Thursday, January 01, 2009
by Ahrue Luster
I usually look at the itinerary after I wake and have coffee, which on this tour has been about 3:00 p.m. I actually don’t like waking up that late. It’s just that we started the tour on the East Coast, and when we play on the East Coast, the drives between shows are very short since the population is a lot more concentrated. Since the drives are shorter we leave the venue a lot later after shows, which means people are partying on the bus a lot longer, and I can’t fall asleep ‘til the bus pulls out because that’s when people finally call it quits on the partying. It’s usually around 6:00 a.m.
On this tour, there was one date that I couldn’t help but get an uneasy feeling every time I tried to not look at it. It was November 8th at the Alrosa Villa, in Columbus, Ohio. This is the venue where Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed, exactly 3 years and 11 months prior to the day that we were playing. We’d not played the Alrosa since the horrible incident had taken place. Before that, I’d personally played there many times, ever since my very first Machine Head tour over 10 years ago. It was also one of Ill Niño’s hot spots. The shows were always packed and the crowds were great.
I remember us being on a tour bus somewhere in Mexico when we originally heard the news of Dimebag’s death. It was such a shock to us that it didn’t even seem real. I’m sure it was the same for many people. It seemed like a bad dream that we were simply going to wake up from. I had only met Dimebag a few times, but when I had, he was very warm and genuine. He was a “class act.”
One time he had given his leather wristband to our singer, Cris, at a party in London. And, I remember one time in Tokyo when Dimebag, Kerry King from Slayer, a few other guitarists that I don’t quite remember and I did a big, group photo for a Japanese guitar magazine. Dimebag was making all of us laugh during the whole photo shoot. On another occasion, he and his brother had sent bottles of Kettle One® vodka to my band mates and me, back when I was still in Machine Head, as an invitation to do a tour with them. People rarely do that sort of thing in this industry.
Not only was Dime a warm, genuinely good-hearted soul, he was one of the most influential and inspirational Metal guitar players, EVER. He helped to pave the path that anyone who’s making a living playing Metal is currently walking on. He’s held in the highest regard by musicians of ALL styles of music.
After we had heard the news of his passing, we just couldn’t play the Alrosa anymore. So we told our booking agent not to book us there. We tried playing Columbus again at a different venue that was newer and had a better sound system, but it just wasn’t the same. The turnout wasn’t even that good either. So we had just been skipping Columbus in general for about three years.
After not playing there for several years, we had an offer to play at the Alrosa again on this recent tour. The owner of the club and Ill Niño had always had a great relationship to the point where we could call him a friend. After four years away, I guess we felt that playing the old Alrosa again was just something that we needed to do in order to help the healing process for the Columbus Scene, for the Alrosa and for ourselves. So we confirmed the show.
There are typically 12 bunks on an American tour bus, stacked three high with an isle down the middle, which is known as bunk alley. The only privacy you have is a thick curtain that covers your whole bunk from head to toe. There are no windows in the middle of the bus so it’s pitch dark inside a bunk unless you have your light on.
I woke up in my bunk while the bus was still moving. I had no idea what time it was so I looked at my phone. It was around noon. My phone also has GPS so I can open Google Maps and see exactly where we are at any time without having to get up and ask the driver. It turned out that we were about half an hour away from Columbus. There was no way that I could go back to sleep knowing that we were within an hour of being at the Alrosa Villa, so I just decided to get up.
Whenever I’m faced with a fearful or strange situation, the way that I deal with it is to dive right into it before I give myself time to dwell on it. So, as soon as the bus parked in the parking lot of the Alrosa, I just got off the bus and walked into the back door of the venue.
There were a lot of thoughts going through my mind, especially walking through that same door that the gunman had entered the club. But what really surprised me was that as soon as I walked in, I remembered so many positive things that had happened there during the many times I had played there in the past. I remembered all of the great shows we had played. I remembered seeing all of the kids having a great time while we were playing. I remembered meeting fans in the parking lot after shows and hanging out with them for hours sometimes, and I remembered the hospitality of the owner and the staff. There were a lot of great memories that were locked away in my mind because of what else had happened there.
During the rest of the day, we spent most of the time on the bus except for when we did sound check. Some of the friends that we had made in Columbus over the years came by to visit us throughout the day. There were people we hadn’t seen in a long time, including some of the old staff. There was never a mention about what had happened there.
When we played the show later that evening, it was almost as though we hadn’t been away. The show was exactly how I remembered the Alrosa shows. It was packed and alive with energy. I would think it was one of our top three performances of the tour. I saw some familiar faces in the crowd, only a little bit older. I also saw some new faces, kids that had just started coming to shows. I remember thinking how good that was for their scene.
There wasn’t a nanosecond during the show that I wasn’t thinking about Dimebag. And … I don’t know if it was in my mind or if it was something that was really there, but it just seemed like there was an overwhelming intense positive energy on the stage and in the room that night. It’s hard to even put my thoughts into words, but knowing the kind of person Dimebag was … I’m pretty sure that if any of his energy is still there at the Alrosa in any way, it would be a very positive energy. He always seemed to want people to have a good time … and everyone did that night. X Read Full Post
