It Happened Last Night | SPIN.com

Perfume Genius Brings Sad Tales to Very Quiet Room

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:56:03 +0000

Things got real serious last night with Mike Hadreas, a.k.a. Perfume Genius. In front of 40 people or so at Williamsburg venue Zebulon, the Seattle-based singer-songwriter played an intimate set of mostly new tracks from his forthcoming Matador release, Put Your Back N2 It.

Actually, it was more than intimate — the bartender wouldn't make a whiskey and coke because the whoosh of the soda gun would have drowned out the music. These songs are hauntingly intense, drawing on his past experiences with addiction and hustling, so it is nearly impossible to not stand silent and get wrapped up in them. No sudden moves, no chatting, no checking your phone.

(Photo: Jennifer Edmondson)

The title of his new record may draw up Ice Cube memories but these songs are as stark and gut-wrenching as the ones on his 2010 debut, Learning. As he sat behind a keyboard, flanked by Alan Wyffels manning another set of keys and guitarist Eric Corson, Hadreas bore all of his tracks' naked emotion in his pained and strained facial expressions. Wearing a loose, red flowered shirt, Hadreas had the small crowd in intense awe for his 45 minute, eerily quiet set. The few times the door creakily opened it blended almost perfectly into the sparse, delicate ballads.

He stuck mostly to songs from the new album, which boasts an incrementally more expansive sound than Learning. On the record, a track like "Hood" builds up from just Hadreas' voice and lonely piano pangs to a nearly rollicking percussive scene with lyrics of fearfully doing whatever necessary to keep a lover. In this small live setting, though, the song was stripped of its drums and became an even lonelier excursion into a strained romance.

After the 40-minute mark, Hadreas exited the stage, in the small, wooded basement-style venue, but was easily goaded with a smattering of claps back on stage for an encore. He politely rebuffed a request with a slight but welcome chuckle as he settled into an unreleased song titled "Katie." The urge to give the man a hug and tell him everything would be okay was incredibly prevalent all night, so even that hint of a laugh was hopefully a sign things are a bit brighter for him than they are for the protagonists of his songs.

JEFF the Brotherhood's Tiny NYC Show, By the Numbers

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:28:30 +0000

Last night, Nashville garage-rock shredders JEFF the Brotherhood tore through a quick set at Williamsburg, Brooklyn DIY space Death by Audio as a warm-up before opening for the Kills on Saturday at NYC’s 3,000-person capacity Terminal 5. DBA’s cap is supposedly 110, but there was probably that many people smoking heaters in the back room when we arrived. The guitar and drums duo, who are indeed actually brothers, sounded massive and right at home playing the intimate, rowdy gig — even under precariously hanging ceiling tiles.

(Photo: Jennifer Edmondson)

SPIN kept busy dodging PBR cans while the band switched between Ramones whoa-oh choruses and Weezer-esque licks. Here’s the night by the numbers.

Number of times frontman Jake Orral spoke: 3

People having conversations comparing the duo to the Black Keys: 2

Number of eardrums the guy sitting in front of the massive speaker onstage must have blown out: 1

Easily found fire exits in the over-capacity venue: 0

Dudes with long hair not utilizing luxurious locks to headbang: 7

Songs Jake Orral played on top of a speaker so those farther than three feet from the stage could see the mustachioed guitarist: 1

Number of dudes not taking off Carhartt stocking caps even though it was a million degrees inside: 4

Opening bands denied entrance to the country at the Canadian border: 1 (catch you next time, Uncle Bad Touch!)

Women celebrating bachelorette parties for green card marriages, asking us to buy them drinks: 1

Small moshpits that faded into faint pushing: 3

Roommates who will most certainly have a black eye today from getting popped in the face by underage kids with X’s on their hands moshing: 1 (put some ice on it buddy)

Bjork Blinds Us With Science at First U.S. 'Biophilia' Show

WhineyG — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:11:31 +0000

A stagehand moving an iPad is maybe the funniest thing you'll see at a rock show all year.

As far as I know, Björk hasn't made an instantly hummable song since 120 Minutes went off the air. So now her life is, justifiably, the indieverse's "important artist," the 800-pound swan in the room, a dreamer and doer of grand gestures, a mix between Amelie and Terrence Malick who gets to vacillate between whimsical and batshit and genius and hilarious and goofy and awesome. The first night of her Biophilia residency at the New York Hall of Science was all of these things and I got to touch a Mars rock!

