For the past two seasons, Hard Rock Daddy has been doing a weekly recap of the best show on television – That Metal Show. When the announcement was made that the show would be filmed weekly in New York City for Season 13, I reached out to the publicist who has been helping to promote the show, to make plans to attend one of the tapings.
Due to inclement weather in the Northeast, travel conditions caused me to reschedule a few times. Things worked out for the best, as I got to attend the first session of the final day of taping for the season. Attending any of the shows would have been great, but seeing The Winery Dogs, Vinnie Paul and Yngwie Malmsteen was ideal because they are all such tremendous, longtime fans of the show.
NOTE: Yngwie is also the musical guest for the season finale, which airs tonight at 11pm on VH-1 Classic.
It was the perfect metal day for my wife and me. We listened to Metal Midgets with Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson on SiriusXM as we traveled into NYC. Not that we needed anything to psych us up to attend the taping, but listening to Metal Midgets was like listening to the band that you’re about to see in concert while you tailgate in the parking lot before the show.
We arrived much earlier than necessary to make sure that we were on time. Normally, having extra time to spend in NYC is a good thing, as there is so much to do and see. However, because That Metal Show films in East Harlem (not exactly the best place to walk around), we just grabbed a lunch and hung out waiting to be let into the taping. It wasn’t until we joined the other metalheads on the line to get in that we stopped feeling like fish out of water.
Anxiously waiting to be brought into the staging area, we sat in the room with the other audience members as many of them filled out questionnaires, hoping that they would be chosen to try to “Stump The Trunk.”
We were in the last group to be brought upstairs to the staging area, but it worked out to our advantage as we ended up in prime seats on the aisle where the guests come in. I’ve always heard that audience sections are smaller than they appear on television, and it’s true. That Metal Show’s audience is smaller than most, holding less than 100 people, so this was a very intimate setting.
There is always a risk in seeing “how the sausage is made,” but experiencing That Metal Show in a live setting only enhanced my feelings about the show that I’ve been watching since its inception in 2008, and gave me a whole new appreciation for what it takes to put the show together. I’ll never watch the show the same way again after seeing how the raw footage is turned into an edited show. The unsung heroes of the show (the crew) work very hard behind the scenes to deliver the outstanding finished product that airs each week.
During the break before “Stump The Trunk,” Jim Florentine and I spoke extensively about various music topics. He and Don Jamieson are accomplished comedians, but they are equally as passionate and knowledgeable about hard rock and heavy metal. In tonight’s season finale, they will be joined by fellow comedians Artie Lange and Jim Breuer (who is also a passionate, knowledgeable metal fan).
I didn’t get the chance to speak with Eddie because they were taping another show right after the one that I attended, but there are plans in the works to interview him, Jim and Don in the near future for an upcoming feature on Hard Rock Daddy.
As my wife and I drove home after the taping, the Vinnie Paul interview/takeover was airing on SiriusXM’s Octane. It was an ideal bookend to the perfect metal day.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to attend tapings of shows on network television with a live audience, but I never had much of an interest. It’s safe to say that none of them would have compared to experiencing That Metal Show live anyway.
If you are a fan of That Metal Show, and will be in the NYC area during Season 14, you should make every effort to attend a taping, and see for yourself how the magic is made.
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