If you live in New York City and Halloween is coming, you know that there is nothing like a visit from Brooklyn’s own Type-O-Negative to get you into the proper mood. It’s been some time since we have seen these Lords Of Flatbush doing a show in the Big Apple so when they announced this visit we made sure to be around. The exciting bill would also feature both Destrophy and Seventh Void and fall right in the middle of CMJ week. That meant there was a lot of music to enjoy at almost every turn. You can learn about this gig and see all of the photos below the logo.

Artist: Type-O-Negative
Venue: Nokia Theatre (New York, NY)
Opener: Destrophy, Seventh Void, Dead Men Dreaming
Date: 10/22/2009
Label: SPV Records

Given the fact that it was CMJ week in NYC the whole Big Apple was buzzing with musical activity and earlier this evening I had found myself at one of its functions where the entertainment came care of the Texas Hippie Coalition. That was a fun time and is documented in full elsewhere on the site, but the timing of their sets completion compiled with the need to get uptown and a hundred feet down into the bowels of Times Square for the performance being held deep inside the recesses of the Nokia Theatre found me missing the first band and most of the second. Oh well, that does happen from time to time and as long as I was on point and in time for Destrophy and the mighty Type-O-Negative all was good in my evening. Here is how the larger part of the show took place to get you up to speed in case you missed it.

Dead Men Dreaming & Seventh Void: Tonight’s show was going to be started off by local openers Dead Men Dreaming who I had seen once before and thought were pretty good at their craft. I considered them Melodic Hard Rock more than straight ahead Metal based on the influx of keyboards and their song structure and while I had wanted to see them this evening it just wasn’t in the cards. As mentioned I had been trekking from down on the Lower East Side at the THC show and the other unfortunate side if the delay was missing most of Seventh Void. I arrived in time to hear the last couple of numbers of this Doom Metal band and that was better than nothing since I had not yet been able to see them. They were on my radar based on the band being something of an offshoot band from Type-O-Negative and featuring that bands own Johnny Kelly (drums) and Kenny Hickey (guitar/vocals). Matt Brown and Hank Hell round out the lineup and while it was a brief exposure to them I did enjoy what I heard. It was nice and heavy and different enough from the Type-O-Negative material to make them something interesting in their own right. Their debut release came out on Big Vin Records earlier this year and is called “Heaven Is Gone”. I’ve yet to hear the full release but have gotten good reports about it and I will surely try to catch a longer set sometime in the future. Destrophy was on next and I had some background on them.

Destrophy: I had the chance to enjoy these guys on stage recently when they were opening up for label mates Otep back in September over at The Gramercy Theatre. They really impressed me with their delivery and overall presence and the level of energy that they maintained up on the stage so I was happy to be seeing them in action once again. They are fronted by Ari who plays guitar and sings the main vocals and I guess the best way to describe them is Melodic Hard Rock. It’s not really Metal core, and yet does have some growls that come up every now and again during the tunes. I think that they keep it interesting on the stage and that their own zeal for the music comes out of their every pore and hits the audience hard. This energy is almost infectious and I had to say that they easily impressed the crowd this evening which is not easy to do when it comes to Type-O-Negative. People responded in kind to the singer’s words and everyone played commendably. Their debut album on Victory Records is self-titled and they played almost the whole recording this evening. Their material works well live and now the guys in Destrophy are two for two in my book. After the show they hit the merchandise booth and worked it along with spending time with whatever fans wanted to speak to them or snare a photo together. Nice work guys, good luck in your adventures. I am sure we will cross paths again. Now the moment we have been waiting for, the NYC return of Type-O-Negative.

Type-O-Negative: After some intro music and the ever present chanting of “you suck” from the audience, one expected Type-O-Negative to come right out but instead there would be a slightly different lead into the festivities. Before the band would get down to business we had Mr. Jimmy Duff walk out on stage and he said to the audience that he had some good news and some bad news. The first was the good news and that was how Peter Steele was not present tonight and the bad news was that he would be singing and if we thought they sucked before wait until they hear them now. For those who are in the unaware about this chap, Duff is the proprietor of the bar in Brooklyn aptly named Duff’s and it has become a Metal spot of note with many band’s doing album release hangs and fan meet and greets. Type-O-Negative has done a couple of these meetings at the bar and they had been followed by the likes of Marduk and even Black Anvil who once performed in the space. Jimmy was joking of course and the band entered the stage with the hulking Peter Steele in command of the enterprise. Yes the Metal Lords Of Flatbush were finally back on home turf after far too long once again. Their latest album “Dead After Again” had been met with considerable approval and even found a special edition with a live DVD being released on their then new record label SPV Records. The release itself followed a smoldering live DVD called “Symphony For The Devil” which presented a great festival appearance from the band that had been circulated among bootleggers for quite some time.

