all pics courtesy of Deadline Studios….there will be MAD more where those came from, also a show review in the Jerusalem Post iyH.

This isn’t the real review so I’m writing it quite, um, blogstyle cause I have to save the fancy stuff for the Jerusalem Post and I am waiting on answers, but here goes…

Betzefer was awesome. They played a lot of their new stuff and saved the songs people knew for the end, tearing shit up. They sounded tight. Even one of the older bouncers was boppin’ to the Betzefer groove. I killed my neck already by then, as well as my facial muscles cause I’m not used to smiling so much. Their live set has been honed by countless European performances.

Some jealous types were grumbling that the only reason Betzefer was asked to open for Machine Head was because they were signed to Roadrunner, but that’s bullshit because they’d already been off of Roadrunner by the time they were asked to play. Anyone who knows what a professional band is supposed to sound like, whether or not they particularly enjoy Betzefer’s style, has to pay proper respect to these homegrown metal hooligans.

When Machine Head came on, I was convinced the barricade, which I was smack up against, was going to break. People could have rushed that thing in a second and I was kinda shocked they didn’t.

Up came Machine Head to the strains of “Diary of a Madman” and hell alive broke loose. Speaking of which, the energy provided by the crowd of this sold-out show at the Teatron in Yafo made Hellalive look like… ‘eeeh.’ I have been to many shows in my life and nothing beats the sheer intensity and, well, love of an Israeli crowd, nothing.

Said Robert Flynn, frontman for the band, “We did five interviews and every interview began I’ve been waiting for you to come to Israel, we’ve been waiting equally as long. Thank you very fuckin’ much, Tel Aviv.”

Flynn went on to say that this show was Machine Head’s first proper headlining show a year and that this was the longest set they would play in years.

Flynn was throwing drinks into the crowd making fun when people didn’t catch them and whatnot. Also, he was yeling “L’chaim!” and really pronouncing it right, too. None of this white bread l’ HHayim for him, he cleared the phlegm quite well. “Here’s a death metal lchaim!” and he growled it as is you know, proper for a death metal l’chaim. Then he was like, “Here’s a l’chaim from California (or something like that) L’chaim, fuckers!” He also was floored by the sheer power of the Israeli crowd, “You’re fucking incredible, Tel Aviv.”

And it was fuckin’ awesome when the techs put the Israeli flag over the tom.

That was a sign of respect. Too many artists that come to Israel tend to disavow themselves from any support of Israel because of fear of political connotation and headache, or just, well, lack of respect or ideological contempt.

The setlist :

Most notably, they played “Descend the Shades of Night” electrically only when they usually do it acoustically, making do. Flynn dedicated the song to anyone who’s lost a family member or a friend to death, and specifically in light of the recent massacre of (mostly) teenage children who were sitting and learning Torah at the time of their murder by an Arab terrorist, I took it pretty much to heart. And that’s one of my favorite songs ever so I was enthused. They closed with Davidian. No one wanted them to leave, and it took a good fifteen or twenty minutes of hopeful waiting for an encore before the crowd started to dissipate.

One thing I have to mention is that one of the club’s bouncers were particularly vicious. Maor, the vocalist from Underdog got up to the front barricade and then when shit started moving he jumped the barricade. This frikkin’ Russian shaygets (there was no way this guy was one of mine) started pounding on him. Maor fell to the floor and the guy was stomping on him, kicking him, like it was a fucking pogrom or something. I pushed the guy in the shoulder and then he stopped… then all of a sudden my friend Doni Kligman comes flying over my head landing in the security pit. I pull him up by his shirt, really scared for him because of what just happened to Maor, but Doni got up and he got out of there OK… Maor probably scared the bouncer by dint of the fact that he’s all diesel and shitkicker looking…. but a bit later this other kid with this like tromongozoid mop of dreadlocks jumped over for the second or third time and fell on the floor, banging his head into the barricade hard, and either the first one or another older Russian bouncer grabbed this kid by his dreads and pulled him out of the area. Like, no mercy. Kids would jump over all la-de-da, happy moshing and then like, be greeted by these vicious bouncers. If I’m not mistaken I saw Jeremy, the producer tell the bouncers to calm down, because after I saw him talking to them they were a lot less violent. The two younger bouncers were really nice though. But yo if that mess would have transpired in New York there would have been mad lawsuits… wtf?

Despite that it was one of the best shows I’ve seen in ages and much respect is given to Jeremy and Ashi of Anthem Productions.