December 8, 2015 | Posted in:Vellum News

It was a beautiful day for a road trip. We started at Monkey’s house on Long Island and drove the 175 miles to Sullivan County Community College located in the Loch Sheldrake section of the Catskill Mountains. Monkey took the scenic route and on view were mostly bare trees with recently fallen leaves, This made the landscape look as though it had been carpeted in red and yellow. Our DJ for the journey spinned Janet Jackson’s Control album (love those pop tunes) and I Mother Earth, a band I’ve heard Soda talk about but never actually listened to. They like a lot of 90’s hard rock bands, combined broad range vocals with creative guitars. There was little to no traffic and we got to the rural campus early.  We checked out the amphitheater which had a fairly large stage equipped with lights and effects.  Since we arrived 5 hours before showtime we just hung out, talked, walked around the building and got cheap snacks from the theater’s vending machines. I read on Wikipedia that the most famous person to graduate from Sullivan was KISS Bassist Gene Simmons, maybe he played the same stage early in his career too. There was a late sound check due to Amatory arriving two hours after load in. An hour before showtime the opener arrived, which was a three piece rap ensemble called General talent. They later changed their name to a title that momentarily eludes me. They went on at exactly 8:15p, but had trouble because the keyboardist brought her instrument with a battery pack which was dead after rehearsing for almost an hour. Fox saved the day and plugged her into his power source and they proceeded to combine old school raps with keyboard and minimal drum beats. From where we were standing Foxy said they needed a bassist which would’ve given them a fuller sound.

Nox Cult took the stage at 8:45p and rocked the house down. The large theater and fact that Soda was using the Amatory guitar head gave them a bit of a different effect. The guitar sounded dirtier and not as clean as I’m used to hearing. Still, the energy was at maximum level and they put on a great show. They opened with “Nails” and proceeded to run through 6 or 7 more songs which included “Elephant”, “Unpopular Kids” “At the Circus”, and “With Knives” They closed the night with a lively version of “Maniacs”. The band is releasing a three song live CD in a few weeks called “Fucking Live” recorded back in Sept at Black Bear Bar in Brooklyn. This will be a little teaser for the self produced ep that they’re working on and hoping to release in early 2016.

This is the third time I’ve seen the Amatory Murder and they get better each round. Tonight they reminded me of late 80’s alternative bands from the UK like Gene Loves Jezebel and Love and Rockets. They added Jake Haimowitz on guitar who is a classic heavy metal shredder. He definitely strokes the axe with finesse. Christian has a good stage presence the only criticism perhaps too much echo in the theater made his vocals sound a bit muffled. Crystal from Eyes of Obscurity made an appearance lending her strong voice and punk queen presence. It was all over at 11:00p and we got back into the city at around 1:30a. We ended the night at a 24 hour sit down deli and reflected on the cool time we had.

http://www.noxcult.com/

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