Concert Review:
Superjoint Ritual at The Lamour in Brooklyn, NY on 5/20/03
Setlist:
The Alchoholik
Fuck Your Enemy
It Takes No Guts
Heathen's War
Everyone Hates Everyone
Starvation Trip
4 Songs
Oblivious Maximus
Haunted Hated
Ozena
Superjoint Ritual delivers everything their album promises, in spades. They come on strong and stay that way. Their album, "Use Once and Destroy(2002)," fires thrash and hardcore riffs accompanied by Phil Anselmo's evil vocals pushed to the limit. The setlist is not in exact order and I may have omitted one- this is my best guess. The Lamour wasn't filled to capacity, probably because it was Tuesday. The show was about an hour long, short but very satisfying.
The crowd was very cool, the bouncers were a little rough. The pit was crazy but people were helping each other out. The crowd was very responsive to the band. After playing the first song, Anselmo expressed his preference to playing close to the crowd - "This is where I belong," he said. Some people were yelling "Pantera," and "Fucking Hostile." Phil responded "We're not playing any Pantera, this is Superjoint Ritual." At one point Phil told us "I can play guitar." He picked up a guitar and started riffing with Jimmy Bower, afterwards he put it down and said "See?" During "Oblivious Maximus", the pit was not to Phil's liking, so he stopped the song and told them to wake up. Anselmo's voice endured the intense set, and was loyal to the album throughout.
The band played the two demo songs at the end of the album, reworked a little and sounding awesome. After introducing the band members, Phil told us that the second SJR album would be out in July. The band took a brief break after "Haunted, Hated", then emerged to chants of Superjoint! and played "Ozena." The great thing about this band is that you get to see these great musicians who usually play to arenas in a tiny club. You didn't see much stagediving at the Pantera show, but I saw plenty of it in the Lamour on Tuesday. Phil closed the show with a Pantera staple, "Hail Satan!"
A Brief Word on the Death of Pantera>
