Review of the Type O Negative show in Danbury, CT

By: Lois

Well, I've just returned from my second Type O show, and I must say that I was overall quite pleased and felt I got my full $15 worth. When I first heard they were playing at Tuxedo Junction in Danbury, a small club about 10 minutes from my house, I couldn't wait for the 3 weeks between then and the show to go by, especially since this was the only show in CT. We picked up October Rust in late August, and like I have heard others say, it didn't grab me at first, but grew on me in a matter of a few days. Having been a late-blooming TON fan (never heard of them before my boyfriend, Marshall, came home with "Bloody Kisses") I immediately ran out and bought "Slow, Deep and Hard" and "Origin of the Feces", and am still trying to special order the "Bloody Kisses" digipack.

I knew from some of the reviews that I've read on the net that Peter is somewhat accessible to fans prior to the show, so we got there an hour before, and it couldn't possibly have worked out any better. We parked in the lot near several tour buses, and suddenly Marshall spotted Peter walking towards our car with a pretty blond. Like I've read in some other reviews, he was wearing the same black jeans, drab green tee, leather cap and hair pulled back with a pink twistie. Now, for the last three weeks, I've played out possible conversations in my head and really thought about what I wanted to say to him, and now that he's walking 20 feet away from my car all I can do is sit there and stare! Marshall hopped out of the car and said hi to Peter, who answered Hey, how ya doing. Marshall asked if they were going to put on a good show tonight, and Peter said I hope so. Quite a wordy one, that Peter! By now my heart is pounding and my hands are shaking, and all I can do is still sit there and stare. Peter and his "friend" get onto the tour bus, and now I can start to breathe again. This bothers me, because I am not the type of person who is normally intimidated easily by other users, so I decide to sit there until he comes back out of that bus and then I will talk to him. Within 5 minutes he's back out carrying a small gym bag and heading back towards the club. My heart starts pounding again, but I decided if I was ever going to speak to him, it would have to be now or never. After all, he's just a guy who has a nice voice and can play bass, right? No big deal. I walked over to him with my "Bloody Kisses" CD and a black magic marker in hand, and very timidly (again, not like me!) said "Excuse me (he stopped and looked at me) Can I ask you to please sign this?" He said sure, took them from me, and then asked if I wanted him to sign the plastic. I said yes, and while he was writing he said "Thanks for coming tonight." I told him "You're welcome, I've been looking forward to it." He handed back the CD and was about to give the marker back when a group of three highschool-age kids came over, and one wants Peter to sign his arm. He look at the marker and then me, and I told him to go ahead (since he had nothing else to write with). He said "Well you started this (meaning all these kids coming up to him), so I said "Sorry." While signing the kids' arm, he made a joke about "this will come right off with sulfuric acid." Then another group comes over, but Peter said he was 10 minutes late for an interview and couldn't sign anything else, so he gave me back the marker and left. At this point I had started to relax, and wished he stayed for another minute or two so I could have the conversation I rehearsed. I found myself being surprised at myself for not having the guts to walk up to him and say what I wanted to (this thought will reappear several times in various forms throughout the night). I was a bit surprised at the strong NY accent since he has such a different sound when he sings.

We went to the club, which is actually 1/3 restaurant and 2/3 bar. There was a huge line outside the bar of users waiting to get in, so we went into the restaurant. Just after we went in, they opened up the gate into the bar, so we were able to beat most of the users in. If you can picture this set up, immediately in front of the stage is the dance floor, with an elevated area on either side of about 4 steps high. This is the best place to be, because we were about 20 feet from Peter, but well out of the way of the moshpit. The two opening acts, Manhole and Life of Agony, put on pretty decent performances. It was difficult for them, because the stage is not that big, and Manhole had both LOA's and TON's equipment up there with theirs, giving each member about 3 square feet to be in. Never heard of Manhole before, and I couldn't understand much of what the singer was saying, except for the part that if there was going to be a mosh pit, the whole floor should be moving and not just the small area that had formed. Then LOA came out, and had a little bit more room after Manhole's equipment was off. Having never seen them before, I was a little surprised at how small the lead singer actually was. Marshall thought the guy was dressed like someone from the Brady Bunch and danced like Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots. The crowd overall was well behaved, lots of crowd surfing, moshing, occasional fainting and bloody foreheads, but no fighting whatsoever. Several vampires showing off their fangs to anyone whom they could smile at, leather ladies, grunge guys, the works - but everyone was there to have a good time and it showed.

