B.C.-band 3 Inches of Blood comes to town with a Bremerton bloke on bass, an Op Ivy tribute plus skankin’ for Megs at the Chuck in this week’s docket of rock.
THURSDAY
3 INCHES OF BLOOD w/ Mos Generator, Madmartigan and guest at 9:30 p.m., Dec. 11 at Winterland, 1220 Sylvan Way in Bremerton. $10 tickets, pre-sale available, call (360) 479-5686.
Metal reigns at the Winterland this weekend.
Any way you like it — heavy metal, death metal, black metal, traditional hard rock, stoner rock, grunge rock — it’s all there, spread throughout the four bands slated for the evening as three rock solid locals join Vancouver B.C. magnates of metal 3 Inches of Blood.
“You wanted Blood, You Got It!” Winterland’s show listing reads.
The Blood is coming down from Canada for a three-date Northwest tour in advance of full West Coast tour slated for the first month of 2009. Before Bremerton they play Portland, then onto El Corazon with The Accused the day after.
The band — which signed to the mega-label Roadrunner Records (joining the ranks of Slipknot, Nickelback and Megadeth, among others) in 2004, toured the states with Iron Maiden in 2006, played the Ozzfest second stage in 2007 and slayed Europe earlier this summer — has an interesting tie to Bremerton in bassist Nick Cates.
Cates laughs a little wryly when I ask if he had a hand in bringing the Blood to Bremerton.
“I haven’t played a show in Bremerton in almost four years,” Cates said. “It’s going to be interesting, but it’ll be fun.”
Cates used to play bass in the Bremerton band Kane Hodder, which incidentally had the same manager as 3ioB at the time. In 2006, when the Blood was in need of a bassist, having been a fan of the band for years, Cates pulled the manager’s strings to get him the spot. It was the kind of band he always wanted to be in, he said.
The Blood is solid metal, “British Columbian Steel” some have termed it, taking influence from early-80s metal like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. You can hear a tinge of Bon Scott/Brian Johnson-ness in 3ioB vocalist Cam Pipe’s vocals, amidst the dark mythology and screams and growls from the band’s other vocalist, founding member Jamie Hooper.
However, those dueling vocals — Pipes’ old-school falsetto style matched Hooper’s new age growl — a staple of the Blood since early in its inception, is seemingly coming to an end. Hooper has been on hiatus with an extreme vocal injury since 2007 and Cates said, he’s not expected to return. But the Blood is expected to keep on slaying.
“Enemies of metal, your death is our reward … ,” Pipes wails in a song off the newest album, 2007’s “Fire Up the Blades.”
Info: www.3inchesofblood.com, www.myspace.com/winterlandrocks.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Operation Ivy tribute band Operation Ivan with the Extinct and the F’n A’s Friday at Winterland (21+, $5); an old-school Seattle ska band The Diablotones w/ Lynval Golding of the Specials, Natalie Wouldn’t, Legends on Heroin and Kamikazi Sex Pilots, a show “to remember Megs” at the Charleston, 333 Callow Ave. in Bremerton, Saturday. (All ages, $5).
