Concert Guy

…with Cro Mags & New World Man

I was excited about this one because recently I’ve been getting into Suicidal Tendencies. I have their first album on vinyl, and my friend Miguel is the biggest ST fan I know, but this was just a band I overlooked for whatever reason…for way too long apparently. But with Miguel sharing videos of his band Cartel Cyco with me (ST tribute band as well as some sweet originals), the seed has been planted. So off to the Worcester Palladium we went for a good ole fashioned thrash show!

New World Man

New World Man opened the show. It’s a “Meh” for me. Plenty of energy, but perhaps trying too hard? I dunno. Something rubbed me the wrong way. A whole lot of “Yeah!” and “Fuck yeah!” from the singer before and after every song. He needs a new shtick to pump up the crowd. Or maybe he was just overthinking things and felt the need to fill the silence in between songs but with nothing to actually say? They didn’t suck. They’re up there doing their thing having fun and being loud as hell, but it wasn’t for me. Every song (for me) sounded identical and that drives me a bit nuts. Gotta change things up here and there. Some of the guitar work was cool though.

Cro-Mags take the stage.

Cro-Mags! While I’ve heard of them, I can admit I didn’t know them. But, these dudes were a lot of fun. Like many old school bands (they’ve been around since the early to mid 80s) they’ve had their internal issues and disputes so this iteration has only one original member, Harley Flanagan. Harley is the Kip Winger of punk/thrash playing bass and singing lead…but without Kip’s lame little headset or PlayGirl spread because that wouldn’t be punk/thrash at all!

They opened with We Gotta Know and came out of the gate with a ton of energy. Old school thrash/punk guys know what’s up! The crowd was super into it, plenty of moshing and fist pumping to be had. I can’t say I knew the songs they played but I had a good time. A couple songs I was able to figure out were Days of Confusion and Down but Not Out. I got a short clip of the latter.

Harley, while nearly 60, still had a of energy and really got into his performance, even though he has some pending back surgery coming up and was told to “take it easy.” He’s not. Following doctor’s orders wouldn’t be punk or thrash either!

Suicidal Tendencies Rocks the Palladium

Suicidal Tendencies, also known as ST, took that stage at 9:35 p.m. opening up with You Can’t Bring Me Down. Again, like many old school bands, founder and singer Mike Muir is the only original member. But he’s got a good band with him. From the late 80s through the mid 90s, Robert Trujillo played bass for ST. He eventually joined Metallica around 2003 I think, so now his 22 year old son, Tye Trujillo, plays bass for ST. So there’s a bit of nepotism and star power in the mix, but it adds a bit of throwback to old (though still not original) members.

Anyway, Mike Muir is a maniac. At nearly 60 years old, he never stops moving, dancing, flailing, etc. He brought more energy to the stage than many bands who are much younger. He also seems to be having a ton of fun while doing it.

He uses the whole stage to perform, and goes out onto the speaker monitors at the very front to practically be in the crowd. But to take it even further, he invites half the crowd up onto the stage towards the end of the set. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Join the Army and Lovely were the next two songs followed by I Shot Reagan from their debut album. You may know this one if you’re familiar with the band as I Shot the Devil, which I’m told is the track name on the album. Apparently in the early 80s if you put something like “I Shot Reagan” on an album, the US Government has an issue, so they changed it. But tonight their original title was in their set list. See?

One of the guitarists, Ben something, trying to match Mike’s energy went into the crowd to play guitar at one point. Things went well until he ended up upside down. But he recovered just fine! He lost his hat too but ended up with a new one from someone in the crowd.

Freedumb was played next and is a personal favorite because this is the song that introduced me to ST (thanks again to Miguel). War Inside My Head is another goodie that followed and Subliminal was after that.

At this point, Mike Muir started talking again (which he did a lot throughout the night) about his brother and skateboarding. Possessed to Skate was to be played next but before doing so, he invited peeps to come join the band on stage. Dozens of peeps did. That little stage was packed. Moshing continued. Mike and the band stayed put in the crowd mix, except little Tye who went out onto the speakers/monitors to avoid getting smacked around.

The crowd stayed put on the stage for I Saw Your Mommy and Institutionalized which started with an extended chant of, “ST! ST! ST!” and ended up being the last song. According to the set list photo

As you’ll see by the set list pic above, and if I kept track properly, they had to skip 4 songs to finish on time. These venues get their balls held in a vice by the cities they function in for noise curfews, so they were done by 11pm. More songs would’ve been cool, but it was a good show! Lots of chatting, extended intros, and some crowd control adds extra time.

ST doesn’t have a lot of shows scheduled, so they’ll be tough to catch. After this show I believe there are only 8 scheduled for the remainder of the year. Catch them if you can! Collect some memories and tinnitus. I did. My ears are ringing still, and I wore earplugs like always.