Steve Shelton - The Poundry

It's About Damned Time!  Loincloth, Live!

Well there probably aren't very many bands who can say they have been around for twelve years without ever playing a single show.  It is quite possible that Loincloth is the only "active" band that can make that claim.  Our historic run is about to end though, and there are four guys who are incredibly excited to see that dubious distinction become a humorous asterisk in the footnote of their biography.  October 27th, Wilmington, North Carolina... the beginning of the rest of all our lives.  What will the world look like the next day?  Will Loincloth finally provide the flying cars we've been waiting for all of our lives?  Will they be able to find a suitable mountain to carve our likenesses for the future site of Mount Rockmore?  So many questions, so many possibilities...

When Tannon moved down to Raleigh so that Loincloth could finally finish writing the album we had envisioned for so long, we never thought about what would happen after the album came out.  In fact, there was no "after the album came out" as far as we were concerned. Tannon would move back to Richmond and we would all be proud to have our little dream realized.  End of story.  There had been some talk of trying to play a local show or two as we were writing "Iron Balls of Steel" but we saw early on that wouldn't be feasible.  We focused on writing everything the way we had to in order to be able to record before Tannon needed to go back home to Richmond.  Mix down, artwork and layout... aside from a few references to someday beginning to write our second craptastic album we were done for the foreseeable future.  It didn't take long though, to get the itch.  I applied some anti-fungal powder and caught up with the third best drummer in the band.

Tannon couldn't help me with the itch, and he swears I couldn't have caught it from spooning with him, but he did want to play live as much as I wanted to so we tried to figure out how we could make it happen.  Cary played bass on the album, but would not be able to stick with us as a member of an active band.  We both love him dearly and were saddened by the fact that we would not have his never ending charm to keep things as fun as being in a band could be, but we were glad that he was up front about it and we were able to move on because of his honesty.  I could go on about Cary for pages and pages.  He's simply wonderful.  You can't hang out with Cary and leave in a bad mood.  It just isn't possible. Fortunately another lifelong friend who had played bass in my first band was flattered and excited for Tannon and me to extend the offer to join Loincloth.  Thomas Phillips has been one of my dearest friends for almost thirty years, and it feels right and completely natural to play with him again.

Loincloth was able to write with one guitarist, but there were too many harmonies to think about playing live with just one guitar.  Craig Hilton has been a guitarist around town that other musicians seem to be in awe of, and he was introduced to Tannon and me through our friendship with Thomas a few years ago.  Craig has proved to be a perfect fit for us, and the four of us are ready to take Loincloth on stage.  I cannot wait to play this stuff live!  You just can't imagine how excited we all are to have this opportunity to play together as great friends in this unique band.  

I have never been comfortable talking about myself and what I am involved in creatively.  I wasn't raised to think that I am any more special or interesting than anyone else.  But since I imagine that most of the people who might visit this blog are either fans of one or more of the bands I have been a part of or fans of the genre, I trust that there is some interest in what we are doing in Loincloth and Confessor.  Keeping that in mind, I will say that for anyone who felt like Confessor live was something special, or just different... wait until you see Loincloth live!  Remember, I am a fan of this kind of music too and if Confessor's rhythmic contortions were inspiring to you, I can tell you that Loincloth really focused on twisting things around while staying true to the heaviness we all loved.  

Let me close by saying this... the feedback from Confessor's fans and from the people who have been exposed to Loincloth has been amazing!  Both bands have tapped into something that is truly inspiring to some, and to feel as though our music and our vision of heaviness may have affected the way some people think about music has been humbling to say the least. For any of you who has been waiting to see just what we may have been up to behind the metal curtain for twelve years... we cannot wait for you to see!