On Monday, October 29 I saw Type-O Negative at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in New York City on with Lordi opening up. I had never seen either band before and was looking forward to them both. That night Lordi filmed their show for a future DVD release. And it seemed like they picked a good night. For the most part the band had the crowd, but there were a few people shouting Gwar throughout their set. The stage show was pretty good, big guys in silly costumes is always fun. But the music really stood out. These guys from Finland really can play. I have been describing their music as late 80s to early 90s Alice Cooper-the Trash and Raise Your Fist and Yell albums come to mind. They play with evil themes but with high energy, good time hard rock music. My favorite song of the night had to be “Satan Is My Bitch.” Their set was given a boost by appearances by 2 members of Twisted Sister. Dee Snider provided the band’s intro and Jay Jay French came out and soloed on a song.
Even though I was looking forward to Type-O Negative, having heard their 10 minute opuses made me kinda wary. That, and I’ve met Peter Steele a few times and he is kinda hard to get a long with-he’s rubbed everyone I know the wrong way-I didn’t know what to expect of him as a front man. Well, he’s a big a jerk on-stage as he is offstage, yelling at the band in the middle of songs, and screaming at the crowd. But they all ate it up. After seeing this I get the joke. That’s his shtick and people love it. Seeing Type-O on the big stage of Irving Plaza was kinda weird because they are like a bar band. They perform on the big stage as if they are playing in the back of a bar with everyone within arm’s reach. I knew that everyone in the band were monsters on their instruments, except Pete. On the record he plays what fits the song. In concert he opens it up and shows off some chops, which was pretty cool. They played some new songs and a lot of old songs. What sucked was that Pete used a music stand with cheat sheets for the new songs. Oh well, if Axel Rose, Ozzy, Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger can use a teleprompter, Pete can use a music stand.
Well, even though there was a lot to be impressed by, I was ultimately bored by Type-O. The previously mentioned 10-minute songs were stretched out and seemed to go on for hours. Boring, Sidney, boring! Some people really got into it, but I just wished that they would have stopped at 4 or 5 verses and choruses instead of 7 or 8! And a few less extended jams would have been nice. But, it was good to finally see the band.