My flight was to leave N.O. at 3:12 on May 1, to arrive at 4:44. Bad weather in Dallas closed DFW and we were grounded in N.O. for three hours. We finally took off just after 6pm. I'd called the club and they said the show wasn't starting til 9pm, so I was still in good shape.

The 1-1/2 hour flight was made even longer by the pilot taking a longer route around the storm. We landed at DFW at 8pm. Still one hour to get my rental and get to the club. No sweat.

Then we are informed that the backup of flights caused by the storm had pushed back the availability of a terminal so we had to wait 20 minutes. Now, I'm sweating. 20 minutes turned into and hour and I'm fully pissed off. Did I mention the two toddler girls screaming bloody murder from the time we boarded til the time we got off the plane...at 9pm?

I called the club again and they said "Don't worry, Voivod won't go onstage til 10". Every time I got an obstacle, I got a break to follow.

9:05pm and I'm O.J.'ing my way through the airport (no, not like that), and I get my rental. Out the lot and I'm hitting Texas 183 at 80mph, against Kula's advice. I get to the club and they want to charge me $8 to park. Whatever, just let me in.

9:45pm when I get to the door and I hear music. Sure sounds like Voivod. Yep, they went on at 9:20-9:30. When I got in, they were blasting through "Panorama". I bolted to the front of the stage and at that moment, everything I'd been through includung missing the beginning of the show didn't matter.

Before "The Unknown Knows", Snake asked "Does anyone remember the 'Nothingface' days"? Then he looked down at me and said, "This guy does, he's got the shirt on". I was wearing my 'Nothignface' tour shirt. At that time, I noticed that one else in the place was wearing a Voivod shirt, save for one guy who had one on that he just bought at the show.

Some guy kept yelling "Where's Blacky?" all night. Later I found out who that was.

Just before "Les Cigares Volantes", The PA went out and the band took a break. Jason came out into the audience and talked for a minute. He didn't bring up Metallica at all in the 2 minutes he talked to us. He seems pretty cool.

The band was super-tight and had great presence and delivery (as expected). The time passed all to quickly and the show ended. After the show, a roadie handed me Piggy's setlist. Very cool.

A few short minutes later Piggy was on the prowl, scoping out this little goth chick. I offered to buy him a beer. He took me up, but then the goth chick offered him one and he turned to me and said, "Sorry man, I had to do it". I said, "Yeah, I would have too". At that point, I left him with his prospect and I ran into Snake. He was really cool, as usual, and enjoyed expressing how happy he is to be back in the band. When asked, he acknowledged that even in his years out of the band people still called him Snake and he realized that regardless of what went on after he left that he was the "voice of Voivod". He was rather humbled by the notion. I took off for a while while Vinnie Paul of Pantera decided to step in and act cool.

It was at this time that I met the one they call King Kula. We traded punches in the lobby. No, wait, that didn't happen. He's much cooler and down to Earth than he would like us to believe. He was looking to corner Away and give him the business. So far, no Away. No Jason.

Sepultura takes the stage and we stood back and watched. Personally, I don't get the attraction. Aside from the U2 cover, I was bored. Snake and Piggy watched the show a few yards away and then Away made his appearance. He watched the show from the bar. Then Jason came out...onstage with Sepultura. He played a few songs with them and took off. That was the last we saw of him.

After the show KK and I hunted each of the guys down again and talked for a bit. Away ended up being the most talkative and I, for one, came away with a better sense of things than I previously did. He talked at length about Blacky (nothing bad to say), Angel Rat, the tour, Ozzfest, the next album, the website wars, Yuri, his artwork book, etc. You name it. KK and I really got in some good questions aside from "What's your favorite song to play", and got some very interesting answers.

At 2am, the road manager pulled Away from us and they took off. KK and I talked for another half hour or so outside about everything from hockey to football to Christian music and people from the boards. It was a good time. At 2:30, KK realized he had work in a few hours and we split.

I got back to the airport at 3am., returned the rental and got to my terminal for 4am. I tried crashing there, but those airport seats at DFW are not comfortable. My flight left at 7am. I was back home at 8:30am, just in time to see my son, Speed, waking up. He didn't know I was ever gone. What a trip to Morgoth...err Dallas it was!