THE METAL LOUNGE: Part 4:First show Salt Lake City,Utah-CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER TOUR 1988

PART 4

June 25th 1988

Salt Lake City,UT-Speedway Cafe

First show of the tour! The drive from Las Vegas to SLC was pretty uneventful from what I remember, lot's of flat land and massive red mountains/boulders, overall though..pretty boring and hot. Also there's not really much to do in a sweaty Ford Cargo van with 5 guys. Your either driving, navigating or your laying in back (trying) sleeping, listening to your cassette Walkman (remember those? Nobody had portable cd players yet), reading or talking. No big tour bus here with a fridge, flatscreen tv, bunk, microwave, toilet to piss in (soda bottles, windows or back door on the van for us). All these new bands that are able to hop into a lush RV or bus for their first tour, should pay some dues and try a full tour in a van! Hmmmmm I wonder how different things would have been if we had a bus and driver on this tour??? Probably would have been spit on by the fans for being sellouts or something. I know it’s far fetched but would the band have been able to stay together if that was the case? Probably not, but it would have been easier to separate people when things felt tense. Anyhow upon arrival into Salt Lake City, we noticed quite a few homeless people and an over abundance of white people. I've travelled to almost every state in the U.S., across Canada and to quite a few places in Europe and SLC is by far the most white city ever. I think we saw only a couple of blacks and hispanics the whole time we were there, granted it wasn’t very long but, you drive down any street in L.A. and it’s not like that! Who knows maybe it's changed since 1988? Maybe for some reason we all seemed to notice it more since we're all from one of the biggest melting pots in the country. Just an observation. Not sure where we first stopped at either Raunch Records or the Speedway Cafe? Brad Collin's who owns Raunch Records had an amazing record store/gathering place for the punk/hardcore outcasts of SLC. Raunch started in the 1983 and went strong until 1997 and re-opened in 2009. Over the years Raunch hosted a pleathora of shows from hardcore thrash metal of Cryptic Slaughter and The Accused to the more punk/indie styles of Dag Nasty, The Vandals, Sister Double Happiness and tons more. That night C.S. played at a place called the Speedway Cafe, it was an all ages venue that kicked ass! The staff and and everyone there was super cool and welcoming and genuinely stoked that C.S. was playing. The kids here seemed to be so hungry for music. After two opening acts, Insaneacide & Hate X9. Cryptic blew onto the stage with a tornado of energy to a packed house and tore through a set of their best songs from "Convicted" and "Money Talks" and gave the crowd a taste of about 3 or 4 songs from the upcoming "Stream of Consciousness" record which went over tremendously! Plenty of headbanging, thrashing craziness and the band fed of the intensity. I remember the band being in extra fine form that night and were extra energetic and giving it every ounce of fire they had, especially Bill. His singing was especially strong, intense and full of piss and vinegar! After the show we hung out for a bit, packed our gear and headed to a party that we were invited to at a fans house. Upon arrival we tracked down some cheap beer and threw a few back with no thought about it being way weaker than what we were accustom to back home or anywhere else for that matter. Are there any other states that have lower alcohol beer like Utah? Usually at the age of 17,18 or 20 after about 5 or 6 beers you tend to notice somewhat of a buzz creeping on..............right? Apparently not on crappy 3.5 or less SLC beer, which we didn't even think of. We also didn’t think about the possibility of having to buy more beer later. Aaahhhh forget it. It’s a bust, let's just crash and get on the road to Oklahoma first thing in the morning.

One of the things that did stick out in SLC, besides Brad's killer Raunch Records store was what they showed us in the basement of the club or the venue (I don't quite exactly remember which one it was) but it was pretty cool. Down in the basement they found a bunch of old indian artifacts and bones that they didn't want to disclose to the city, in fear that they would confiscate the goods and not treat it properly, instead they told the local Indian tribe in the area so they could do what they felt appropriate with these sacred items. Pretty Cool. The next morning, we all pile into the van and Bill goes to say something but nothing came out except this super quiet high squeaky raspy voice. Bill blew out his voice pretty bad the night before. We all busted up laughing. I remember Rob had a video camera at the time and was filming Bill talking while we were driving and we were all cracking up.......it was one of those things that you you had to be there for or see in order for it to be funny, ya know what I mean? Bill blew out his voice pretty bad the night before. Trust me when I say.....it was laugh out loud funny. I'm sure Bill laughed too from what I remember. Over the years I have asked Rob if he was able to find what little video he filmed on the tour....but to no avail! Bummed that it got lost or destroyed. There was some stuff on there that would have been GREAT for a Cryptic documentary DVD that could coincide with a "Stream" reissue.....Any of you fans interested in something like that? Luckily the next show wasn’t for a few days so Bill’s voice could get better. Otherwise I don't know what we would have done....Bill, Rob and myself probably would have taken turns singing songs. As we drove into Oklahoma City, the sky turned pitch black and the rain poured down as we drove straight into the flashes of lightning with the occasional clattering of thunder. It seemed like a Tornado or something was brewing in the clouds the closer we got. Once again, not really something us kids from Santa Monica saw, except for Les who has family in Oklahoma and would travel there frequently .

Tickets that were sold at Raunch Records and The Speedway Cafe.

All Access sticky pass for the band with date of show 6/25/88