Treasure Island (SF), Calif. -- On Saturday, August 3rd, 2002, Howard Moore Entertainment in conjunction with a long list of affiliates, invited thirteen bands to perform over nine hours of music at Building 180 on the Military Base located on the manmade Treasure Island. In addition to the music, the event also housed an entire hangar dedicated to extreme sports including Go-Peds, Wall / Rock Climbing and, the main attraction of the sports event, the skateboarding as there were a host of ramps and skating platforms for the large collection of skaters.

The New Generation One of the more interesting stories unfolding for the Vulture's Row show was the appearance of the old school Bay Area thrash metal kings Death Angel who performed to a much different crowd than they were used to for this show. With quite a bit of punk mixed into the show and the appearance of the "new generation" of Bay Area metal in Machine Head and Skinlab, the average age of the on hand crowd was much lower than a normal Death Angel crowd, who initially broke up back in the early 1990's. "There is so many young kids out there that just could not have ever seen us before," guitarist Rob Cavestany explained. "I went into the skate area and there were hella kids. It was a trip. But I'm excited. I think these kids are going to dig it. We'll bring the heavy vibe and aggression that maybe they are not used to." Considering many of those in attendance were under the age of five or, in rare cases, not even born yet when this band broke up, Death Angel performed a high intensity, killer set that was focused primarily on some of their oldest material giving the younger generation a taste of the pure aggression and power this thrash metal outfit can deliver. "[The band only had] 45 minutes and there are a lot of kids here so we figure we'll hit them with power and not a whole lot of talking between songs," explained vocalist Mark Osegueda. Many of the members of the band split time between doing Death Angel and their newest project Swarm who has a couple EP's released and have already done a tour with Jerry Cantrell. While Death Angel continues to perform these selected dates, the "other" act Swarm already has an established ground and keeps pushing their popularity. Going into the Thrash of the Titans show last August 2001, Death Angel invited Sift guitarist Ted Aguilar to round out their line-up and he continues to perform with the band to this day. For Aguilar, "growing up, these guys were one of my favorite bands and now that I have the chance to jam with them has been a blast." Death Angel recently returned from playing the Dynamo Festival in Europe where they were the main support for Soulfly. The band had not played the festival in almost twelve years but was still offered the support slot and reportedly came off extremely well. Future plans include possibly releasing a live disc with b-sides of material they have yet to unearth, but nothing is set in stone. For their live show schedule, "this is probably our last show in Bay Area for a while," Osegueda related. "We want to play more shows, but we want to do it strategically so we don't burn ourselves or our fans out on this whole thing."

For the music, the event was broken down into two distinct sections. The first nine bands each performed about twenty minute sets back-to-back with the judges voting who would eventually take home the $10,000 dollar cash prize at the end of the night. Following the competition, the punk outfit One Man Army and three of the Bay Area's well known metal acts, Skinlab, Death Angel, and Machine Head, hit the stage to round out the entire show.

Death Angel live at the Vulture's Row show

The set up was actually one of the highlights of this show as the entire event took place inside a huge, aging hangar with extremely high ceilings and plenty of space throughout the floor. At the far end was the stage set up that had a full lighting rig and PA system with Machine Head's familiar diamond shaped amplifier speakers acting as the back drop to the entire stage. Lining the back wall were the bands and their merchandise booths as well as local vendors.

The audience for the night was somewhat strong, peaking during the Skinlab set after a sluggish start to open the day at 3:30 PM. At the height of the night, the estimation, in total, was probably hovering around the 1000-1500 range which actually fell off sharply during the latter half of Death Angel's set and was almost non-existent for the Machine Head set. Quite surprising, really, was the small crowd that stuck until the end to see one of the Bay Area's most well known acts perform, but considering the length of the show and the entire amount of activity going on throughout the day, exhaustion certainly played a role in the thinning numbers of people.

The Row

For the first nine bands of the day, each act took to the stage and hit through a short twenty minute set to compete for the grand prize of $10,000. The music for this portion of the show varied from the straight up punk rock to the heavier end with the middle ground filled in nicely to give a wide range of music.

The bands competing, which included Shortie, No Gun Go, Tragedy Andy, Angry Amputees, Thought Crime, Unjust, Offering to the Sun, The Sick, and EMB, brought different reactions to the stages through much of the day with strong crowds for many of the bands competing.

The Sick performing during the $10,000 competition at Vulture's Row.

Shortie opened the entire day and performed to a rather small crowd who were basically just arriving to the long day of activity. Shortie stepped into this show after having to shuffle their line-up due to the departure of several members. No Gun Go performed their entire set in full blown suits with Tragedy Andy's bassist / vocalist sporting a Poison shirt as they pumped their high energy punk sound.

