February 24, 2016
New York City
“What a gloomy fucking day!” My friend T said when I met him
outside his job near Gramercy park, “Typical weather for Sabbath!”. Indeed even as early as 4 pm, it was already
a dark and dreary afternoon. It was one
of those days where it wasn't really raining, it was misting, and you felt like
an idiot whether you used your umbrella or not.
We weren't
going to let rotten weather spoil our good mood – we were on our way to the
Global Black Sabbath convention – a place where Sabbath fans and “insiders”
could hang out, swap stories and revel in all things Sabbath.
We walked
over to the event venue, Slake on 30th street off 8th,
right around the corner from where the mighty Sabs themselves would be playing
in just over 24 hours from that time. We
were greeted outside by a gentleman with a crew-cut and a huge Lemmy style Iron
Cross hanging around his neck against his Volume 4 shirt. This was Dave Davis, co-founder of the
Convention. He had pure positive energy
just radiating off him – you could not be in this man's presence and not
smile. I later found out he was an army
and prison chaplain and we discussed that maybe it was his faith that radiated
off him (even to us heathen types) . 
From that
moment on it seemed like every person we met was someone we had known
forever. There were a few Facebook
friends who we had never seen before in person, including convention
co-founder Ben Fahl who greeted us with a big smile and even bigger hugs. He introduced us to one of the evening's
keynote speakers, noted heavy metal writer Martin Popoff. Martin's always been one of my writing heroes
growing up, I always saw his name in metal magazines and really admired his
style. Of course I picked his brain
about obscure NWOBHM bands (shout out to Elixir) and was impressed that aside
from obviously being very knowledgeable, he was one of the nicest guys you
could want to meet.
I'm embarrassed to
admit that in a very unprofessional manner I had a few pints of my favorite
Lager from convention sponsor, Brooklyn Brewery, so the order of events may
not be totally correct.
The festivities started a little past 6 pm as people started
trickling in. On the stage was Phil
Jakes, a finger-style acoustic guitarist playing Sabbath to an enraptured
crowd. Every single person was singing
along to “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” and “Hard Road” among others. A great way to get the night going.
Writer
Martin Popoff came out to do a quick lecture about the origins of heavy metal,
I think I cheered the loudest when he brought up “Uriah Heep” who started
around the same time as Sabbath.
Next up
were brand new band Bible Black NYC – covering the best of Dio-era
Sabbath. I had met vocalist Elaine
Tuttle earlier in the evening and she told me it was their first gig – talk
about trial by fire! I told her not to
worry, there was so much positive energy in the room that everyone was going to
love them. I couldn't have been more on
the money. From the opening notes of
“Die Young” to the final of “Neon Nights” -the crowd were on their feet,
singing along to every word. The band
themselves were on point – it seemed that they had been playing forever. I'll definitely be seeing them again, check
them out at : https://www.facebook.com/bibleblacknyc/
At some
point in the evening, probably between my second and third pint (I probably
should have indulged in some of that free pizza but eh – borderline anorexia
for me!). Dave Davis and Ben Fahl took to
the stage to honor some of the men who make things work behind the scenes. Terry Welty - Geezer Butler's bass tech (in
a cool Dr Who inspired scarf), Mike Clement
- Tony Iommi's guitar tech, and Mike Exeter, Engineer on the most recent
Sabs album, “13” among other high profile metal records. The guys were all very humble and down to
earth and seemed to be as happy to be there as everyone else in the crowd. I can't say enough how there were absolutely
NO EGOS involved in the night at all which made everything a whole lot easier
for the event's organizers I'm sure.
A few lucky
fans won a pair of Sabbath converse in a raffle, Into the Void's guitarist
Aaron Kipness was holding a guitar built by Lou Moritz of St. Moritz Guitars
(http://www.freewebs.com/stmoritzguitars/) - the “monkey” guitar replica of the
one he built for Tony Iommi , used to record the album “13” and played by Iommi
on the tour to support that album. As
Dave was gushing about the positivity and the love and just about to burst into tears, the guys in Into the
Void (Ozzy era tribute band) started their intro tape of “Supertzar” .
Anyone who
knows me knows how much I love Into the Void.
(http://www.intothevoidtribute.com/) They are the most on point Sabbath tribute
I've ever seen. They started off with
“Tomorrow's Dream” which got everyone's head bobbing and during the course of
the set pulled out some deep cuts like “Megalomania” , “Junior's Eyes” and my
two favorite Sabs songs, “A National Acrobat” and “Cornucopia”. They dedicated “Sleeping Village / Warning”
to Ben Fahl – who actually was in tears by that point. Bless him.
With the
final notes of “Killing Yourself To Live” ringing in our ears, the security at
the venue was quick to usher us out of the main room so we filed into American
Beauty bar in the front.
I had a
nice conversation with Nick Didkovsky from the band Vomit Fist and we bonded over all things Alice Cooper
Band related (if he had a white SG he'd be the spitting image of Glen Buxton
onstage!)
It was time
to say goodbye as it was last call at the bar – we all left with huge smiles on
our faces and new friendships and memories that will last a long time.
Huge thanks
and appreciation to Dave Davis and Ben
Fahl for putting this all together (and Dave thanks for the encouragement and
good vibes), Karen
DiZefalo, Johnny Patterson II for the photos and Ricky Woods from Into the Void
for helping me out.
-Rys
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GlobalBlackSabbath/
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