THE METAL LOUNGE: Part 10:Memphis,TN-CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER TOUR 1988

THE MONSTERS OF COCK TOUR 1988

July ? 1988

Memphis,TN-The Antenna Club

Next morning we took off to Memphis for a show at the Antenna Club. Don't remember much about the drive to Memphis, except I believe this is when Rob got a speeding ticket somewhere in Arkansas. The only other highlight was pulling into Tennessee somewhere and stopping at a K-Mart to pick up some stuff for the van (We kept losing oil. Bill was our super mechanic) and toiletries. While we were there I picked up a cheap 35millimeter camera(finally). Why I didn't pick one up earlier is beyond me. No one else had brought a camera (maybe someone in Angkor Wat did, but I haven't seen any pics from them), once again I don't know why none of us really documented any of this, except for myself. I'm glad that I've been able to save all the flyers,cassettes,pictures and letters from a few of the Angkor Wat guys over the years. It's definitely helped with my memory while I've been writing this. When I first thought about doing this, I talked to Scott and Les on the phone for a few hours, to get their take on a few things and to see if they remembered anything else, that I may have forgotten. Same goes for some emails between myself and Mike Titsworth from Angkor Wat and Rob Nicholson. Over the years, Rob has done so much touring around the world, that he didn't really remember much from the tour, except a few key things that we've already talked about. Got a little sidetracked there, let's get back to Memphis.

Pulled into Memphis and found another crappy cheap motel, close to the club. Before the show we hung out at our motel which had an outside pool. That was perfect since It was a southern, hot, sticky, humid summer day so. Once we got situated a few of us decided to hangout at the pool before the show. While we were goofin' off we noticed there were a couple of black guys sitting down at a table next to the pool drinking and shootin' the shit. A little while later, two white guys come sit down with the two black guys and start talking. Not sure what they were conversing about, none of us really thought anything of it. 3 or 4 o'clock rolled around so we all left the pool to go back to our rooms, take showers and get ready for the gig. Maybe an hour later while we were walking to our van, we passed the 2 black guys from earlier, we exchanged some friendly banter like, "hey what's up" and headed into the parking lot and hopped into the van. Next thing we know, a big red neck truck with a gun rack pulls up next to us and the two white guys from the pool start frantically babbling to us in their heavy soupy southern drawl "Y'all seen them fuckin' ni***rs that were at the pool earlier? We're gonna fuckin' killem!". WTF?.....Uhhhhh, no we haven't seen them! As they go screeching off. Whoa! I'm in a racist version of the twilight zone! (In a thick southern drawl) That there was one of the most bizarre thangs I ever did witness. I guess we just got a serious taste of the hillbilly south, something we've never really been exposed to growing up in LA. These guys seemed like they were out for blood. I sure hope that those guys never ran into each other, cause the outcome, I'm sure would have been grim.

The Antenna was another cool run down punk, metal club. Never saw a flyer for this show and I don't remember if there was an opening band or not, I assume there was but I don't remember them, so they must not have made much of an impression. As you can see by the pictures, it was another great show with a decent turnout of maybe 100+. Mike Titsworth from Angkor Wat told me that the promoter flaked on our full guarantees for the show. After the show, someone invited us over to their house for a party. Of course we obliged to their Southern hospitality. After that, things got a little hazy. Nothing exciting happened at the party. On a side note, it was at this point where we dubbed the tour "The Monsters Of Cock Tour 1988" because the "Monsters Of Rock Tour" (Van Halen,Scorpions,Dokken,Metallica & Kingdom Come) at the time was either in town the day before or the day after we were passing through.

Here is where the actual pictures start. All the shots were taken by me and a few have been used over the years in some publications like "Glorious Times" (CHECK OUT THIS GODLY BOOK!), the Cryptic Slaughter Relapse reissues for "Convicted" and "Money Talks" to name a few. Here are the rest that have never been released until now. Enjoy.

NEXT: We blow a tire, Bill get's ticked and we drink a lot of BEER!