Once again, Jaxx delivered an iconic metal band and even though I enjoyed a short history with Testament and Alex Skolnick back in my music biz days, this time around I got to see things I had never witnessed from them back in the 90's.

After a painfully long wait for the band to appear, the evening started with annoyance for me when the lighting person decided that fogging the stage was more important than actually seeing the band. I mean, when you can't see five feet into the stage, that is just fuckin' overkill. But, eventually the fogger broke and seeing the band became possible. The house was packed front to back and the air was hot as hell, so it was as you would expect it to be at a Testament show.

Alex was as incredible and perfect with his playing as I had remembered him to be, giving individual lessons to the crowd in front of him, letting them strum his strings and bonking them on the skull to help his sustain. The thing that bothered me was that he has switched from Ibanez to Les Paul guitars. Well, the sound wasn't at all the same simply because of the fact that he was missing a tremolo bar. If you think back to the old Testament stuff, he fuckin' wailed on that bar and it was simply magical. With the Gibson his tremolo antics were put to death. I know it might not seem like a big deal, but the sound and feel were definitely notched down.

Chuck Billy (the singer) was the same 'ole Chuck, bounding his mass of a body around the stage, sporting his 1/2 mic stand that he would flip over and air guitar with. But missing from my past Testament experience was Chuck's power. He was hoarse, he would frequently get ahead of or behind the beat, and he sounded to be more yelling than singing. Though even with these items being said, he was very happy and he did give it everything he had.

The bass player and the other guitarist did their job, and spent the majority of their time not getting into Chuck and Alex's limelight. The guitarist pretty much kept to his half of the stage, while the bass player either hung out at the back line or up on the drum riser. Now that I think about it, I would say that dude was on the drum riser for most of the gig. Now that brings us to the drummer.

Let me explain how the drummer got introduced to Jaxx. About half way into the set the band broke into one of their more popular numbers entitled "True Believer". About 2/3 of the way through the song, the tempo takes a U turn and jumps from thrash to a mosh part. It was at this point that the band went the right direction and the drummer went the other. After about four bars of confused faces and guitar strumming, the band stopped and Chuck said, "Oh well! We tried!". Shortly after that the drummer was introduced as Paul Bostaph (Slayer, Forbidden, Exodus). It seems that Nick Barker was stranded in England awaiting a travel visa. Instead of canceling the tour, Testament decided to give Paul a call and he agreed to learn their 18 song set in a few days. Ok, well a 17 1/2 song set I suppose, right? Once that was announced I felt a little better about their gaffe of my favorite Testament song.

In the end it was a good show. They played what people wanted to hear and they looked like they were having as much fun as all the people in the crowd. The bummer for all of the people in the house was that the sound was the worst I have heard in a very long time. Tons of feedback, mics cutting out, overused delays, and a wretched mix consisting of mucho Chuck paired with a little bit of everything else made for an excruciating thing to listen to. On my way to this gig I had my heart set on being able to rate this show as a 10 out of 10, but because of the never ending flubs, I can only give it a 7 out of 10... And it breaks my heart to do so.

On another note, if you are a person who goes to Jaxx get on out there sometime soon so you can see that they have been remodeling! The place looks more metal than ever and the collection of photos that cover the walls are an awesome trip down memory lane!

Also, special thanks go out to Wench Wendy for making sure I'm always comfortable, I also give a shout out to Shawn the sound guy for listening to all my silly questions, and of course thanx to Tony and Jay for making BGR a part of the Jaxx family.

In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the Symphony X show on 8/8 ! Stay tuned.

Go to the BGR gallery (CLICK HERE) and check out my pics from last night's the show.

BE SURE to check out our friends at JAXX NIGHTCLUB! www.jaxxroxx.com

If you would like to attend a Jaxx show please let me know. I might be able to drag you along with me.

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And oh yeah...

Peace and Metal Grease!

berube