Now, before the angry comments start, lemme just say: The Misfits still have it. I'm a staunch Danzig supporter. I was always on his side in all the Danzig vs. Fakefits stuff, but I had a lot of fun at this show.

But let me start from the beginning.

So, a few weeks back a friend of mine (insane Misfits fan) told me about this show, and the fact that it was on Halloween. Now, I love the Misfits. I love the Danzig 'fits, and I enjoyed the Graves era (even if their songs lacked the dark humor of Danzig's lyrics). Unfortunately, I've seen the videos of some of the trio shows, and I thought that they lacked energy and Only's voice wasn't that great...but it's the Misfits, and it's Halloween. I bought a ticket.

Fast forward to October 31st. We show up outside B.B. King's about an hour before doors open. Decent line already, but mostly dumb kids and aging "that guy" hipsters (Crimson Ghost shirts) in the crowd; a lot of them went for the beer rather than the stage, so we were up against the rail. There was a number of nice Balzac/Misfits fans up front, so the wait wasn't too bad. They showed two classic horrible `50s horror films while we hung around: "Robot Monster" and "Plan 9 from Outer Space." It was good times, but at a certain point it got kinda stupid. Now, I've been to a fair number of shows in my time; I know they can run a bit late sometimes. That's all fine and dandy, I understand. The show was supposed to start at 8pm; no one was even standing on stage until after 9pm. I still don't know what happened. Rock City Morgue was already set up when we got inside, and didn't even do a sound check in that extra hour -- apparently it was already done. It was really frustrating, because there was no visible reason for the show to start late...they weren't having sound problems or anything, they just started an hour late for some bizzare reason. It really sucked, as most people had plans for the rest of the night; it's Halloween, after all. Finally at around 9:15pm, Rock City Morgue took the stage.

I don't really know how to describe these guys. They were pretty good, and I'm thinking of checking out whatever stuff they have out. They reminded the crowd repeatedly that they were from New Orleans, which you could pretty much tell with the sound. I guess, think of a bluesy horror-punk band. Some asshole was really pissed about the show being late, so he took it out on these guys. It was pretty lame, he kept yelling shit non-stop for about ten minutes, flipping them off. The lead singer just chuckled and went on singing. At one point he got violent though, when this girl started to get in his face, dancing and singing along, he pushed her and a circle opened up in the pit. She eventually jumped on his back, at which point he went ballistic, and security jumped in and basically dragged him out as he was making an even bigger ass of himself. It was pretty fucking funny; the whole crowd cheered. Stupid asshole.

Next up was Balzac. Almost everyone on the rail besides me and my friend were there for Balzac it seemed, and a couple guys were just constantly waxing poetic about them. "They're the best band ever," "I've been following their tour for weeks," etc. etc. I've heard of them, and I know they're from Japan, but I'd never heard a song. After a while setting up, they finally took the stage, with the singer in full Danzig-style skeleton gear. It was a really fun set; they're a pretty awesome band, but not quite the best ever. The "whoa-ohs," however, were great. You can tell they started out as a Misfits cover band.

Ah, the moment [most] everyone was waiting for -- the Misfits. On Halloween. Now, I was a little apprehensive about this performance. On the one hand, it's THE Halloween band, on Halloween. On the other hand...no Danzig. I swallowed my elitist pride and quietly waited while their crew set up what turned out to be a somewhat dramatic, but at the same time humorously anti-climatic entrance.

Basically, they were behind a curtain...but it was a manual curtain, so when they started the intro music, four guys had to run up and take it down, with all the gear and decorations and shit set up behind it. It was kinda cheesy and funny, but simultaneously pretty awesome. They had a sweet setup, with bloodied skulls and the works. Robo came out first as some sort of tribal thing, then Dez as this zombie-ish thing, and Jerry as himself, but in some pretty cool skeleton armor with his trademark tricked-out bass. They tore right into "Halloween", and I was instantly glad I came to the show. Jerry had incredible energy, more than I expected, that's for sure. His voice was excellent, and the crowd went fucking nuts.

Trying to remember the entire set list would be pointless. Just think of all your favorite Misfits songs; they played them. They did a really long set, and in classic Misfits fashion as well, all played much faster than the studio versions. "Last Caress," "Hybrid Moments," "Attitude," "Horror Business," "Astro Zombies," "I Turned Into a Martian," "20 Eyes", "Green Hell," and more. After a while of Danzig classics, they started "American Psycho" and did about 5-10 Graves songs. "Helena" was excellent, but I was disappointed they didn't play my personal favorite, "Descending Angel." They played four Black Flag covers throughout the set. I know the first one was "Six Pack" and the last was "Rise Above," but I didn't recognize the other two. It would have helped if I could actually hear Dez's singing AND guitar. Oy vey, Dez. Now, Robo did an adequate job on the drums, Jerry was fantastic on bass, but Dez...what happened to this guy? He looked incredibly bored and lazy. He fucked up a lot, and his guitar didn't even work for the opening of "Rise Above." Thankfully with Jerry's fantastic bass playing it didn't really matter (he did the opening instead), but still, it was pretty disappointing. Also, I couldn't hear a word of his singing. They ended with a great performance of "Die, Die My Darling," after which the band stayed signing autographs and talking with fans for a long time. I'm pretty sure they talked to every single fan there before leaving, and the show was sold out.

All in all, the show was a lot of fun. Jerry's a really great guy, regardless of the shit that's gone down in the past with him. You could tell he loved what he was doing, and he mentioned once or twice how he wishes Danzig the best, and that what's in the past is past. It'd be great to see the guys reconcile, and settle this shit once and for all. Who knows what the future holds?