Danzig: Group on White Silkscreen T-Shirt

Here's the front and back to what I believe to be an fairly obvious Bootleg t-shirt... [but you never know, I could be wrong for once (so let me know)]. I think I got this back in 96' at the Pipeline, and of course bought it on sight. It's Very heavy white silkscreen ink on an X-Large black t-shirt. Looks as if someone had drawn outlines or sketches from Danzig photographs and artwork, arranged it with a few original(?) mirrored skull and skeleton drawings and then had the shirt pressed.

Front: Danzig on the Throne.

Back: Beyond the Doors.

Personally, I think whoever did this did an admirable job for such a simplistic and one-hued design. I wore this shirt regularly back in the day as a matter of fact and even after about fifty (more or less) washings, to this day there's only that strange large crease mark in John Christ's face (see above) and also some slight fading on the right portion of the back side. Oh, and the black cloth didn't really fade at all either like many of my older shirts. The fade marks are easily fixable, but I'm not planning on wearing my classic shit anytime soon so why bother?

I just wish I had more information on this one. Seeing as it has been about fifteen years and I've never once seen this design or shirt anywhere online, it doesn't seem probable that I'll find any. Go ahead and bug me if you know where this came from.

Danzig - Skulls And Bones

Danzig - Skulls And Bones (CD, Jewel Case, Live Bootleg) [1993/94/95] ??? (Italy?)

Now we know why that blonde girl at the beach was nicknamed 'Firecrotch'!

01. Intro (Overture Of The Rebel Angels) / Brand New God [4:36] *
02. Snakes Of Christ [4:16] *
03. It's Coming Down [3:19] *
04. How The Gods Kill [6:41] *
05. Mother [3:30] *
06. Her Black Wings [4:55] *
07. Tired Of Being Alive [3:37] *
08. Twist Of Cain [3:35] *
09.  Long Way Back From Hell [4:41] *
10. Left Hand Black [4:41] *
11. How The Gods Kill [5:49(?)] **+
12. Mother '93 [3:13(?)] ***+

*Recorded Live: 6/17/94 at Orange County Fairgrounds; Middletown, NY

**+ Recorded Live: 10/31/92 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater; Irvine, CA [Track is fucked!]
***+ From the "Live" Mother '93 Single / Music Video release. [Track is fucked!]

"It's too fucking hot for a shirt! This is Snakes Of Christ!" This show was recorded during the same tour (lets say about a month after) as the "Power Of The Dark Side" CD that I just wrote about. Luckily this sounds a lot better than the other one. There's some crackling, a lot of close-up crowd noise during the quiet spots and a bit of insanity here and there... but fortunately they fixed that distortion problem from the previous shows. This is a damn fine intro set, and if you're into Danzig's Live performances then there's really no reason to keep you from getting this provided you've got some extra cash. They played a few songs they don't normally play (Left Hand Black, for instance) and the sound, while not great, is acceptable and loud during both vocals and instruments.

I don't know what the fuck happened with the last two tracks. Apparently the guy who "mastered" this Bootleg either fucked up or thought that it would be a funny joke to speed up the sound on 'em? Or maybe this "company" RTW didn't think there was enough room on the CD so these two tracks had to become smaller files, who fuckin' knows. Does it work that way? I don't know. It's not chipmunk sound or anything, but halfway there... and rendered totally worthless. Perhaps this Bootleg company just wanted their CD to finish as the time 51:50. That's cool at least, but I don't think so. Maybe they thought How The Gods Kill lasted too long. They sure as shit though must have been insane to fuck with shit this way. IDIOTS!

Strange that they note on the CD back cover "Intro / Come To Getcha", just like Power Of The Dark Side. Sure, POTDS had problems with the last set, but this one is pretty much the solution to that problem, so why the inclusion of the two famous tracks only to distort them? Guess we'll never fuckin' know... right?

Danzig - The Power Of The Dark Side

Danzig - The Power Of The Dark Side (CD, Jewel Case, Live Bootleg) [1994] Italy.

Good job Chuck. "Yeah, this hat will block the sun better than sunglasses! See guyz... oh wait."

Yeah beitch, they call me Clean Gleen Shower Scene Danzig! Gotta problem?

