Helmeeeet

There on Friday I finally managed to get to see one of my favourite bands of recent years (and maybe all time maybe?) Helmet, who played the Cathouse to a small but very enthusiastic audience.  I loved their music since I heard them strangely enough back in 2004 when Grand Theft Auto San Andreas came out with Unsung on the soundtrack, and funnily enough that was the opening song of the set.  If you want to sound cynical you could say that Helmet are now one old guy and three young guys, but that old guy Page Hamilton (now 50 and sort of looking it) is one heck of musician and still carries a great frontman presence, even breaking in some nice humour and camradarie with the audience

They play a great set with what must have been at least 20 tracks, some of my favs of the night were definitely the oldies from the original Helmet days, especially Ironhead, Wilma's Rainbow, Birth Defect, Milquetoast, and some of the newer songs from Helmet's comeback such as See You Dead and tracks of the new album Seeing Eye Dog.  The only sad thing is that due to the Cathouse's opening hours for the nightclub peeps coming in to dance/mosh/drink they had to finish their set early, which left out so many good songs they could have played.  To top it off I didn't bring my digital camera for fear of being searched, which I didn't, so I could have got some great pics since its a small venue and your so close to the band, so unfortunately I took some crappy pics on my shitty camera on my mobile. 

That aside it was a great gig, and apart from seeing my brother's band a few times this year, its the only other gig I've been to.  Hope they don't wait too long before they come back.