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Happy Halloween 2017: Rockers Divulge Their Favorite Horror Films

It’s Halloween and with this post I am giving you a treat that will not promote tooth decay nor lead you to issues with your waistline. In the spirit of my inquiries that featured “Music Resolutions”; I’ve polled a number of Metal and Rock musicians in my world and asked them “What is your favorite Horror movie and why”. So get some popcorn, dim the lights and sit under a cozy blanket as we learn of some awesome talents favorite creepy film. It’s a lengthy list but splitting this one into parts didn’t make sense. Let’s go.

Chris Caffery (Savatage/Trans-Siberian Orchestra): “Halloween”. Because it was the only movie that not only scared me in the theaters it scared me afterwards in real life. In my opinion it’s the best horror film ever made. In the sense of true horror. A real killer. There was no superhuman bs in the first one. Just pure evil.

Gogo Melone (Aeonian Sorrow): From old films was “Dracula”… I really like the atmosphere and as a kid I was a big fan of vampires. The movie that scared my ass off the most and had nightmares for days with, were “The Ring” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”…I don’t think I’ll ever see them twice again ??

Jimmy Kunes (Cactus): God there’s so many. “Fearless Vampire Killers”, I know it’s a spoof. But what a film!!!

Elise Ryd (Amaranthe): “The Shining”. Those two kids are the most scary thing I’ve seen. And I don’t like that dude Johnny towards the end. “Here’s Johnny” ? And this is true.. Every time I’m in a hotel with long corridors I expect those kids to show up in the end of the hallway. Haha, that image is haunting me, STILL! It’s Enshrined in my memory.

Archie Kuosmanen (Santa Cruz): Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining because it’s the undisputed heavyweight champion of horror flicks!
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Paying Respects At David Bowie’s NYC Residence

Photo - David Bowie

The news about the passing of the great David Bowie was still stinging my musical mind pretty hard after first hearing about it this past Monday and while I had already reflected on this sad news in THIS POST, I felt compelled to pass by his NYC residence to pay respects and to photograph some of the visuals that had been left by other fans. David and Iman lived downtown not far from China Town in this building you see here.

david bowie memorials, david bowie tributes

It was relatively early in the day and not yet lunch hour so the crowd while gathering was not impossible to navigate with. The way it was set up in front of Bowie’s apartment was protected by a police gate and fans were allowed to walk through to look at things and leave mementos to honor the memory of this iconic musical force. The photos below are what I saw laid out in honor for David by his ardent fans and as you can see there are incredible photos, albums and compact discs along with beautiful notes and quotes. I’ve also added in some thoughts from music people that I know from my own journalistic adventuring to make this nod of respect more special.

david bowie memorials, david bowie tributes
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PiercingMetal Goes To The NY Guitar Show (4/27/2013)

Logo - NY Guitar Expo

Tenured readers of the PiercingMetal Blog (especially those who have been most focused on the “Convention Adventures” topic) have been enjoying our occasional forays into the Brooklyn Guitar Show that takes place twice a year at The Brooklyn Bowl. As a matter of fact, it feels as though I had only just closed up a report about the Spring edition of this particular show that was held a few short weeks ago. Now it was time to pack up my gear and take a out to Freeport, NY to see what the “NY Guitar Show & Exposition” was all about. That’s in Long Island for those of our readers in other countries who have no idea what we are talking about.

The reason for supporting this particular show would primarily be based on the fact that my good friend and occasional contributor to the PiercingMetal site Joe Kaufman would have a table of his own with his new guitar line at this show. This would be his first showing of his instruments to the public in this fashion and since I was able to participate and help him out a little big, I eagerly joined in for the fun. Here’s the program for the festivities, and don’t worry I wandered around a lot to give you an idea of what you missed should you have had that happen.

nyguitarexpo_042713_01
The Program

Here’s my old friend Joe Kaufman in front of his table with a number of his guitars – only five are displayed here but he brought about ten I think. Yes they were for sale and while I have a lot of other photos from his booth you will have to check those out on the official website for his company.
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PiercingMetal Goes To The Brooklyn Autumn Guitar Show (9/9/2012)

venue logos, brooklyn bowl, brooklyn bowl logo

Just the other day, the Brooklyn Bowl once again played host to the Brooklyn Autumn Guitar Show and I made some time to take a look around and see what was happening for those of you who might not have been able to attend. Let’s get down to the adventure shall we…..

Poster - Brooklyn Autumn Guitar Show 2

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Richie Kotzen @ B.B. King Blues Club (7/28/2009)

Many people know of the talented Richie Kotzen based on his work with either Poison or Mr. Big and while those two are to be commended there is really a lot more to the guitar player than we would ever hope to find in either of those bands. As July got ready to close it doors for August the musician would make an appearance at the legendary B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square. We made sure to be a part of the fun in order to share this report with you about how it all went down. Just scroll past the logo below to be taken to our item. It was truly a night to remember.

Logo - Richie Kotzen
Artist: Richie Kotzen
Venue: B.B. King Blues Club (New York, NY)
Opener: Jimmy Kunes Band
Date: 7/28/2009
Label: Independent Artist

New York City is always a place with something cool to do and tonight the music fans of the region would find themselves with a choice to make based on two cool events happening in a relatively close proximity. It seemed as though eighties rockers Ratt and Extreme were playing a show at The Nokia Theatre while right around the corner a gig by guitar virtuoso Richie Kotzen was going to happen over at B.B. King Blues Club. I mused about how interesting it would have been to be a true Gemini and be at both gigs but I would be forced to choose as well and as result found myself inside the comfortable setting of B.B. King Blues Club ready to be entertained by the master axe slinger. Many fans of the band Poison might remember Richie Kotzen as being the replacement for C.C. DeVille back in 1991 and together with the band delivered one of the most musically sound recordings in the bands career with “Native Tongue”. He would move on from Poison and join Mr. Big but I must admit that I lost track of him since I never really kept up on what was happening in that band. This would not stop me from enjoying what was going to happen and I was very pleased to find that the venue had been very visibly sold out and while they had set up the tables there were plenty of people standing off to the sides of them raring to go.
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