Crash Helmet

Last night I went up to the Recher Theater to see one of my life-long favorite bands, Helmet, for the tenth time in 13 years. My brother drove down from New Jersey to meet me in Baltimore Harbor for some seafood then we shot through downtown B’more over to Towson.

Along the way we were driving through a really depressed neighborhood on Greenmount Ave. For several of the worst looking blocks we noticed that atop each streetlight there were weird, pulsing, very official looking, blue, police car type lights. This blue light was very obnoxious and bright. And the people filling the streets looked mighty pissed off about it. Does anyone know what these lights are?

After driving through what we could only assume were Orwellian Inner City Pacification Hypno-lights we made it to the show. And I must say – Page Hamilton and his crew put on the best damn concert under the Helmet moniker my brother and I have ever seen! Something about the Recher Theater is charmed. Every show I see there sounds amazing and after last night I am coming very close to declaring them the best sounding concert venue of the area. Even Page Hamilton commented on how great a room it was for sound. He talked at length about it as he was tuning his guitar for the next massive sound assault.

The set-list was purely for the Helmet fans – as this tour is a mini-tour in support of nothing other than playing in obscure venues of the East Coast – it was a perfect mix of staples and live rarities from Meantime, Betty, Aftertaste, and a dash of Size Matters. In all my years of going to Helmet shows with my brother – I have never heard Page Hamilton’s guitar playing sound so effing good! And that’s saying a lot – the guy has always been one of the elite players – but last night – sheesh! All bow down and hail the king!

Lucky for my Helmet fan-boy ass, the mini-tour is closing up in Falls Chruch tonight at the State Theater. Tix are only $15 and if last night’s show was any indicator – Page and his new gang are reviving Helmet with the pedal to the metal.

Originally published on Otober 3, 2005.

I got really sick and had to miss Helmet at the State Theater. Still disappointed.