With the kids beginning school in the coming days, if not now, that means Summer is nearing its end. And for the first time in a while, I can say that I have a lot to say about it. Now, last year was not as hot from a temperature standpoint, which made it one of the better Summers in a while. Most of the fun, though, happened in the Fall. This year, the fun began as Summer reared its ugly head (more on that later). It began in June, when the sometime visitors, always up for a party band Widow made its annual (so it seems nowadays) trek to Kansas City. The show got off to a late start (this becomes a trend with many Kansas City shows, as this piece will indicate) because one of the bands pulled off. Since the band was also hungry, they gathered a few friends for the short trek to Jerusalem Cafe. It originally began as ten people, but four dropped when the seating arrangements forced its hand. And who knew that a Mediterranean restaurant can be so metal?
Back to the show, it began shortly after 10 PM and had its usual good moments. The next weekend saw lots of things, from the 70th birthday celebration for Dear ol' Dad to what started as the week in Albuquerque. The 15 hours on the road were long and somewhat arduous, but wasn't all that boring. It's as Widow says, "Road trips are what you make of it," and the trek through Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle didn't seem as boring as all the other times that I went through those areas. New Mexico, the eastern half of it, was pretty barren, with only Clayton and Springer being any towns with any semblance of civilization. There was a stop in the small town of Mora, since I have some relatives there, so a good hour break helped before hitting the road again for Albuquerque.
Along the way, this picture of Storrie Lake, near Las Vegas, NM, brought a good omen for what the week had in store for me. Now, since I covered the entire week in an earlier piece, I won't go too much into the details, so here's a cliff notes version of what happened: Museum of Natural History and Old Town, as well as another birthday (the brother-in-law) Monday, baseball game Tuesday, Iron Maiden Wednesday, quiet time Thursday, nightlife on Friday, and the zoo on Saturday before heading home Sunday. And on a side note, try not to go through Houston's airport because for such a large city, it gets cramped in a hurry and is clearly the worst airport that I've gone through.
The rest of Summer was relatively quiet, save for the Week of Metal, which included bands such as Valdur, URN, and Vektor making their way through town. If only Kansas City would have more weeks like this, which means everyone who considers themselves a metalhead in Kansas City had better make the effort to attend shows. Drop your excuses and just go to the shows, no matter if your friend's band is playing or not.
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