Pist.On: Axis, Boston, Massachusetts
Wednesday, 19 November 1997
It's better to be pissed-off than Pist.On! These were definitely the sentiments of two young ladies who were on the receiving end of a golden leg-shower happily supplied by Jeff McManus, drummer of NYC's metal quartet, Pist.On. It seems the ladies in question, not to mention security, didn't take kindly to Jeff's' sense of humor, and some thought a month of Sundays would pass before Pist.On would grace Lansdowne Street with their original brand of headbanging again; but that was then and this is now and it hasn't been six months since this tattooed and pierced group of gypsies blasted their way unto the airwaves here in New England with their hit "Grey Flap" from their debut album Number One, and they are here to support their recording with yet another live show. Along with Jeff on drums; bandmates Burton Gans on lead guitar and background vocals; the lovely and talented Val Ium on bass and background vocals (of whom I was warned to be careful of what I asked her because she's "not like a regular chick and might freak out on you!" Yikes!) and last but not least: primary songwriter, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist Henry Font; were once again ready to assault Boston with their "in your face" style of music.
Font along with Val Ium are the co-founders of Pist.On and during our pre-show interview I had to ask the most basic of questions ... is the name of the band pronounced "pist-on" or "piston"? Naturally the answer to this question seemed obvious to me considering the front cover of their debut album sports a picture of one of those wee-wee dolls that pees when his pants are dropped, not to mention the name of the CD is Number One, get it? Hello? Is anyone home? But none the less the DJ's on the radio refer to them as though they were a part of a internal-combustion engine. But as Font says, "It's not about art, it's about commerce." The record company has got to play it safe with the name so the name appears as Piston on the CD and the band played along because, "The label enables us to get to a larger audience." Font and Val, at 30 years old, are also the old-folks in this unit and have been friends for 11 years ever since they met when they both snack into a 21+ show all those years ago. Sticking together all these years their mutual admiration and common goal of hitting the big-time have keep them together; not as love mates; but as band mates. The Pist.On idea became a reality about five years ago with Burton joining about a year and a half ago and Jeff more recently than that.
Henry Font, son of a powerful and successful contractor in NYC, claims his greatest influences were Ernst and Julio Gallo (one perk Font insists on is a bottle of white wine before he hits the stage, this is one classy kid from Staten Island!), along with Rush, Van Halen and U2, but this reporter hears a lot of Sabbath, Type O Negative, and Biohazard influences in this set. Henry claims he's a, "Good writer, but social retard." I disagree, I think he's a great writer, but social retard ... just kidding Henry!
Val (and she doesn't let a lot-of people call her Val, but lets me), on the other hand, sites Black Sabbath, Danzig and the Pixies as her main influences. "The truth is boring, the truth sucks! It's how I perceive it as I'm 30 now. It happens I don't get a lot of fleck, my band mates treat me as an equal. We know our crowd, it's the cheesy metal crowd!" quips this pint-sized, heavily and artfully tattooed newly dyed black-haired dynamo ... "My fantasy is to beat up the current singer of the Misfits ... I'd kick his ass all over New York!" This lady is scary ...
Burton's top three influences are Randy Rhoads with Ozzy, Ace of Kiss, and, like all the aspiring twenty something lead guitarists have in common, Yngwie! Currently Burton enjoys listening to new Slayer, old Bob Marley and Pavarotti? When I asked him what other bands he was in he said, "Have you heard of Megadeth?...wasn't in that one...Have ya heard of Tito Puentes?...wasn't in that one either!" As it turns out Burton is the aspiring comedian in the band and at one point during the show Henry turns the mike over to Burton so that he can deliver a couple of XXX jokes that you could never tell your mother. Burton is the type of guy who loves to party with the audience; the problem is he also includes mass quantities of Wild Turkey 101 into this equation and sometimes loses his place during the show...Oh well, it's all for the love of rock-n-roll....His sizzling lead riffs and imposing image (he has both his eyebrows and lower lip pierced, waist length hair and a Dennis the Menace smile) make Burton a true heavy metal character for the late 90s.
After a kick-ass set by Fu Manchu and a rather long intro period, the band took to the stage opening with "Shoplifters of the World," the only non-original in the set, and blowing out the brains of these diehard fans who braved a freezing cold Boston Wednesday night. Henry Font appears as the 90s version of Leslie West, only dressed in all black, with jet-black hair and beard and snake tattoos running up and down both arms. Jeff holding a rock steady beat in the background and Val attacking her instrument with precision strikes enable this unit to rock with the primal intensity of a jungle tribe. Henry's chorus-like vocals and Burton's guitar chops just solidify Pist.On not only as a novel rock act, but also as some motherfuckers to reckon with.
Unfortunately I had to leave for a early morning meeting on Cape Cod and wasn't
able to stay for the second half of the show but right before I left, in between songs, Val
handed me her bass so she could take off her jacket to expose her beautiful tattoos. As she
did, me being this big long-haired guy in black leather, she said, "This must look so cool!"
P.S. Henry and Val both confessed that the members of Pist.On are all pathological
liars; so when all is said and done; do we really know anything about these modern-day
minstrels?...Oh yes! It's better to be Pist.On than pissed-off.
| band shot |
burton drunk later that night |
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Visit the Axis home page at http://www.axisboston.com/
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