the name of by the time they left the stage. At this point, I was on my first beer and waiting to see what would open first… pool, darts, or foosball.
When the second band came out, after far too long a wait (band change-overs should take no more than 15 minutes, IMODO) the next band came out. Having never seen Fozzy, and not having seen Stuck Mojo since they opened that WCW PPV way back when, I didn’t recognize them. Apparently, one of Fozzy’s opening acts is Sick Speed, which is Fozzy without Chris Jericho. The band consists of Shannon Moore on vocals and rhythm, Randall from Clerks on bass, Tommy Dreamer on drums, and the dude from the Clay People (Upstate, represent!) on lead. Not really, but that’s who they all look like. I was a bit irritated once I figured this out, because it was already 9:00 and I was ready to see the band and go home. It was a Thursday night after all.
Regardless, I softened after watching the set for a bit, because they were good. I never really got into Stuck Mojo, but I did like the song they played for WCW. They’re a good metal band, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Following Sick Speed was Ratt Poison, who was the highlight opener. They are basically a bunch of guys, dressed up in wild 80s get-ups, and play five or six eighties covers before Fozzy comes out. THESE guys knew how to do a transition and got set up in about 10 minutes. The singer had on a blonde wig and a do-rag. The lead guitarist had on a purple mullet wig, purple spandex pants, and some black shirt I couldn’t read. He was an impressive guitarist, though. The bassist was possibly the most unmotivated man I’ve ever seen in my life…as I don’t think his facial expression changed the entire time. He was a large man, in a Slash wig/hat combo, with black spandex and a zebra striped skirt on.
Now, I’m not usually one to spread rumors, but I SWEAR I think the bassist was JR. As in the Good Ol’ variety. Like, I wasn’t sure, because he had on a wig, hat, and a touch of glam makeup, but it totally could have been him. I WISH I had brought my camera in, because I would totally post an image and set up a voting system. As it is, you’ll just have to go with me, that there’s a 50/50 shot that JR tours with Jericho.
Rat Poison’s set was short… six or seven songs… and they cleared about as fast as they set up. This made way for the main event. Of course, it’s about 11:30 at this point and I was fading fast, considering I get up at 8 for work, and it’s just about my bedtime by this point. For those that have never seen the show, Jericho is the lead singer, and the rest of the band breaks down like Sick Speed above. In the vein of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, they also have a random guy who jumps around on stage and plays air guitar. To make it interesting, he does it in a pig mask. This is Swinus.
Jericho is still a good showman, even performing for just the fifty or a hundred people that were in the place, ranging from 10 year old kids to 65 year old women. He does the small venue show well, and doesn’t once act like he’s too big for the joint. He let a 10-year old girl sing the lyrics from “To Kill a Stranger,†the only original song from the band that I personally recognized, though there were some people in there who were singing along to every song. He went on a Pro-USA rant at one point, asking if all the protesting pansies in the country had forgotton what happened right here in NY on September 11th… to which I respond, preach on Brother Jericho. He also had some people up on stage at various points.
All in all, the crowd was small and pretty good, save for one drunk asshole guy (looked like a Shen kid, which wouldn’t surprise me. Shen kid = Kid from local high school where 85% of the kids are spoiled brats who have been bought BMW’s by the time they’re 17. Everyone has a high school like that around them… that one’s ours) who was heckling from the crowd, until he realized that no one could hear him over the music and, moreover, no one cared. At the end of the night, he threw his beer at Jericho who responded: “hey asshole, if you’re going to waste a beer at least hit me with it. Maybe you should go to the [Gold’s] gym next door and work on those coffee stirrer arms of yours.†Classic. The dude was escorted out and (hopefully) arrested.
The only complaint I have about the concert is the same one I have on a lot of small venue shows… that being the sound guys seem to have no idea how to mic a singer. What you end up with is pounding, blasting guitars mixed WAAAAAAYYYY above the singers voice, so the singer is drowned out by the music. Northern Lights is notorious for it, ESPECIALLY in metal concerts. Before the concert I had the following conversation:
Girlfriend: What are you doing tonight?
Me: I’m going to see Fozzy.
GF: Who?
Me: Fozzy, Chris Jericho’s band.
GF: Chris Jericho can sing.
Me: Probably not, but I’m going to check it out anyway… it’s free.
The problem is, I can’t refute that statement now because I can’t freaking tell. Unless they do it to him on purpose because he really can’t sing. However, I will say that the sound guys at Northern Lights did a helluva better job than the sound guys on Raw. The Raw performance sounded awful. The music at Northern Lights sounded incredible… I just couldn’t hear Jericho.
The concert was a good mix of covers and original stuff, so at least the person who is just there because they want to see Chris Jericho will have something to enjoy. After the show, they set up an autograph table and Jericho (and the rest of the band) stayed to sign autographs. The band was very friendly and joked around with my buddy who had shiny green cargo pants on. The guitarist did not have any idea who Randall was when we asked him if he was him. Jericho looked exhausted, but signed the autograph and shook my hand. I didn’t tell him I was Daniels on the off chance he actually has heard of me and wanted to make an example out of me. Of course, I would have happily taken both the Tamer and the Breakdown.
Also, Jericho does trademark “ny town in a 25-mile radius from Albany, IS Albany.†But I can’t blame him for it… EVERYONE does it. Even people at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Saratoga Winners says “WHAT’S UP ALBANY???!!!!†Of course, Saratoga Winners is not even close to being in Saratoga… but that’s besides the point.
All in all, it was a decent concert experience, even if I am exhausted because I ended up with only about four hours of sleep last night. It was worth the time.