The techs started setting up for TON, and part of the stage set are these bare trees with a few autumn-colored leaves on them. They put one of these stupid trees right in my view of Peter. Don't get me wrong - the stage looked great with these trees and vines of ivy cascading over the speakers and other equipment, but it just didn't look good right in front of me and the other 30 users behind me whose view it was blocking. Besides, as I've said before, the stage is too small, and one less tree wouldn't have made a big deal to the overall look, because the stage was pretty cluttered-looking. I tried to talk the tech into moving it to the side, or preferably out of there completely, and even offered to pay him to do it, but he refused and apologized. It had to be right there. I considered moving it myself, but the chance of getting thrown out for messing with the stage was too great a risk. I was able to find a space between the branches where I could see Peter's face when he sang, so it wasn't too bad. While the techs were setting up the equipment, there was a problem with Peter's bass and the sound system. For 10 minutes it seemed like they tried everything they could but nothing worked, and I started to think what happens if they can't get it to work? Would we go home disappointed? But then they fixed the problem.

Then the big moment that we've all been waiting for! With a sampled version of what I believe to be "Glass Walls of Limbo" playing, the band slowly took the stage. At this point, a rather large-busted female fan hopped up on her friend's shoulders and bared her chest for all to see. The spotlights focused in on her, and the guys in the crowd cheered, but the band looked pretty disinterested and didn't pay too much attention (this is where the thought returns that I don't have the guts to speak to Peter, yet here's this one showing her boobs to him. If she can do that, why couldn't I speak?). After she got dressed, the crowd started chanting "YOU SUCK" at TON. Peter's response was "Yeah, but you paid to get in", to which the crowd cheered. The green tee was replaced by a tank top, and his hair was pulled back with the hat on but he let it down about halfway through. The set list is as follows:

All in all, a good mix of all three albums. They played for almost 1 1/2 hours. For the most part Peter and Kenny stood in one place, and the sound quality was ok. Not great, but ok. That could have more to do with the club than anything else - it's not the most acoustically solid place. It was difficult to hear some of the keyboards, especially in parts where they were the focal point of the song. Peter seemed to have trouble hearing himself because he needed to put his finger in his ear several times to make sure he was still in key. He went through nearly two bottles of red wine, even using the bottle on the guitar. Most of the effects were in the lights (mostly backlighting, so if you were looking head-on at the stage it would be difficult not to be blinded) and a little fog, but the most spectacular part of the show took place in the middle of Too Late: Frozen. TON had a small blizzard blowing on stage, and within a couple of minutes, everything on stage and some of those in the immediate front of the stage were covered under this white stuff. It seemed to be similar to tiny bits of light shaving cream, in that it disappeared, or "melted" as soon as you touched it. I have never seen anything like this at any concert I've seen, and I was duly impressed! Peter's on-stage banter was at a minimum. Peter thanked everyone for coming out to see them since most had school or work the next day (there was a lot of thanking going on - TON thanked LOA and Manhole, LOA thanked TON and Manhole, Manhole thanked LOA and TON, everyone thanked the fans and Ken Kriete - one big thank-fest!). He apologized to Neil Young after "Cinnamon Girl", checked on the pit crew at one point, asking them if everything was ok and complimenting them on some pretty good catches as the crowd surfed around, and intro'd Black No. 1 as "this is our last song tonight, it's Black No. 1, actually Black No. 2 because we're not good enough to play Black No. 1". During the last minute of the song, Peter ripped the strings off the bass one by one, and when it was finished, he wished everyone a Happy Halloween as they left the stage. As Peter walked down the stairs, he grabbed a pretty blond standing there, or she grabbed him, I'm not sure who grabbed who, but there was some face-sucking going on in front of the crowd, breaking the heart of every female there. I thought she was the same one who got on the bus with him, but Marshall thought she was someone else. Again, this is where I think, I can't even speak to him, yet she grabs him and shoves her tongue down his throat. If she can do that, why can't I speak? As soon as it was finished, the bouncers forced everyone out of the bar area. Overall, a pretty good show given the small space they had to work in!

Lori uconn@nai.net

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