When credit is due

Last night my friend John (fellow bleach banger) and I had the chance to see one of, if not the most, underrated bands in history, ANVIL.

For those that don't know, ANVIL started in the mid 70's and their first album was released in 1981 titled Hard and Heavy. As should have been expected they toured with the best bands in the world and then unfortunately went nowhere. I don't want to spend this blog talking about what happened and how wrong it was, as that is to fucking boring. Everyone can see all of that on their movie, Anvil the story of Anvil. I have seen it and it really is a great movie about the band.

The movie is also how I came to know the band. I would have to admit that I didn't know who they were before I saw the movie, but as with other people that now like Anvil that is the whole point. Now that I know about the band, I can enjoy their music and it does kick ass. Especially their latest album, This is Thirteen, which incidentally in also their thirteen album of their career, nice touch guys.

Anyway, back to the performance. They really kicked ass as I said, what is also impression is these guys (except for the bass player) are in their fifties and they would have put guys half their age to shame. Especially the drummer Robb Reiner, he did a drum solo that was close to epic. God how I miss the old days of drum solos, they are a lost art form. Going through close to a 10 song set, they never let up the entire time. And they are really down to earth type guys.

John and I both had the opportunity for a meet and greet before the show and got pictures taken with each member. Mostly a little small talk here and there, which was nice, but when we got to the singer Steve "Lips" Kudlow, it was a little humbling. I asked him how it felt to be a rock star now, and he said "Man I'm not a rock star, a rock star is someone with their head in the clouds and my feet are on the ground." And I really believed him, during the set he kept coming into the crowd and would play songs, he was stating that he loved to perform on stage, and as they were about to start their last song he said for everyone to give him about 5 minutes to clean up after the show and he would come up and shake everyone's hand. Truly a perform who lives to play music and expects nothing else. Many of the performers out there right now could really take some notes from these guys.

I want to give these three guys the respect and gratification that they deserve. They have stuck with their passion and desire for the love of their music and never gave up. That is something I believe we can all agree on that we don't see anymore.

Keep on rockin' Anvil, I look forward to enjoying your career from here on, I wish I had known you sooner.

\m/