01. How The Gods Kill [6:22] *

02. Mother '93 [3:28] **

03. Intro (Pre-Her Black Wings Medley) / Am I Demon [6:25] ***

04. Twist Of Cain [3:30] ***

05. Mother [3:12] ***

06. Evil Thing [2:54] ***

07. When Death Had No Name [4:59] ***

08. Not Of This World [3:41] ***

09. Intro (Overture Of The Rebel Angels) / Brand New God [5:08] ****

10. Snakes Of Christ [4:05] ****

11. It's Coming Down [3:10] ****

12. Mother [3:18] ****

13. How The Gods Kill [6:08] ****
14. Her Black Wings [4:23] ****

15. Twist Of Cain [3:50] ****

16. Long Way Back From Hell [4:47] ****
17. Dirty Black Summer [4:16] ****

* Recorded Live: 10/31/92 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater; Irvine, CA

** From the "Live" Mother '93 Single / Music Video release.

*** Recorded Live: 7/7/89 at The Palace Theater; Hollywood, CA
**** Recorded Live: 5/30/94 at Darien Lake Amphitheater; Buffalo, NY

An interesting Bootleg I got here from "Metal Crash", bought it when I was probably fifteen and just found it to be killer! I've seen way worse Bootlegs in terms of quality, spelling errors, incorrect song titles (some of 'em just guess - I'll show you what I mean later with that)... but this one has to be one of the very Best out there! First off, take a look at that cover. That is one badass shot that they used! (Now, take a look at Glenn's 'final nail in the bootleg coffin' cover for "Live On The Black Hand Side", yeah, what's with the huge dirty looking hand? Who fuckin' designed that!? Uhg!) They got a clear inside tray with a cool group photo underneath, a picture disc, and a f'n eight page booklet w/ pics! Okay, so they spelt his name wrong... Eerie Von's got two E's and Glenn's got two N's, I guess it could be an honest mistake. All songs listed are correct except for "Come To Getcha" which is actually Brand New God but this Bootleg was released some four months before 4p so that's understandable.

I fucking LOVE this set piece! It was the most badass shit EVUR!

The first two tracks are listed as being recorded Live in the USA in 1993. How The Gods Kill was actually recorded during Danzig's most famous Live Date on Halloween in Irvine Meadows, California in 1992. Around this time they were working on their one and only EP to date, Thrall-Demonsweatlive, and compiled a few different video recordings of their song Mother to make a Music Video titled Mother '93 [Watch the MUSIC VIDEO]. They canned in audience recordings over their original song and set it to the video, and the results were absolutely explosive! The second track on this Bootleg is that recording. Their performance of HTGK from Irvine '92 has to be one of the best I've heard. Aside from watching the official Music Video [Uhhh, watch the MUSIC VIDEO] for the track, this Live performance is my favorite. [Note: Yahoo's got better quality, but the vid is CUT so here's the YTube one with teh boobies.]

Glenn playing darts backstage during intermission. Oh Glenn, you zany fucker.

The next six tracks, 3-8, recorded in not LA California, but rather The Palace Theater in Hollywood in 1989 are the real treasures found on this disc. This recording came a year before Lucifuge was released and before they start Am I Demon the band does this strange introduction that develops into the Her Black Wings riff before falling back and settling into the named track. These six tracks are stupendous quality, not only audio-wise but also in terms of their electric performances. John is shredding, Glenn is top form, Chuck is f'n going off and Eerie's fingers are bleeding! It's really cool to hear Not Of This World and especially Invocation on a Live CD. These fuckers WENT OFF and luckily it was captured on tape and preserved, because this is one show that when you listen to it, you're really going to wish you were there!

And then there's the next nine tracks from Buffalo, New York in 1994. Man, does the sound quality on this one suck. Wait, don't get me wrong, I've heard worse, a LOT worse than this actually... but compared to the first half of this Bootleg, this next set is pretty weak. If it were on its own, and you hadn't actually listened to the previous eight tracks, it probably wouldn't sound as bad (you know what I'm saying?). Hey, at least Now the disc feels like an actual Bootleg, right? There may have been problems with the set-up that day though, as there's a bit more squealing amp distortion than usual. So maybe their grips needed to get their shit together. Danzig's set list flows though, and it's cool to hear Brand New God then Snakes Of Christ then It's Coming Down back to back to back like that. Glenn definitely had a plan with that set list.

Simply put, a great fuckin' photo.

Despite the muffled sound of this last part, the show is energetic and the crowd is still as wild as ever. You can hear a lot of people talking to eachother durin HTGK so I wonder where the camera and/or recorder was located. I don't think Glenn is moving too much during this song, but now and then the distortion still hits hard. This set isn't their best performance, nor their best sounding, but its got a few moments of greatness. Maybe it's because they were playing right before Metallica at the time and all the roadies were fucked up. The band sounded great, but the situation was pure shite. All in all I'd say that this Bootleg CD is on par and even better than some of the Official releases. There's some classic shit here, and a great almost-shitty sounding show to end it all. Recommended.