(Originally posted February 2020)
OK EVERYONE, I want to start by talking about Parasite,and not just because it won the Oscar for best picture! What a horror movie. Full on Jane Eyre. The thing which is in the attic becomes the thing in the basement yet again, and I loved it! It actually started off kinda slow for me, but then it became sideways and unpredictable, which I wasn’t expecting. And when things started to get weird, I thought , “OK, I see where this is going!” And again, I was surprised.
It wasn’t the type of horror flick I was expecting … I was expecting actual parasites, busting out of human bodies, a Korean Cronenberg sort of thing. There is gore of course, but it’s not the primary element of the movie. The script is so original, so it becomes more like a thriller-melodrama. It has elements of Polanski to it, a little bit twisty, and you could even add a dose of De Palma or Tobe Hooper. It’s a worthy flag-bearer for a great, currently booming, South Korean film industry, which also includes another Bong Joon film, Snowpiercer, and The Horde, which is a great zombie film.
I didn’t expect it to climax the way it did, with that whole birthday scene being so graphic. Most people already know I’m not really big on graphic violence. I’ve seen a lot of it in real life so it’s a bit of a trigger for me. But yeah, the way it ended seemed to be some sort of “revenge fulfillment” in my eyes. Maybe a kind of statement on the concept of class status and how some people live in horrific conditions while other people are so caught up in their luxury and status that they don’t realize things are lurking right beneath the surface. Literally. So if you haven’t seen Parasite yet, do it now.
Something else I want to talk about is the jam-band I’ve got going with Rob Trujillo. Seems like the word is spreading, so yeah, why not mention The Wedding Band? And right now I’m really, really, really, (really) excited about our next show coming up on March 8th. It’s kind of tied in to my latest museum exhibit, the It’s Alive collection currently on display at the Columbia Museum of Art. We last attempted this when I had my exhibit on display in Toronto, so why not try it again? This time we’re hitting the Senate in Columbia, South Carolina.
Basically, The Wedding Band is an opportunity to jam in a relaxed environment. It’s a great opportunity for Rob and I to just jam; playing folk songs, playing metal songs, playing punk songs, playing funk songs! I’m also really happy that this will also be the first public The Wedding Band show with Jon Theodore! We’re going to be playing some odd stuff here and there, and we’ll mostly stick to the traditional arrangements of the songs, but maybe out of the blue, or in the middle of the song, we’ll just go somewhere else. The best thing about this is that we don’t talk about where we’re gonna go. We just go there. And those moments are the moments I live for the most. It’s also nice that The Wedding Band creates publicity for the museum show, and it’s also allowing Rob and I to show a different side, musically speaking. We’re both very multi-faceted in inspirations and influences; there are things we enjoy in our playing that no one outside of our immediate circle is really aware of. And we both feel that The Wedding Band is a window into that.
Before that event, however, I’m going to be in England where I’m honored to be playing a part in the Peter Green Celebration Show being staged by Mick Fleetwood at the London Palladium. Between Mick, Billy Gibbons and Dave Gilmour I am going to be in the presence of some severe legends, and in truth, I’m completely blown away by that. When I acquired Greenie, I bought her because she sounded great. She’s a very unique sounding guitar. I had no idea it would lead to all these different opportunities, all these different experiences, and meeting all these different people. It was coming up on 50 years since Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac, this tribute was happening, but no one called me until Ross Halfin called Mick Fleetwood’s manager and kind of informed him about my owning the guitar and suggested I should be part of it.
So Mick Fleetwood got a hold of me at the beginning of the Hardwired… tour and asked if I was interested in doing this tribute to Peter Green. At the time I had to tell him I had no idea what my schedule was gonna be like with Metallica because we were literally on the eve of our first shows for Hardwired… But then three years passed and the tribute show started to develop more. Ross had kept me abreast on how it was taking shape, so I contacted Mick Fleetwood, and he was gracious enough to say I could still be part of it. So that’s how I’ll get to play “Green Manalishi” at the Peter Green tribute! It’s just amazing, seeing and hearing all the people committed to the tribute. The majority of them are all people I’ve been well aware of ever since I was a young musician, so to be playing with some of them now, it’s a mind blower … A Mind Blower !!
So all of this is going to give me a few free hours in the sky where I can do to do a little movie viewing! What do I have planned, you ask? Well, it’s going to be a bit of a Tobe Hooper rediscovery journey, because both Texas Chainsaw Massacre II and Lifeforce are prominent choices. Chainsaw Massacre II has a great sense of humor about it, and Lifeforce is about blood-sucking vampires from outer space. And if you don’t love that concept, well, there’s gotta be something wrong with you. I mean … Blood Sucking Vampires from Outer Space !!
Oh, and one last thing … make note that #WAHOFF is happening! The date is during The Wedding Band bash on March March 8th. Its the Cry Baby Battle Royale, and Mrs.Smith, my challenger, claims to be a “bigger abuser” of the wah peddle than me. Of course I find the comment preposterous, and i’ll show everyone exactly why it’spreposterous at The Senate in South Carolina!
Until then, see ya later,
Kirk
The Kirk Hammett Collection 