Who Were Your Local Heroes?

The first Tangier album was pretty good. The second, not so much. I saw them open for Cinderella and White Lion at the Baltimore Arena back in the day.

I dig the Blackeyed Susan disc as well.

I had both Tangier albums on cassette for years. When I finally upgraded them to cd, I found them both to be kinda bland. Not terrible or unlistenable, but they just didn't age that well for me personally.

I lived in 2 places primarily (though I lived in a couple others for short amounts of time as a kid).

My first music years as a middle school kid were in Dallas, TX. Late 80s/early 90s. However, I was too young to go to shows, or really to know who was from where.

Right before high school, we moved to Richmond, VA. So, I guess Firehouse were a kind of local band. They were already well successful at that time though. There would be other bands I would later discover that had been VA bands in the 80s, like At War (somehwere in VA).

Lots of punk/hardcore bands though. Avail being probably the biggest to claim RVA. And of course, there was James River Scratch, which didn't gain success outside of Richmond, but gave the world the vocal stylings of Tony Foresta, eventual singer for Municipal Waste. And, of course, MW are local heroes. And most recently Volture.

^^ isn't GWAR from the Richmond, VA. area as well?

Fat Freddy wrote:

^^ isn't GWAR from the Richmond, VA. area as well?

Ha, yes. How did I not mentioned one of the hugest VA exports, period?

Not quite local, but between 84-88 I saw Kick Axe at least two dozen times playing at this local bar. Their home city was probably a six hour drive away, but they played this certain bar in my city a lot. More than any local band.
There was a local crossover band called Gravel Pit that never recorded anything but when they played they could sure pack out the halls. Seen up to 500 people show up for their shows. And a school chum of ours was the guitarist of a thrash band called Threshold Of Pain that lived in an abandoned church and they threw crazy parties there. They had the cops there so often because it was always filled with people 7 nights a week. The band played on the riser and they used to rehearse for anyone who wanted to show up. They were nice guys and man did the booze flow there. Our local heros.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

^^ isn't GWAR from the Richmond, VA. area as well?

Ha, yes. How did I not mentioned one of the hugest VA exports, period?

Shame on you! Oderus Urungus will feed you to the World Maggot for your insolence!

When I was in college I worked with a guy who said he'd been art school roommates with Dave (Oderus) Brockie and had helped him build some stage props for his pre-GWAR band Death Piggy. That's pretty freakin' cool!

It was pretty funny cuz if you looked at this guy, he was very soft spoken, a total preppy (short hair, beard, always wore sweaters, etc.) so I wouldn't have thought he'd know a thing about metal or punk... but we got to talkin' music one day and out of the blue he sez to me "Yeah, I roomed with a guy in Virginia who was in a bunch of bands, I used to help'em out with carrying equipment and stuff... he's now the lead singer of GWAR," and I was like "Get the f**k OUT of here! YOU roomed with ODERUS?" Haha

DallasBlack wrote:

For Dallas, it would definatly be Pantera.

Absu is also from your area. They have a most excellent sound.

I used to go and see Consecrator play all the time in either Wichita Falls, Texas or in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. They often played with fellow Wichita Falls band The Persecuted.

I also saw Living Sacrifice play quite a few local shows, back when they were playing thrash and death metal.

Also got to see Sovereign Steel two or three times.

Oblation, Disencumbrance, Embodyment...

When I was a little kid in Minneapolis there were some good rock bands like Gypsy, Cain, and Crow (who wrote Sabbath's Evil Woman). Later of course there was the whole scene with Husker Du, Replacements, and Soul Asylum. A band we used to go see in the 90's was Coupe De Grace.
When I ordered stuff from Lance King's site (Nightmare records) it came from Minneapolis, so I don't know if he lives there now or what?
Here in Wisconsin where I am now there is of course nuthin', but in 69-70 there was a local band called Tongue that opened for the James Gang when they were on tour (probably in Eau Claire). They made a record and I have it on CD- dated but ok stuff I guess.