2025
A visual History of Dead Alive
Weekender with Fatal Attraction
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
At the beginning of 2025 we did this weekender with a Spooky Glam band from Atlanta called Fatal Attraction.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
It was a fun weekend. Played in Georgia for the first time and got to be pretty buddy-buddy with the guys in Fatal Attraction.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
We played in Gainesville on a Friday, A basement show at Phantom House on Saturday and then Nashville proper on Sunday.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
Saturday Night after the Phantom House show the guys from Fatal Attraction spent the night at Castle Scapula (My home). It was surreal hanging out with these guys that I barely knew but got along with really well.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
It was also pretty funny that my partner, Ray, was familiar with the band prior to us playing with them that weekend and then all of the sudden they're sleeping on our couches.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
It was really cool to be able to essentially introduce the Fatal Attraction guys to our scene properly with a show with both Outpost and Phantom on each night.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
Connor, The Warlock, from Fatal Attraction and Liam Hawke would come up to Nashville a couple times to hang out later in the year, coming out to the Nashville Goth Night events.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
During a breakfast at Waffle House, the guys from Fatal asked if we wanted to jam a cover on stage together for fun.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
The previous two nights in Gainesville and Phantom House they kept trying to cover,"Bodies" by Drowning Pool but Connor Kept forgetting the lyrics, lol.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
So we were trying to figure out what song we could learn within a 2 hour period of time before we had to get to the venue for load-in,
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
We ended up deciding on covering only the first half of "Am I Evil" by Diamond Head.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
The Idea was that The Warlock and I would do a verse trade back and forth and then sing the chorus together.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
We botched it pretty bad, lol.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
It started out pretty strong with the first verse, but then fell apart really quick with the Warlock and I not knowing who was supposed to follow up the next line.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
It was still a ton of fun. Even looking like dumbasses we were having a good time.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
We were laughing on stage during the song trying to get back on track.
-
Photo by LJ DeWitt
This felt like a proper weekend. Played some shows, hung out drinking, smoking, watching bad horror movies, and having a good time.
Dead Alive x Fatal Attraction
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
If there was one thing that I took away from watching the Fatal Attraction guys was an understanding that I needed to hone in our visual aesthetic more for Dead Alive. They Essentially had the Modern Motely Crue look down, where we were just a motely crue of musicians that were supposed to come off as monsters.
Farewell Manthing
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Shortly before the Fatal Attraction weekend, my Conor (Manthing) let me know that he will be stepping away from the band (again) afterwards.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Over the years we'd always joke around about the funny things we'd like to do for shows.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
During the Fatal Attraction weekend we were able to check off a couple of those boxes.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
One of those was a silly costume show which we did at the Phantom House show.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
I wore a "low effort" skeleton print hoodie, Jared wore a funny fluffy hat, I forget what Brett did, but Conor wore a Bahama shirt and looked like a drug dealer or something. It was whatever Idea he had in mind for the thing.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
I didn't really get the joke he was trying to go for, other than being a contrarian to the whole "Costume Band" thing.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Another thing that we were able to do for his last show was to put the final nail in the Creed joke coffin.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
The joke is that Manthing's monster had not just been "A Creed Fan" but "The biggest Creed Fan in the world."
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
So during our introduction portion of our set, when we got to Manthing we abruptly changed into a cover of "Higher."
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
It was nice to be able to close out what will probably be the last time we play with Conor, fulfilling as much of the fun Ideas that he had joked about with us during practices.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
It was a bitter sweet ending. Having started the band with him 10 years prior, and the multiple stop-and-go moments that I had with him trying to really get this band going.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
I've tried to get in touch with him a number of times over the last year or so, just to hangout and catch up or give him a little Dead Alive gift but we can't seem to get our schedules to allign.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
The music life calls a specific breed of person. Someone who not only likes the music, but wants to dedicate themselves to the culture and the community.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
And being successful in music is even harder. Its not a sprint, but an endurance race.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
There are a ton of things that will cause a band to fail or fall apart. If you don't tread carefully, it will bite you in the ass and make every dollar you spent on the dream worthless.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
I want to be successful as Dead Alive. And I think I'm on track for keeping something sustainable going as a fully independent artist. But at the rate we're going its also asking a lot of the people in my band and in my life to be patient and make sacrifices so I can chase this dream.