The whole Biophilia album, app and stage show is tethered to learning — Life's Sir David Attenborough provides narration, workshops for kids happen later in the week, geometric shapes show the patterns around us, an intro promises "nature, music, technology... listen, learn, create," basically Ludwig von Drake gone Alexander McQueen. Naturally, Björk provided an outlet where the curious could show up early and poke around a museum, maybe explore a robotic sub's interior, feel the heat of a mine wall, or see how much water is in your body (14.1 gallons for me), all while organ versions of Björk songs made for perfectly uneasy ambiance. Most of the exhibits went unloved, though, as people rushed inside to get a good spot.

(Photo: Julieta Cervantes)

Inside the museum's grand hall, Björk had set up a stage in the center of the room, the deepest point away from it was about seven heads back. There was literally no bad place to stand, as she worked all corners of the room; everyone getting a different vantage point to all the gee-gaws, mousetraps and music-making steampunk whoosiwhatsits churning along on stage. Björk and her suit (which looked like it was made of four latex Smurf ears) obviously cut an arresting presence. But in such a unique location with a unique setup and unique instruments, it was hard for it not to feel like the machines and doo-dads weren't battlebotting themselves into being the real stars. And they were indeed cool: A tesla coil lowered in a giant birdcage generated a bigger robo-scuzz boltnoise than the Skrillex show downtown, her "gravity harp" of four giant metronomes plucked mesmerizingly like the world's biggest office toy, drummer Manu Delagu played some sort of space pod that worked like a steel-pan turned inside out, Björk whacked an noise-making iPad with a four-finger slam like she was playing the best game of Simon.

Add a 20-person, all-female choir in space robes and it was less like watching a concert and more like going to Bowie's EPCOT. That's obviously a huge compliment, but since the toys were so grand, the enormous chunks of the show not driven by technological ingenuity and funky synesthasia seemed to drag in comparison. The Biophilia tunes on their own (and she played 90 percent of them) sound mostly like 90s IDM attached to the disjunctive melodies that Dirty Projectors have been trying to cop for years, with Björk's singing about mushrooms and technotic plates with a delivery as chilly as a scientist's. But at least sometimes we'd get cool videos of some starfish holding hands (holding points?), and whenever the choir would rrrrrrush into a crescendo, it would instantly overpower nature and machine in the best way humanly possible.

(Photo: Julieta Cervantes)

Ted Leo Performs Intimate Memorial for Slain Austin Scene Booster Esme Barrera

WhineyG — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:40:19 +0000

“It’s a hard honor, but it’s an honor to be here tonight.”

On Saturday night at Beerland in Austin, those were the only words rocker Ted Leo could get out without stammering or choking up. He and some of the city’s most beloved punk bands packed into the popular dive bar for a night to celebrate Esme Barrera, 29, a leading light of the local music scene, murdered in her home early on January 1.

Click to enlarge

Barrera was a huge fan of Leo, and the two had met and kept in touch at Austin shows through the years. That connection, along with Barrera’s admirable life (a special education assistant at a local elementary school, a counselor at Girls Rock Camp Austin, an employee at beloved Waterloo Records, an enthusiastic booster of local bands) prompted Leo to return to Austin for two memorial shows at Barrera's favorite club.

Playing with a quiet, exposed-nerve intensity, Leo started the late set with a cover of The Pogues’ “Lullaby of London,” with lyrics like, “May the wind that blows from haunted graves never bring you misery,” casting a we'll-get-through-this spirit that many of Barrera’s friends felt was necessary after a month of mourning.

“One of the things that was needed was for everyone in the music community to come together and just celebrate her," said Kelsey Wickliffe, a close friend and former co-worker, "because after going to her funeral and other memorials I’m ready to celebrate the person she was. There’s been such an amazing response by so many people, and many of them barely knew her if at all, because of what inspired her and motivated her to be the person she was. It shows how kind and generous a person [Leo] is that he would come here for this. She would have loved that.”

