Chicken Wings and the From Ashes Rise Reunion
My unofficial reintroduction into the NW, Flying Coffin Jason and a few ol’ friends, chicken wings from Pok Pok (Yelp! that), and the From Ashes Rise Reunion. Unexpected indeed. Chicken and metal brah. *thumbs up* Ludacris should one up Lil’ Wayne, and make that his next album, ‘Chicken and Metal’. Jason and Kai drove 3 hours from Seattle to purchase records (sales tax free), eat chicken wings, see some music, and then drive 3 hours back at 1:00 am. I am sure, blasting metal the whole way. The good times.
I’d never heard From Ashes Rise before. To be honest I heard the name, but kind of wrote them off. I knew they were on Jade Tree back in the day and had a few members from Tragedy. That should have been a sign. Jason guys played me a few tracks in the car and sold me on it. $10 cover at the Satyricon, can’t beat that. Total mind trip. This Hawaii kid I used to know was in the opening act, Burning Leather. They turned out tightly knit Motorhead-Style punk rock tunes. Homeboy shredded the guitar, and grew a foot since I last seen him. Good job Scotty!
Then on to the headliners (that’s a good name for a band, The Headliners), From Ashes Rise turned out to be the perfect d-beat/thrash band that I have been searching for all these years. Needless to say, “I blew it”. 1997-2005 I was blowing it. Great songs, heavy, catchy, incredible lyrics, killer stage presence, minimal talking in between songs, just ripping. Funny how you stumble upon music that way. I don’t remember the last time I saw a band unbeknownst to me, where I was pumped on every song. I don’t even know if that has ever happened before. The show went by quick. Reunions can be sketchy especially in the punk rock world, but the dudes crushed it.
I don’t actively search out bands anymore. I kind of wait for a friend to suggest something, then check it out. Stumbling upon things or being given things seems to work better for me. Once in a while I hit the jackpot, and this was definitely one of those times. From what I understand this was there only US reunion, so if you want to catch them one last time you’ll have to fly to either Quebec or Germany. Either way if your a d-beat fan try and listen to a few songs, and if your feeling it pick up the records. Eat some good chicken too. Spring is coming, get happy!