King Diamond! Surprise Show Review!

HAIL TO THE KING!


The crowd totally chanted that. Just sayin'. But, anyhoo, allow me to begin to give you a short glimpse into my childhood and why this short 3 song KD guest appearance show meant so much to me. In short, I discovered Cannibal Corpse at the ripe age of 8 upon watching the movie Ace Ventura. Shortly after, I found Napalm Death watching Mortal Kombat. At the age of 10 I wanted to learn how to play an instrument and on my 11th birthday I was awarded my first bass guitar. Along with that came the bass lesson, that I received from a very accomplished guitarist named Michael Harris. He was, and still is, a soft spoken, polite, and most importantly professional musician. The man taught me virtually everything I know! And, during lessons I would bring a CD in and he would teach me the songs on it. It would go like this:

Me: "Dude, could you teach me some Slayer?"
Michael: "Of course. Slayer rules!"
Me: "Their my favorite band of all time. Forever."

...

Me: "These guys at school listen to Slipknot and System of a Down. I should learn their stuff."
Michael would teach me the entire CD and say: "Yeah, I can't say these guys are very good."
Me: "I hate them now. These guys suck so bad I think they gave me cancer."

I looked up to the guy. If you can't tell. And, almost every time I would be in a lesson; Matt Thompson would bust through the door and say something along the lines of, "Aw man! You guys are jamming some Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, DRI, etc..". Matt Thompson is the drummer for King Diamond.

...

And, for the surprise King Diamond show at Trees for the Nomad Recording Studio showcase; both of my childhood hero's performed with THE KING! That made the experience soooo great over here! The moment the curtains parted the crowd stirred into an uproar. The energy mimicked a bunch of 11 year old tweens at a Brittney Spears concert. And, seemingly out of nowhere, the venue was freaking packed! The musicians looked stunned for a moment before the King held open his arms and leaned into the mic and said,  "I'm back." ROOAAARRR! "Let's see if I still got it in me!"

They went right into the song The Family Ghost off of Abigail. Needless to say, it was epic as hell. He did the whole thing where you grab the mic/stand and lean into the crowd; while he did those legendary KD falsetto's! Right then everyone was thinking, "Holy crap! It's the freaking King!". And, boy does he know how to own the stage! There is a reason they call him the King! He was moving all over the place! Maybe it was because he wasn't wearing his usual stage gear. Did I mention he wasn't wearing make up? Because, that is kind of important!

They quickly moved into the song "Burn", off of The Eye. Another, killer track performed incredibly! It was pretty amazing that Michael Harris was able to learn all 3 of these, including ALL of the solos in what was only about 3 weeks time. Him and Matt played so well together. After that they moved into, sadly, their final song; that was none other than EVIL by Mercyful Fate!

The coolest part of this is right after that beginning guitar break, the King let out a "UGH!" (Total thrash move) and the mosh pit erupted! What was funny is that right when that pit broke out, everyone around it must have been holding like 4 beers. GATDAMIT! Too bad it only lasted until the end of that song!

But I digress; this has been wordy enough. It is stellar that, have been out of it for around 5 years, a show that was completely advertised that KD was not going to be there. JUST A RUMOR! And, they could pack a whole venue with raging King Diamond fans!