Maybe Cory Putman felt he had to redeem himself from the 2009 show at Altar bar in Pittsburgh when he went to kick a bottle and fell flat on his ass, but it’s more likely that Cory and the rest of the revamped Norma Jean have something to prove with Wrongdoers and their entire catalog…that they are here to stay. Having a somewhat tumultuous history since their inception in 1997, Norma Jean have had their ups and downs, but stalwart members Chris Day (guitar) and lead singer (since 2nd album) Cory have really gelled with new members Clayton “Goose” Holyoak (drums), Jeff Hickey (guitar), and John Finnegan bass). Their performance at Altar Bar 2013 went off without any spills, but plenty of thrills for fans, especially with the up close and personally intense nature of their showmanship.
Just before the show we got a chance to catch up with Cory who was very gracious to hang with us, especially since the band had been robbed just a few days ago in Chicago. Our interview focuses on the positive matters in the band so watch as we talk about Wrongdoers, packaging art, family and the road, the bottle incident, and more…
Old school Norma Jean fans of course went nuts when debut record smash “Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste” was played, but some of the most impressive songs of the night (besides MWBLTW) were “Bayonetwork” with the snippet of “I Used to Hate Cell Phones”, “If You Got It At Five” and of course the encore “Hive Minds”. Intense, furious, and bullet to the head like beautiful cacophonies of sounds and images onstage, Norma Jean are incredibly energizing to listen to on “tape” but on a whole other celestial plane live.
All photos 2013 AWeldingphoto and Pittsburgh Music Magazine
Setlist accorsing to setlist.fm
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(With “Creating Something Out … more)
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(With “I Used to Hate Cell … more)
- Encore:
- Hive Minds
Categories: Concert Review, Interview