The band would lead off with the title track from the new album and it would be the first of three numbers from this release in terms of the set list compilation. I was surprised to hear “In Praise Of Bacchus” which I had not heard them do in awhile and the Black Sabbath cover “N.I.B.” which they deliver with some great groove. Pete sounded good but to some folks looked a little tired this evening. Of course I was not sure how they caught this since the lights shifted so rapidly from red to green to purple and it was very quick if the musician was ever in full clear light. I gave extra credit to Hickey and Kelly who still had the ferocious energy for this set even after playing a full earlier set a little over an hour ago. I also didn’t envy the drummer who had to eventually bring two drum kits home with him as opposed to the one. Believe me that is not something fun to do. “Love You To Death” is always a favorite based on all of its atmospheric keyboard passages and this evening we would be missing one of the bands founding members Josh Silver. Apparently the keyboardist was immersed in the program to become a paramedic and the grueling detail of such study would prevent him from touring with his band. In his place for the tour would be Scott Warren who also works with Heaven And Hell and Dio and while these are capable hands I did have to say that it brought a different vibe to the night. Silver is still an active member of the band and will return to duty once this certification has been completed. Fans should not be up in arms about this yet.

Pete would do his traditional Nirvana joke and they would also tease us with a Deep Purple riff before kicking into gear with the thundering “Wolf Moon” which I always find to be a powerhouse in concert. “Anesthesia” would be the only track from “Life Is Killing Me” which is a shame since many of that releases tunes are quick hits and could have been delivered as well. “World Coming Down” is an epic number and hence would be the only offering from the album of the same name and this led us to the standards from “Bloody Kisses”, the always potent “Christian Woman” and the fan-favorite closer of “Black #1”. There would be no toilet paper bombing of the audience after the song which I think some people kind of missed but in the end it makes those shows where the band did this a little more special of a recollection. As usual I had a blast at the show but felt the set was a little weirder than I have been enjoying in the past. I would have swapped a number or two but appreciated their touching upon all of the releases that they did. They would end up delivering something from every full album with the exception of their debut “Slow, Deep and Hard”. That fact surprised me since their former label released a remastered edition of the album earlier in the year.

Over the summer Type-O’s label SPV Records filed for insolvency which pretty much puts future albums of theirs and many other artists up in the air. I am not sure what will happen but if SPV is gone for good, maybe they will end up on Nuclear Blast Records or Century Media Records and join the ranks of some of their recently cool signings. Let’s hope for the best and for some new material in some fashion soon. Happy Halloween New York.

Full Seventh Void Gallery: HERE
Full Destrophy Gallery: HERE
Full Type O Negative Gallery: HERE

Destrophy List:
1. Empty
2. March Of The Dreamless
3. Why I Hate Goodbye
4. The Way Of Your World
5. Reconnect
6. Pray
7. Arms Of The Enemy

TON Set List:
1. Dead Again
2. In Praise Of Bacchus
3. NIB
4. Halloween In Heaven
5. Prophets Of Doom
6. Love You To Death
7. Wolfmoon
8. Anesthesia
9. World Coming Down
10. Christian Woman
11. Black #1

And now for some of the side stuff from the show. We mentioned that there was a lot to do during CMJ week and prior to our attending the Type-O-Negative show we hit the Bowery Poetry Club down on the Lower East Side and caught a smoking set from The Texas Hippie Coalition. Sink your teeth into that commentary by clicking HERE.

I just loved how the colors displayed on the marquee this evening so I snapped a shot of it which you will only see here on the blog and not elsewhere in the main article.

After their set I caught the guys in Destrophy at the merchandise booth trying to make the sales that help keep bands like this on the road.  I raise the horns to the bands that work the merch themselves after the set as it lets the fans get to meet them which is always a plus for some of the audience who attended the show.

Official Website: www.typeonegative.net
Official Website: www.destrophy.com
Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/seventhvoid