INSIDE INGLEWOOD-Attendees to a Slayer (photo) concert at the Forum in Inglewood on Friday night claimed to have seen Inglewood’s mayor, James T. Butts, at the venue.
“Well, it was dark, but it looked like [Butts],” said a woman who asked that neither she nor or husband be named. “It was a small show, and only the floor and the loge were open to fans, so there weren’t a lot of people there.”
The Forum seats up to 17,505 people when the entire venue is made available. It is unknown how many tickets were sold to the Slayer show—which also featured Suicidal Tendencies and Exodus—for the limited seating event.
Slayer is well-known for its Satanic stage show, and not just for its “Slaytanic Wermacht” T-shirts, Nazi imagery and Pentagram-infused band logo on albums such as “Reign in Blood,” “Decade of Aggression” and “Hell Awaits.”
Suicidal Tendencies is well known for its gang-related history. The band, which formed in 1981, got its start in Venice, California and both the band members and its devout followers were deemed a gang. While there is little written about that aspect of Suicidal Tendencies, a recent story in ANP Quarterly titled "LA Punk Bands of the 80s” researches the topic.
Exodus is a thrash band from San Francisco that in the mid-1980s was well-known for its album, “Bonded by Blood” and the graphic depiction of demon babies as well as Satanic imagery.
In the past, Slayer has teamed up with Marilyn Manson for a tour announced on MTV.
“‘Satan is alive and well and living on the planet Earth, and now you know exactly where to find him — this tour,’” Manson told MTV News on May 7 of that year.
The story went on to state that “Manson will use the tour to promote his forthcoming album, ‘Eat Me, Drink Me,’ which is slated for release June 5. Slayer, of course, continue to spread the word about their latest, ‘Christ Illusion,’ which was released last August.”
The Forum concert featured only two of the original members of Slayer.
Lead guitarist Kerry King (a devoted LA Kings fan) and vocalist/bassist Tom Arya are the only two remaining original members. Rhythm guitarist Jeff Hanneman died on May 2, 2013; Dave Lombardo was fired in February of the same year.
Hanneman, who in December 2011 initially claimed to be diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis via a spider bite, was quoted as having said, “‘Everything that could go wrong this year did, but you know, it turned out okay. Satan had my back.”
Reached via e-mail, someone representing Butts responded with an unsigned reply that acknowledged neither the date nor the event. “No. It is not true. I was not at the Forum.”
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Forum community outreach person Jason Lombard did not return a request for comment.
While Butts possible presence at the Forum on Friday could not be not confirmed, his absence in the world of humor is well-known and can be seen in various stages in the videos posted by an Inglewood resident.
Members and fans of Slayer, however, are not at all lacking in humor, as exhibited by these two recent videos, one of which is about the Forum’s Friday night performance:
Slayer guitarist Tom Arya gives tickets to fan for Forum show:
For the down-home folks who prefer to not hear the aural assault of Slayer in full force, here is a cover of the band’s 1986 hit, “Angel of Death,” performed with banjos: (The song is about the infamous Nazi SS officer and physician of the death camp at Auschwitz, Josef Mengele.)
(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a weekly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com. Mr. Fleming’s views are his own and do not reflect the views of CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 93
Pub: Nov 18, 2014
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CityWatch Los Angeles
Politics. Perspective. Participation.
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