Barrera’s murder remains unsolved. Austin police say the lead suspect in the killing committed suicide on January 12 but the investigation remains open. The circumstances prompted remembrances from all over the music world. Leo jumped on board for these shows to cover her funeral expenses, Kathleen Hanna lauded her work with young women in music, and former At the Drive-In member and fellow El Paso native Jim Ward returned home from his Australian tour to grieve with friends.

About halfway through the later set, Leo played a new song bound for a compilation in Barrera’s honor, with a lyric — “No I don’t believe in God, and I don’t believe I should, but I’d like to live as if I could” — that offered a glimpse into what many gathered in her honor were wrestling with.

“The night is all about the kind of person she was, how every time you met her somewhere she was always up, happy, and pro-you,” said Ray Colgan, singer of Austin soul-punks the Crack Pipes, who ended the night with a set that included “Makeout Party,” a song that Barrera recorded backup vocals for. “She wasn’t Pollyanna, but when you encountered her she was a cheerleader for life. She was an unusually positive force to everyone she knew.”

Antony and the Johnsons' 'Swanlights' Show, By the Numbers

dmaloney — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:31:57 +0000

Last night at Radio City Music Hall, Antony and the Johnsons performed Swanlights, a one-night-only performance art exhibition commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art. The night featured interpretive dance, a laser light show, and a stage design that ought to have its own wing of the actual MoMA, not to mention frontman Antony Hegarty performing (in a breathtaking — as usual — white gown) selections from all four Antony and the Johnsons albums (2000's self-titled, 2005's I Am a Bird Now, 2009's The Crying Light, and 2010's Swanlights) with the assistance of the 60-piece New York Symphony Orchestra, light artist Chris Levine, lighting designer Paul Normandale, and set designer Carl Robertshaw. Having received high critical acclaim in the music, performance art, literature, and visual art fields — including a Mercury Prize for Bird and near-worshipful praise from collaborators like Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson — the two-hour event was predictably luminous. And totally sold out.

(Photo: Angela Cranford/MSG Photos)

SPIN was in the house, gawking at Björk and keeping track of the night by the numbers:

Seats in Radio City Music Hall: Roughly 6,000

RuPaul-Level Drag Queens Spotted in Attendance: 3

Celebrity Attendees Who Totally Would Be at a MoMA-Commissioned Antony and the Johnsons Show: A handful (Alan Cumming, Björk, Tilda Swinton, and either Michael Stipe or his body double)

Dude-Earrings In Attendance: Too many to count

Songs Performed: 16

Songs Actually From the Swanlights Record Performed: 3

Stunning Beyoncé Covers Performed: 1 ("Crazy in Love")

Times Antony Performed "Hope There's Someone": 0

Backdrop Layers Revealed Throughout the Performance, Including the Curtain: 5

Totally Dead Silences Between Songs: 4. Very. Quiet. Pauses.

Lasers Used Throughout the Show: Approximately a bazillion, give or take

Times Antony Said the F-Word Between Songs: 1

Times Antony Tapped the Conductor on the Shoulder to Ask Him to Restart a Song: 1

Times Tilda Swinton Held Up Her Arms Like Football Goalposts During a Round of Applause: 1

Times We'd Wished She Had Simultaneously Yelled "Gooooooooooooooooal!": 7,000

Onstage Björk Guest Appearances: 0 (sob)

Kelly Clarkson Soothes Souls at Radio City Music Hall

Caryn Ganz — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:28:51 +0000

Most 21st century pop stars work overtime demonstrating how different they are from the general populace: dressing up as mermaids, executing military-precise choreography, flying above crowds on cotton-candy clouds. But Kelly Clarkson busts her ass doing the exact opposite — convincing us, and herself, that she is and always has been one of us.

More than any other pop presence of the past decade, Clarkson really is one of us, plucked from thousands of hopefuls as the first-ever winner of American Idol. And despite nine years and five albums in the major-label wringer, onstage at Radio City Music Hall Saturday night in New York, she came off endearingly goofy, genuinely thankful, and above all convincingly normal.

Clarkson's tour supporting last year's outstanding Stronger is devoid of rotating stages and pyrotechnics. The only thing moving and exploding during her 25-song set is her astoundingly emotive voice. Her wardrobe changes consist of adding sequined jackets from what could be the Liza Minnelli fall collection to sparkly tank tops that only occasionally catch the spotlight. But nobody comes to a Kelly Clarkson concert for escapism. We come for the group therapy of belting weepy revenge anthems chased by spunky empowerment anthems. Her show was heavy on both, including punchy "Gone," an older song she said fans had demanded return to the set list, and the crushing new "Let Me Down."

