Superjoint Blazes at Tek-World

By Josh Coffman

The show was so hot it set off the smoke alarms. Superjoint Ritual, a side-project of Pantera front man Phil Anselmo, played at Tek-World in front of over 2,000 fans Sunday night, October 20.

Anselmo and company electrified the packed house with a litany of songs from the band's first major label album, Use Once and Destroy, released earlier this year, as well as songs the band had written as far back as 1988.

Superjoint Ritual, which along with Anselmo, contains members of heavy metal band Eye Hate God and features bassist Hank Williams III - the rock-a-billy crooning offspring of a long line of country music legends. Williams, who did not tour with Superjoint Ritual during its U.S. tour, did not play at the Sunday night concert.

The band, opening to chants of, "Superjoint, Superjoint," thanked a person in the crowd for a joint - er, a super-joint - thrown on stage before they began delivering their high-octane metal music.

Sunday night's concert was the last on the band's U.S. tour. Anselmo noted that the "focused" crowd was among the top five in the country during the tour. However, he showed little patience midway through the set when technical troubles cut out the guitar amps - he abruptly walked off stage. After an approximately five-minute delay, the problem was fixed, and he returned to finish the show.

He also showed little patience when fans yelled for Superjoint Ritual to play old Pantera favorites, namely "Cowboys from Hell." "That's the great thing about being in a professional band," Anselmo sarcastically responded to the crowd. "...We'd get our asses sued (for playing Pantera songs)."

Despite the crowd's cries for an encore, there was none. The ritual known as Superjoint lastly barely 40 minutes in Louisville.

Moments after Superjoint left stage a fire alarm sounded off, and the Tek-World staff, along with Jefferson County Police officers, evacuated the building. Two fire trucks arrived from the Okolona Fire Department, but found no fire to fight. One Tek-World security guard speculated that the build-up of cigarette smoke in the building could have set off the alarm.

Delta-Nine Theory and False, two local metal bands, opened for Superjoint Ritual Sunday night. False guitarist Chris Eli said he was excited to be on the same bill as Anselmo, one of his heavy metal heroes, though he did have one regret: "I just wish I could have smoked a joint with him."

Eli said he felt good about his band's performance at the show, but noted one setback. The same technical problems that disturbed Superjoint's set also plagued False's - just as Eli was to belt out a guitar solo, his instrument went silent.

"That sucked," he said afterward.

False drummer J.R. Switzer also noted that the show was successful for his band: "I think we sold more CDs tonight than we did at our own CD release show."

False will play at MSD's Halloween show, Saturday, October 26, at Tek-World.