We are back for the third book club episode. This time we take a look at Mark Mortons first book, Desolautions: A Heavy Metal Memoir. The Lamb Of God guitarist shares some of his highest highs and lowest lows as he tells the story of his life so far. From learning to play music as a child to his high school bands and the formation of Lamb Of God. Tag along while Mark shares the inspirations for some of the bands biggest songs and take a look behind the curtain to see how the albums were made.

It's no secret, ticket prices are expensive. Why is that though? Has it always been this way? Business Insider has a video out where they look at just this. They spend time talking to people from Live Nation, StubHub, the DOJ and others. Join us as we watch this video and provide our thoughts throughout.

Business Insider Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN1AVSZyFbY

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We spend too much time this week at the Cemetery Gates when we say goodbye to three people; Matt Krupanski (Boysetsfire), James Lollar (Gost), and Bo Lueders (Harms Way). Thank you all for the amazing art you created and shared with the world. It’s also a double concert report week. The first, the Gwar: Gor-Gor Strikes Back tour with Soulfly and King Parrot in support. Followed by Emperor and Blood Incantation. Two vastly different shows both with highs and lows.

In this week's headlines we take a moment to talk about AI bots listening to AI “music” and getting paid for it. Apparently that's fraud. We also unfortunately make a stop by the Cemetery gates to say goodbye to Ross “The Boss” Friedman. Then we get to this week's concert report of boat alums Lacuna Coil. With Escape the Fate and VOWWS in support.

Right now, Ov Sulfur is one of Karen’s favorite bands. So of course when they, along with Atlas, were announced as direct support of another killer band, Orbit Culture, we knew this was a show we could not miss. There was one small problem. The show in Chicago was at The House of Blues. With us having an active goal to not see a show at this venue we were left with a few options; 1. See the show in Chicago, 2. Miss the show in Chicago, 3. Travel to another city. Option 3 seemed like the correct path given they would be in Milwaukee at one of the greatest venues we have ever been to, The Rave. And… Since we would be in town why not go see the classic rock icons Journey the night before at the Fiserv Forum. Join us as we look back at these two completely different shows.

Fire up those Twin Ion Engines and head to Chicago because the empire is coming to town. Well, maybe not to Chicago, but to West Chicago. Which - believe it or not Brian, West Chicago is not part of Chicago. The band Galactic Empire, consumed by the dark side, and just being general nerds, come to the West Chicago Social Club. A venue we have wanted to check out for some time but the journey seemed far far away. Almost as far as a galaxy. But in the end it was only 12 parsecs. Join the fight while we look at this week's news topped off with the impressive showing of the Empire supported by the one and only Game Genie. 

This year we returned to 102.9 The Hog (Everything That Rocks!) yearly show, HOG Fest, after missing the last two years. The show this year had Three Days Grace at the top of the bill. With support from top to bottom of the bill by I Prevail, Sleep Theory, and The Funeral Portrait. Not only have we seen all of these bands before, but all of them have also played past HOG Fests. It was truly a night full of fun radio metal.

For the main topic this week you can hear Brian/Karen’s constant chatter about the Nothing More show at the Riviera Theater in Chicago. Both were excited to see different bands from the top of the bill to the bottom, which included Catch Your Breath, Archers, and Dobbie in support. Also this week you can catch up on past news featuring the new Iron Maiden doc and new music from Wage War and Lamb Of god. And of course there's the concert calendar with one of the most anticipated show announcements, Metallica at Sphere!

What is Tractor Jazz you may be asking? Well it’s a double concert report episode. The first report is all about our time at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, where we saw K.I.M. (Keeping It Moving). This was our first time seeing a Jazz show, and it was different yet very familiar to other shows we have seen. That same night a friend let us know his cousin was playing a show the next night in a band called Tractor Kings. They were the first opener for Pinebender with Allen Epley as the second support band. Join us while we share our experiences with these two shows along with the news and new music.

A few years back we went to a show that should have had a killer line up, one we would love to see again. Opening was Khemis (our first time seeing them), followed by Mastodon (also our first time seeing them), and to close it out was Opeth (again, our “first” time seeing them). However, we kind of over indulge and left the show mid way into Opeth’s first song. Well- maybe it was the second song, who knows. Their songs can be quite long. In anycase, Opeth went on tour in 2025 to support their album; The Last Will And Testament. Karen had to miss this but Brian was able to go. So when they announced the second part of this tour in early 2026 Karen was excited to finally get to see them.