Farewell Manthing
Introducing... THE PHANTOM!
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
With Conor out of the band for a third time. It was time to open auditions to find our next guitarist.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
There were a couple people that auditioned that were not particularly a good fit. But regardless of who auditioned, I had my eye on the lead guitarist from Nashville's Phantom.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
I asked Brady White if he would be interested in auditioning, and immediately he was a perfect fit.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Not only was he a fucking immaculate guitar player, but he was a fun guy to hang around and was great at keeping everything fun.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
We decided to introduce him as The Phantom as a nod to his other band, and It was a relatively quick and easy costume for him to put on for our upcoming tour where we would be touring with Phantom.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
I finally felt like we weren't messing around anymore. We were truly a force to be reckoned with.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Our notoriety was already building with our branding and costumes in our scene, as well as a killer album release...
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
But now I think I could say I had the BEST musicians to come out of Nashville in MY band.
Dead Alive Plays The Middle Tennessee Anime Convention
-
Photo by Blended Visions Photography
Our first live performance with The Phantom was technically at our local Anime Convention. This was a fun thing to be apart of.
-
Photo by Blended Visions Photography
It was weird playing in a fully lit conference room, but there was a decent turnout and as we played a cover of "Master of Puppets" more people started to flood in the room. It was hard for people to not hear us from down the hall cause we play LOUD.
-
Photo by Blended Visions Photography
Much to my chagrin, I didn't bring any merch - as recommended by Ray who had been to the convention many times over the years and never really saw a large crowd for the music. However, we definitely should have brought some stuff.
-
Photo by Blended Visions Photography
Didn't get paid otherwise, other than free admission to the convention that weekend - which only benefited Ray and I as the other guys in the band are not particularly into that stuff.
Live Debut of THE PHANTOM
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
The first real show with The Phantom was the next day at a venue called The Vinyl Lounge, headlined by Guillotine.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
This was an interesting show as we were practically playing all of our off-setlist songs for The Phantom's first show.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
The songs we don't play that often, but was good to get Brady up to speed with our catalog as it was at that time.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
It was a fantastic first show with Brady, our cover of Master of Puppets that night was HEAVY. I fucked up the lyrics a couple of times, but it was still a badass performance.
Watch Here
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Quick tangent about the venue. First off, the lights and Sound of this place are awesome - no doubt.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Second, It one of the few venues in Nashville that has relatively Free Parking, which is a huge plus.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
However, this show is the first in a series of shows that not only have I been apart of, but that I'm aware of bands not getting paid their door splits.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Both this show and our "Welcome Home" Tour show were here, and neither us, nor Guillotine got our expected payout from that evening.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
When you book shows, you're acting as the "promoter" and are on the hook for the production fee of the event evening,
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
The production fee that was quoted to us was $225. At $15/ticket thats a 15 person break even point. Easy.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Nashville is a hard town for the indie artist. We didn't expect a huge turnout, but I knew we wouldn't (shouldn't) lose money.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
I busted my ass printing out fliers and handing them out to people at as many shows as I could, running ads and the lot.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
At the end 21 ticket buyers showed up, and I did a poll on stage. None of them came from a flier I handed in person or one hanging up in a store.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
That sucked, but hey! 21 is more than 15. And quick maths says each band gets $20 door split. Its not a lot but it pays for gas for the out of town bands we had playing with us.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
But no, not even after the vinyl lounge did a post later in the year saying that they would pay out all of the bands, and sending my W9 to them. Nothing.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
And over the last year since, the number of bands and promoters that I've heard not get paid by the vinyl lounge has exceeded the number of fingers I can count with.
-
Photo by Ray Lee Rose
Which sucks cause Its such a cool venue otherwise. At this point I don't care about the money I'm owed, I just want them to be transparent and honest with how they manage shows. If the production fee should be $300 then it should be that ahead of time.
The Thrashville Terror Tour
May 13.25
Photo By Brian McLean
To not repeat myself too much I'm going to focus this tour section of this memoir to continued thoughts about Dead Alive and other notes regarding the tour.
You can watch my proper Tour Vlog here
Thrashville Terror Tour
Flip The Switch
Thrashville Terror Tour Vlog
Metal to Flesh
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
Blood in the Water
Now On VHS
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose
-
Photo by: Ray Lee Rose