Those of you missing the Avalon Night Club for your fix of live hard rock and metal bands have a new place to catch up the very heaviest of local bands with a light sprinkling so far of national acts. Its the Club Milano on S. 2nd St.
Once an Italian restaurant, now mainly a dance club, Milano has been having shows about monthly since June. The promoter behind the Avalon is the man behind Milano, Mike Beard, head of Man Down Productions. On a recent Friday night five local bands roared deep into the night, if front of respectable crowd of around two hundred.
"I'm just trying to build a scene, The Avalon was great, now it's gone." Beard said by phone recently. "We are going to make happen here with hard work and word of mouth. So many people want a place for metal."
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On this night the bands ranged from punk to glam metal, with the top two spots held down by Industrial Metal bands, laying down thick rhythms over machine like beats. Stealing the night was local veterans Mudface, who seem finally poised to make a push into the spotlight. Lead by charismatic frontman Chris Dinsmore, Mudface have a look and sound that is somewhat unique in a market flooded with sound alike bands. While Dinsmore is hard to look away from you'll want to check the hot guitar work of lead guitarist Robert Kolowitz with rhythm guitarist and son Grant backing him up. The elder Kolowitz has been playing the local scene since at least 1984(!), and has not gotten nearly the recognition he deserves. Having said that, Kolowitz leaves some of the flashy solos for his other band Skinner, going for a more power chord pummel and the keynote to the Mudface sound. Well worth seeing.
Man Down Productions has a handful of dates reserved at Milano through the next year. At this time most of the shows are local bands, but Beard hopes to bring national acts as the Milano draws more people.
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Up coming at Milano on October 4 is speed metal drummer Gene Hoglan who has supplied the supper fast double bass drum beat for a impressive number of underground metal bands including Dark Angel, Strapping Young Lad and Testament among others. The show is billed as a drum clinic including "The do's and don'ts of speed metal drumming." This is great chance to get close to one of the premier drummers in metal today.
The club turns out to be very nice for metal shows. The sound is ok, the floor is huge for pit action with room for cooler heads on the side and back. The bar is long, so you can get an elbow on it to flag down the bartender. Another nice touch is soft disco lounge plush seating. The old Cactus Club is rolling over in its grave, but it is comfy.
Once inside it is metal club experience, velvet and all, opening for The Gene Hoglan Experience are the tough as nails End The Suffering, Bleed The Freaks, and The Venting Machine. So this show is not for the faint of heart. But if pure unfiltered agro metal is your thing, here is one night you don't have to drive to Slims.
Coming to Milano on October 25 is a break from the metal with blues guitarist Miles Schon. Yes, the son of Neil Schon. There are a couple of youtube videos with father and son jamming onstage, who knows. November 1st is a Halloween Bash featuring Shadow Beat Ritual. October 19 and 20 will see the return of the two day Screams Of Metal Festival with twelve hours each day of metal bands,including San Jose faves Skinner, Desecrator and Mudface.
