Eerie Von signed and performed at Generation Records
January 12th, 2010 by planetchocko
On January 8, 2010 Eerie Von was at Generation Records (210 Thompson St., NYC) to celebrate the release of his book titled “Misery Obscura.” The book is an epic look at the history of the legendary punk bands, the Misfits, Samhain and Danzig through the camera lens of Eerie Von. I first heard of the Misfits after Metallica covered “Green Hell” and “Last Caress” for their EP “Garage Days Re-Revisited” which I bought on cassette back in the late 80’s. At the time, Metallica would always be seen in videos and photographs wearing Misfits shirts and that got me really curious too. I went to the local mall and bought a cassette of “Walk Among Us” rushed home and played it on my boombox. After playing 20 Eyes, I Turned Into A Martian and All Hell Breaks loose, it was a wrap..I was instantly hooked. Walk Among Us had lyrics and music inspired by horror movies and catchy punk songs with amazing vocals. I had never heard anything like it. 1987 was a long time ago, and to this day that album is still one of my favorites and the horror punk band from Lodi, New Jersey during the Glenn Danzig-era will always have a special place in my little punk rock heart…along with the Ramones, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains and The Dead Kennedys of course!
Back to the book…Misery Obscura is a photographic journal by a highschool friend of members of the Misfits who was casually asked to shoot the band one day. Eerie Von did a great job documenting the band, but would later become the bass player for Samhain after the Misfits broke up in 1983 and would also play bass in Danzig. The book has lots of excellent photos of the Misfits on stage (my favorite shots), flyers, memorabilia and candid moments as well. The photos are also accompanied with stories and and recollections by Eerie who provides an interesting perspective in being in the band Samhain and witnessing the rise of the heavy metal juggernaut known as Danzig. The 160 page coffee table sized Misery Obscura book released by Dark Horse is definitely a must in your horror punk collection. Lyle Preslar (Minor Threat) and Mike D’Antonio (Killswitch Engage) both wrote forewords in the book and joined Eerie at Generation Records for a couple of songs. Eerie sang 2 country songs he wrote titled “lay the blame” and “please don’t wake me” accompanied by Lyle on the guitar and Mike on bass. The boys were joking around and shared some stories with the crowd before playing Samhain’s “To Walk The Night” and “Killer Wolf” off the second Danzig album. It was fitting that Eerie, being a huge Elvis fan, closed the set with a drunken cover of “the wonder of you,” a song by Elvis Presley played on the King’s birthday who would have been 75 years old. Eerie continues to play music. His most recent album “kinda country” was released in 2009 on Ghastly Records and he continues to make paintings and Fiend Art which he sells on the internet. Check out the video below of Eerie and the crew performing “Killer Wolf” at Generation Records.
-chocko
left to right: Mike D’Antonio (Killswitch Engage), Lyle Preslar (Minor Threat), Tom Bejgrowicz (book designer) and Eerie Von (of Danzig and Samhain
Tags: danzig, glenn danzig, horror punk, killswitch engage, minor threat, misfits, punk, samhain
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