About midway through the concert, Clarkson twisted the focus off of her own catalog and celebrated music she simply loves as a fan, covering Florence + the Machine and a Barbra Streisand song from Funny Girl. For Etta James, who'd passed two days prior, she sang "I'd Rather Go Blind" with her eyes closed and head tossed back, concluding with a heartfelt, "Hopefully she liked that." With her band seated around her, intimate jazz club-style, she launched into a mini set of her older songs reimagined with girl-group shoop, including "The Trouble With Love Is" and "Walk Away."

Vocally, Clarkson was impeccable, nailing every big note and wistful whisper as she worked her way back and forth across the broad Radio City stage. But even as she turned out take-that singles "Mr. Know It All" and "Miss Independent" (sutured together as the one-two punch that ended the show), she kept returning to her default setting: just a girl in the world. Plucking a stray hair from her arm after a stripped-bare version of "Never Again" with her pianist, the 29-year-old singer told a brief, awkward anecdote about being squeamish about bugs, then joked, "I'm rocking so hard, my hair is falling out, what?" When the crowd giggled, she quickly added a second layer of self-effacement: "And that's reason 337 why I'm single right there."

The sold-out crowd lovingly cheered that comment, of course. Kelly Clarkson's fans don't have a cutesy nickname or signature gesture, but there's a reason why everyone fights for the microphone when "Since U Been Gone" comes on at the karaoke bar. And when she commanded the room to sing along to "Breakaway," 6,000 voices — tweens, 30somethings and dads, guys and girls, gays and straights — opened their mouths and set themselves free, just like she did.

Sharon Van Etten Tests 'Tramp' at Sublime NYC Show

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:53:05 +0000

A year ago, a Sharon Van Etten show at New York's tiny Mercury Lounge would've seemed just about right: up-and-coming East Coast singer-songwriter with a reputation for a solid live show playing to a small but growing fanbase. But that was before the onetime indie label publicist spent a year building up her rep — opening for pals the National, working the festival circuit, making her network TV debut on Jimmy Fallon. Last night's gig was just a little warmup before Van Etten embarks on an international headlining tour in support of her much-anticipated third album, Tramp (due February 7). Judging by her brilliant performance and the electric mood in the room, she isn't likely to be playing spaces this intimate much longer.

With all the buzz and high expectations, it was clear that neither Van Etten nor her fans knew quite how to process all the newfound attention. It was hard to tell who was more awkward on Wednesday night: the crowd, who stood in such reverent silence you could almost hear Van Etten gulping her beer between songs, or Van Etten herself, who limited her banter to charming, self-deprecating comments ("Thanks for coming out on hump day, I know you have a lot to do") and appeared to be trying to hide out in a demure black sweater and dark pleated pants.

Though she spent most of the show with her hair draped over her face, Van Etten wasn't shy about unleashing her gorgeous, limber voice and showcasing her sharp guitar playing. The show was basically a tune-up, a chance for Van Etten and her new band to work out the kinks of the latest songs, most of which she said they were playing in public for the first time. But besides a shortage of guitar straps, they tore through Tramp front to back with ease, switching breezily from the slippery Liz Phair-esque rock of opener "Warsaw" to bluesy, ukulele folk to sinister pop, like standout "Serpents." Though Van Etten doesn't throw a lot of wrinkles into her songs, she did break out an Omnichord, which looks like an electric autoharp, and is no doubt what the robotic overlords of the future will use to play plaintive love songs about the ironic loneliness of the binary language.

It seemed like nobody even dared to breathe during delicate tunes "I'm Wrong" and "Give Out," which featured perfectly pitched harmonies and counter-melodies from keyboardist/bassist/guitarist Heather Woods Broderick. And Van Etten let our her biggest relieved smile not at the end of closer "Joke or a Lie," but at 8:48 p.m., when she was informed she had 12 rather than two minutes left to her set. "We can finish the album!" she said and got right back to business.

