Type O Negative @ Irving Plaza 5/8

On Tuesday night I went to see one of my all-time favorite bands, Type O Negative. I've been fascinated with TON ever since I heard their masterpiece October Rust. I haven't seen these guys live in many, many years so I was extremely excited about tonight. Plus metal legends Celtic Frost were opening, the band that inspired all the bands I listened to growing up.

When we got to the show the opening band was on. I can't remember their name, Brand New Sin maybe, anyway they fucking sucked goat chode. They sounded like the bastard child of Nickelback and Godsmack - so yeah, very fucking bland jock rock shit. Luckily I got there towards the end of their set and I only had to listen to a few minutes of that shit.

After that Celtic Frost took the stage. They were wearing black and white face paint. It looked like the Orc make-up artist from Lord Of The Rings tried to reinterpret Kiss makeup. They looked fucking fierce, in that Viking destroyer kind of way - especially the fat guy.

They opened with "Procreation Of The Wicked" which is the Celtic Frost song I know best (Sepultura covered it on Blood Rooted). It was so fucking awesome and everyone started going nuts. Honestly I only know a few CF songs but the set was incredible. The slow churning metal with sudden ripper solos was just killer. Hearing them live really made it clear how important this band was on the development of metal - especially to bands like Sepultura, Crowbar, Fear Factory, Machine Head, etc.

Celtic Frost played until a little after 10PM and then I worked my way towards the front for Type O. For the next hour the sound guy had the Chicken Dance playing. It was funny the first 15 minutes and then it got old. They also kept cutting the lights and music, everyone would cheer for Type O and then the Chicken Dance would come back on. Again, it was funny the first few times and then it just got me pissed off. The crowd started chanting "You suck" over and over again.

Finally, after at least an hour of this bullshit TON took the stage. I was up front for the first few songs trying to take pictures and then security told me to stop. That was the second time, it happened during Celtic Frost too. I wonder if that's band policy or new Fillmore policy? Anyway, after that I headed towards the back because it was fucking nuts up front and I couldn't take pics.

I eventually ended up dead center on the balcony watching the show. And what a memorable show it was...in a bad way. I love Type O, I have to say that because I'm about to shit on them. This show was crap in every sense of the word. The mix was crap, whoever was on the board had no idea what he was doing. The set list was crap too - very obscure shit they played. And to top it off Peter Steele seemed like he didn't give a shit (which he doesn't but still).

For at least half of the set Peter was sitting down fingering notes and not even bothering to pick/pluck the string. That technique really takes away from the intensity of the sound. They did play some classics like "Black No. 1" and "Love You To Death" but the mix was so bad it was hard to enjoy.

They did end the show with the traditional Type O Negative toilet paper bombardment, which is always fun. But when throwing around TP is the best part of the show then something is very, very wrong.

Back in the day Type O were one of the best live bands I had seen. Tonight I was so fucking disappointed with the set. I will say this though, Kenny is fucking awesome. It's very clear he still gives a shit - killer guitar work and that voice just gets better and better.