Currently treking across the States on the Ozzfest tour, CRADLE OF FILTH bass player, Dave Pybus, recently checked in with the following tour report on their first three gigs:
“After going into pre-production for this tour at least a month before we flew out to the U.S. we were very excited to actually land safely in Houston, then New Orleans and meet our American crew and two buses. We wanted Ozzfest to go great so first we had three warm-up (? more like red hot!) shows booked. This first installment concentrates on these 3 gigs.
“New Orleans - House of Blues, Monday, 23rd June.
Didn’t suffer much from jet-lag so the first thing we did was get to the venue in downtown New Orleans, find our spaces on the bus and go out and celebrate. By the time show time came round we had sobered back up and did a pretty impressive first outing. Met KILLSWITCH ENGAGE (the band doing most of the support for this whole tour) and CEPHALIC CARNAGE. The venue here was great and we didn’t have any major problems. It wasn’t as hot as we’d dreaded. Sometimes I’m more nervous of the heat. Imagine passing out in front of all those fans. The crowd was amazing and we got to sign a lot of CD’s after the show which surprised everyone for a Monday night gig. Met up with a good friend of mine Sammy Duet from GOATWHORE/CROWBAR/ex-ACID BATH for a few beers afterwards to end a great first day! The eagle has landed!
“Houston - Engine Room, Tuesday, 24th June.
This was a small as hell shit-hole that was very hot and smelly. It rained hard during the day but that didn’t seem to help anything apart from [getting] everything even more damp. We didn’t see much of Houston apart from the Chinese restaurant around the corner from the venue which was a bit disappointing. Anyway, the gig came along and we had some technical problems, delaying stage time for an hour. The soldout crowd didn’t seem to notice and loved every minute anyway so what the hell. We had booked 2 stage dancers for this one but for some reason they didn’t show up? This was a rough show for us but thats the whole point of the warm-ups… right!
“Mcallen - Club 101, Wednesday, 25th June.
At last! A huge, good, well organized venue with more stage space than most. Only took 10 minutes for Dani to smash one of the tube lights in the hall with my new football! Came crashing down like a zeppelin. We had the full stage production for the first time and even the two dancers turned up. This was a better show by far so we added ‘Better to Reign in Hell’ to the set-list as a treat. We also tried out our new stage outfits and went overboard at the end with Paul and James doing the ‘covered in blood’ thing for the first time. Made a real mess hahaha. The crowd were crazy and we were happy with this one. Sarah Deva sounded great tonight. To celebrate, we went shopping at that great Christian institute Wal-mart! Rock and roll eh! The next day was the Ozzfest rehearsal day in San Antonio which all went to plan. Even the storm cloud turned up ha-ha. Keep your eyes peeled for the next part of the report… coming soon!”