Santigold Goes Hard at Brooklyn Comeback Show

Caryn Ganz — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:46:24 +0000

It's been four years since 2008's Santogold, which thirtysomething Santi White recognizes is eons in music-biz years. "It's been a long time, but you are guys are still here," she marveled three songs into a bogglingly tight set at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg last night in New York, a gold crown perched on an angle atop her head. "We are so, so happy to be back — and we are back. This is just the beginning."

White said she was ecstatic to be back onstage and she looked it, too, grinning her way through 18 songs ranging from Santogold favorites "Creator," "L.E.S. Artistes," and "Say Aha" to as-yet-unreleased cuts from her upcoming sophomore disc Master of My Make-Believe, like self-empowerment anthem "God From the Machine," featuring her pair of SG-1 dancers/singers/cheerleaders/mind-blowers standing stick-straight at the front of the stage bashing out marching-band snare beats on drums affixed to their waists. White also tested out "Freak Like Me," a track that began with a squelchy dupstep intro before moving into a sing-songy vibe reminiscent of Rihanna's recent Talk That Talk. White had told SPIN the song is simply about self-acceptance. "I watch TV and all the Real Housewives and Kardashians shows are shocking to me. It's upsetting," she said this summer. "Everyone has plastic surgery. Everyone's fighting and trying to win the affection of some guy. But everyone's a freak, you know? I've never been in the mainstream with my style or choices. So I wanted to write a song about us all being freaks."

Onstage, White didn't come off like a freak — just a freakishly well-rehearsed pop star. Backed by a trio of musicians wearing blond flat-tops and matching outfits, White nailed her vocal parts (though she appeared to be singing with a backing track at times), executed three wardrobe changes, welcomed a fake horse to the stage, passed the mic to opener Spank Rock, and in a less fortunate moment, invited some of the city's most awkward dancers up to gyrate to "Creator." Her one warning: "Stay the fuck away from my girls. They kick and they've been known to slap people in the face."

She launched the show with "Go," the Karen O and Nick Zinner collaboration posted on Jay-Z's Life + Times website in April (Santi is now a member of the Roc Nation family) and grooved her way out the door after vowing this was truly only the beginning. "I've been away a long time and I've been working really hard a long time and I've been ready a long time and they finally let me come back," she told the crowd. She'd danced her crown off by that point in the night, but there was no question one of 2012's pop queens was certainly in the building.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Return With Searing Set at Toubin Benefit

Caryn Ganz — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:11:51 +0000

"The world is a fucking unstable place," Tunde Adebimpe grumbled into his microphone Friday night in Brooklyn. It wasn't a random complaint: TV on the Radio's frontman was onstage with side project Stabbing Eastward at a benefit for local DJ Jonathan Toubin, a well-known New York personality who was the victim of a freak accident in Oregon on December 8. Jon Spencer led the crowd in a "Jon-a-than" chant near the end of Heavy Trash's swaggering punkabilly set as concertgoers picked up I Heart JT T-shirts to help pay for Toubin's mounting medical bills. And nearly two hours into the Brooklyn Bowl benefit, Karen O took the stage in a full Santa Claus suit to the chugging beginning of "Rockers to Swallow."

See a full gallery of photos from Brooklyn's Toubin benefit show.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played seven songs — their longest appearance in New York since a pair of exclusive 10th anniversary shows in September 2010. Before that, their last official Stateside It's Blitz! tour date was September 29, 2009 at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg, just a few blocks away from Friday night's concert. But the trio, who recently collaborated on Karen O's psycho-opera Stop the Virgens, instantly demonstrated they're in fighting shape, nimbly ripping through their catalog with the live-wire energy they'd brought to their earliest club shows.

(Photo: Jackie Roman)

Karen O spat a fine mist into the air to herald the beginning of Fever to Tell opener "Rich" and dropped to the floor screeching "no-good dick!" to end a raucous "Black Tongue." She shook herself into a fury during Cramps cover "Human Fly" and tossed her Santa coat into the crowd to "Y Control." Nick Zinner silenced the room with the first notes of "Maps," and all bowling ceased on the venue's lanes as a bearded Brian Chase pounded out the beat and Karen gave a specialized variation on the song's traditional opening monologue, "This is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' love song! This song goes out to Mr. Jonathan Toubin and we're sending him all of our looove!"

