San Bernardino, CA
November 10, 2000
The November to Dismember Metalfest was Los Angeles's version of the world famous 18-year-old Milwaukee Metalfest, put on by Jack Koshick. It was a 2-day event, featuring over 100 local and national metal acts, booths where you could buy metal CD's really cheap, XPW wrestling, and porn star and band autograph signings. It actually felt like "Camp Metal" or a metal convention, because in the two days we were there, we met lots of interesting people from all over the nation and the world -- the people made the event a fascinating adventure; the bands were just icing on the cake. After all, when have so many kindred spirits of metal been confined in the same place for two days straight in Los Angeles?
Because there were so many bands scheduled so closely together, the schedule lagged behind such that some bands had their sets cut to ensure that everyone got a chance to play -- even the headliners. Testament played scarcely 3 songs before the house lights came on and everyone was sent home.
Raven Mad's set was cut as well, but it was due to the XPW wrestlers -- apparently they were upset that all this metal music was interfering with their wrestling and took it upon themselves to pull the plug on the bands while Darque Carnival, the band who went on before us, was on stage. Some of our set time was spent repairing the damage and ensuring that everything onstage worked. The wrestling vandals were escorted out.
So, our set was short, but it went very smoothly, and we had a great response from the audience.
Poor Dustin doesn't look very happy here, probably because he was sick with strep throat at the time. But, regardless of illness, the show had to go on! Many of our friends at Metalfest had never seen Raven Mad with Dustin in the line-up prior to this show.
All the bands had to use the same "backline" (amplifiers and drums). This made the transition between bands quick and smooth -- we simply had to walk on stage and plug in. Despite being on a foreign drum kit, Joe did an excellent job pounding the skins.
William and Mel made the most of the 'Fest despite the cold November weather, and spent most of it meeting new people and checking out the other bands. By the end of the festival, they were both sore, exhausted, and completely thrilled by the whole experience.
Mel bares teeth! Although she spent the last few days with little sleep trying to finish all the artwork and packaging of the new EP A Bit of Madness, Mel was in great spirits throughout the 'Fest. As she always says, "Sleep is highly overrated!"
Fro practices his best John Travolta moves in this attempt to re-create Saturday Night Fever's disco dance scenes. Well, okay, so that's not what's really going on in this picture... He's actually cheering on the crowd and throwing out exclusive Raven Mad condoms -- yup, you heard right, condoms. Fro got the idea from a porn convention to print the Raven Mad logo on a condom wrapper and throw them out at the crowd. It was our friend and producer of our new EP A Bit of Madness, Ana Greco, who came up with the Bone Like Mad slogan.
Some of the pictures on this page appear courtesy of Glenn Watson of Glenn's Metal -- Thanks Glenn! And thanks to Denis "The Moshking" Recendez of The Moshking's Southern California Metal Update for taking the rest of these pictures.
November 14, 2000