Ears ringin’ still and I love it. My neck is a little sore and my heart is full. Me and Gio (the lead guitarist from Malevolent Creation) met up at the venue to watch Devin Townsend and Gojira do their thing, and we had a blast. We talked guitars at the bar for an hour before heading up to check Dev out.

Devin is one the hardest to explain musicians in my collection of favorites. Musically he’s all over the place, though tending towards the heavier side. Lyrically he’s as diverse as anything you can imagine. He has songs about late night drives in the rain, the pain of your insignificance in the scheme of things, an alien named Ziltoid who’s roaming the universe looking for coffee, boobies, detoxification of the mind… and ten zillion other things. He’s been married to the same women he fell in love with at the very start of his career 22 years ago, and he has two kids, and they all live out in a beautiful part of British Columbia, where he also runs HevyDevy records, his home studio in the middle of the woods.

I will not go on about Devin and his art right now.  Needless to say, you can see his portrait in my gallery of my family members in the menu bar of this page, so you already know how dear he his to me.

Gojira did their usual thing. They ripped it. When they left the crowd was panting, exhausted, sweaty, bruised and sore, and so were they. They asked if anyone was at the last show, in August at Webster Hall. You might remember I was there. 

This is the song they opened with. Please watch it with headphones, and at least get up through the first minute. When that insanely heavy riff drops at 0:24, yeah, that’s when people went flying through the air. How can anyone not dance to that.

I made it home around 2a with a huge grin on my face, not thinking at all about how early I had to wake up this morning to make a meeting at the uptown office. As has been the case generally, a great metal show can set me straight for days and is always worth it. A good heavy show makes me peaceful and happy, makes me feel healthy and satisfied. I sleep well, I think well, I feel good. That’s all there is to it.

Gio and I grabbed tacos on the way out and parted at 34th where he headed back to Jersey. Next show in a couple weeks. And I survived the day. Now time for some motherfucking training.

Later monkeys.