The Angry Amputees easily had one of the most theatrical shows of the day, bringing a large woman dressed as a nurse to the stage as she swirled and swallowed two flaming torches throughout their time. This band also features a bassist who is literally an amputee, performing in his wheelchair and, quite surprisingly, giving a better performance than most standing musicians.

Thought Crime, who would walk away with the money at the end of the day, had the largest crowd on hand, plastering their stickers all over their large on-hand fan base creating this in-show buzz about the band long before they even hit the stage. Once on stage, the band pumped their lively, bounce groove sound to a rather sizable response which, ultimately, played right into a favorable judgment at the end of the night. The band simply brought so many people to the front of the stage that they simply had taken over the floor during their time. Many of the bands rivaled Thought Crime musically but the band was no match for any of the other eight band's promotion and support effort.

Unjust stepped through an admittedly shaky set, only performing four songs after a rather rough first song that was plagued with some technical difficulties. The remaining three came off well but they had some technical problems throughout as well and never really hit a groove for their short time on stage. Offering to the Sun pounded through their spaced out, dare-say psychedelic turned heavy sound that had an impressive drum led introduction.

The Sick has one of the more spirited sets of the night, pumping through their brand of punk meets metal hardcore style to a strong crowd. The band has recently gone through a tragic time as they lost their bass player not too long ago, but their high energy, well crafted set certainly came of very well and probably ranked high in the voting at the end of the night. EMB finished the competition with a strong crowd as well, moving through their heavily hip-hop oriented sound and working in the guitars to give their sizable fan base a solid set.

In the end, though, it was Thought Crime who would eventually take the prize after bringing in so many of their fans and having their shirts, stickers, and people seriously canvassing the entire venue.

The Biggies

Following the EMB set, the stage was joined together to make way for the four big bands to hit their time on stage. The punk outfit One Man Army performed first as they slammed through their time well, setting the stage for the final three heavy acts for the night.

Skinlab was the first of three Bay Area metal acts to hit the stage and, quite fittingly, were easily the crowd winners for the night eliciting a sizable mosh pit and drawing the most attention to the front of the stage. For their time, the band performed selections from each of their available discs including "Slave The Way", "Purify" and "Come N Get It" from their latest release "reVolting Room". The Skinlab performance on a big stage such as this certainly allows the band to breathe during their performance, giving them the necessary room to break out and essentially become the performers they have the ability to deliver. This was a strong to impressive Skinlab showing and the continuing rise of a veteran band starting to break into the wide open national mainstream landscape in a major way.

Machine Head guitarist / vocalist Robb Flynn live at Vulture's Row

Death Angel (see sidebar) followed Skinlab and slammed through their old school Bay Area thrash metal sound with the flair that only The Angel can bring to a show. For these guys, this show was certainly something a little different considering the make-up of the on hand crowd who were mostly either a punk or younger generation fan assembled to see the underground acts and new generation sound of Skinlab and Machine Head. On stage, the band performed a host of their oldest material, ending with their popular tune "Bored" and their signature tune "Kill As One". For the band that reunited almost a year ago to perform the huge Thrash of the Titans show in August 2001, they brought a huge sound and performance giving the newer generations of metal fans a taste of what the Bay Area has been predominantly known for all these years.

Finally, the mighty Machine Head hit the stage and actually performed a shortened set to a vastly dispersed crowd by this point. Having been through an entire nine hours of music was easily the main contributing factor to the deflated numbers on the floor but, still, The Head crushed through a solid short set highlighting mostly older material for the Bay Area hometown crowd. After opening with "Bulldozer" from their latest disc "Supercharger", Machine Head busted into a host of their older tunes including "Ten Ton Hammer" off "The More Things Change" and "Old" and the immensely popular tune "Davidian", among others, off their debut 1994 release entitled "Burn My Eyes".

For this set, Vio-lence / Technocracy guitarist Phil Demmel filled in on guitar (as he has been doing the past few weeks) for the departed Ahrue Luster. The Head has not named a permanent guitarist as of yet.

Machine Head turned the venue into their own personal playground for this show however different an experience it might have been for either the audience or the band. Guitarist / vocalist Robb Flynn has that distinct ability to draw in the attention in front of either 10,000 or the couple of hundred on hand throughout their set for the Vulture's Row show. This was about as personal a Machine Head show that any one fan could have attended and those watching certainly lit into the aggressive metal sound.

This was definitely one of the more interesting shows of this year combining so much activity under one roof while still having a full nine hours of music. While the sound echoed much of the night due to the large facility, the venue was certainly a good choice and made this Vulture's Row show a very full and very loud day.

Many more pics (will) appear in the Pic Gallery.