It took a lot — a catastrophic event — to get the YYYs back onstage, and the trio seized the opportunity to demonstrate how life-affirming their throat-grabbing rock'n'roll can be. "We're so fucking happy to be here, man," Karen O added before the trio trotted backstage. They returned to leave the crowd on an upbeat note, closing out the show with a giddy "Heads Will Roll." A stage diver soared into the crowd and Karen O jumped around wearing a giant grin. The benefit raised money for Jonathan Toubin, but this set raised fans' hopes that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will get themselves back in the studio — and on the road — as soon as possible.

(Photo: Jackie Roman)

Dimebag Darrell and Dio Tribute Brings Metal Elite to Hollywood

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:53:55 +0000

"You think Dimebag can hear you?” shouted Sebastian Bach, standing centerstage in full Diamond Dave mode, early in last night’s tribute to guitarist Dimebag Darrell at the Key Club in West Hollywood, California. Bach wore a in vintage Pantera T-shirt, blew kisses and head-banged his blond mane as guitarist John 5 ripped into Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ 'Bout Love.”

The singer and guitarist were just two of the many guests in a diverse lineup at this year’s “Dimebash,” a tribute to both the late Dimebag Darrell and metal icon Ronnie James Dio, who died last year. Others onstage included Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Serj Tankian, Ben Harper, Jerry Cantrell, Geezer Butler, Duff McKagan, Disturbed’s David Draiman, among many. There was also a raffle of Dimebag and Dio figurines at the sold-out, six-hour concert.

“I don’t think it’s ever been this eclectic. That’s the Dio element as well,” Anthrax guitarist Sott Ian told Spin backstage after thrashing through Pantera’s “New Level” — a song Ian frequently played onstage with Pantera during their shared ‘97-‘98 tour. It was one of six songs Ian peformed last night.

The show was a benefit for the Stand Up and Shout cancer research fund, founded by Wendy Dio, the singer's widow. For Ian, the night was also about a good time. “Hang out, jam a bunch of songs with my friends, have some drinks and have a good time — which is what Dime would want everyone to get out of this,” Ian said. “That’s what Darrell was about.”

Downstairs by the bar, Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney had arrived just as bandmate Jerry Cantrell performed a hearfelt “Wish You Were Here.” Their band and Pantera never toured together, but knew each other well, and were horrified by Dimebag’s murder onstage by a gunman in 2004. “We were very good friends with those guys,” said Kinney, in Los Angeles to work on song ideas with Cantrell for a potential new Alice album. “We came up the same time. Jerry’s been friends with those guys from way back in the 80s. It’s just a horrible disgusting tragedy.”

Before sitting in with his friend Mike V’s band Saints of Low, Ben Harper was in the stairwell backstage with his lap-slide electric guitar. While best known for songs of folk, blues, soul and rock, Harper said heavy metal and punk (from Sepultura to Black Flag) have always been part of his record collection. And last night, he wanted to get loud. “Very. Got to make Dimebag proud,” Harper said. “We should all be so lucky to have an annual tribute like this.”

Greeting Harper in the stairwell was Morello, who first met Dimebag backstage at a Black Sabbath show in the late-'90s. “He was so positive and jubilant about metal and Jägermeister,” Morello recalled with a laugh. “Before we exchanged names, he had poured about five shots of some Jäger-toxic concoction down my throat. We exchanged some rock-bro I-love-you-mans, and we had a few more shots.”

Onstage later, Morello picked up his “Arm the Homeless” electric guitar and unleashed a searing duet on Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” with Serj Tankian of System of a Down. Before going on, Tankian told SPIN he’d never performed the song before, so he and Morello had an impromptu rehearsal “in the bathroom earlier — a professional rehearsal session with unplugged guitar next to the toilet.”

“I got into the backstage and I’m walking down the hallway,” Tankian added with a grin, "thinking, man, I haven’t seen this many rockers in one place since the early-90s probably. Fuck yeah. Good vibe.”

Morello then relived his teen hard-rock dreams by ripping through the Dio-era Black Sabbath anthem “Mob Rules” with Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Vinny Appice and Draiman on vocals. “That was fucking awesome for me,” he said from the stage.

“I’m here to support the charity, but also to rock in honor of their memory,” Morello said earlier of Dimebag and Dio. “The thing that they shared was such a passionate and unapologetic love for hard rock music and for the fans. To rekindle the spirit of their life-force, we’re here to rock in their honor tonight.”