MANOWAR STORIES Stories from the net (FROM alt.music.manowar) My take on Manowar's US dates: I was unable to make the Saturday show (a mistake I won't repeat; I only live 10 minutes from the venue), but I caught Sunday's (my first live Manowar show ever!), and it was worth every penny and then some! The crowd was surprisingly patient & well-behaved standing in the blistering heat outside Jackhammer waiting for the doors to open almost two hours late (anybody know what was up with that?), with the exception of one wit behind me who decided to get bitchy with the doorman (smooth move, buddy; did you get in?). I still don't know why they carded everyone at the door for an all-ages show (not that I cared, being plenty old enough), but once I got in and bought my requisite t-shirts and much-needed beers, I gave the opening acts the once-over (I thought Sludgehead was pretty good, though they lapsed into Alice-In-Chains-envy a couple of times; Stonehenge, however, I wasn't too impressed with. Their set struck me as largely homogenous background music [YMMV]). I spent the rest of the evening front & center though, getting my bones blasted to dust by the most powerful band in the business. If they do use the footage they shot that night in upcoming video, FYI I'm the big guy in the glasses & Death Dealer shirt.

My thoughts on the individual members during Sunday's show:
Joey: Godlike. No one can touch him ((P.S. the girl who got on stage for him -- nice rack!);

Eric: Sounds every bit as good live as he does on album (I wouldn't have thought he could produce that much power live night after night -- shows what I know). I could tell he wasn't feeling his best, but he went balls-out and got the job done (I hear he was really sick Saturday night and got rushed out wrapped in a blanket right after the show, which ran till 3AM even after the venue tried to kill it at 2);

Karl: Lanky motherfucker never broke a sweat the whole show! The rest of the band is dripping wet and he's just riffing his ass off, hair perfect, dry as a bone; awesome!

Scott: I've seen a lot of shows in my time, but I've never felt bass-drum hits like those! The Drums of Doom live! Scott was responsible for my only negative experience of the show though; during the finale, I had my arms up saluting the band, and he flung a drumstick into the crowd, which smacked me right across the bridge of my nose. Didn't even get to keep it (oh well, wait'll next time!)

I had the best time imaginable (though I'm -still- sore as I write this two days later!) and met some great people from all across the country (Dawn, sorry we didn't get to chat more; hopefully we can correct that in the future!).Well, that's my take on the shows; anyone else have more to add?
Lurch
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