Ghoul 5

Time waits for no one, they say, and in the realm of music that's especially true. Yesterday's rock & roll suicides are tomorrow's wage laborers. The young and brash become the old and jaded. "Cool" escapes with a rapidly thinning pate and expanding waistline. Try as you might, you can't stop it, any more than you can crawl back into the womb. Life swirls around us with no warning or forethought. The present becomes the past as the future slams into the now.

The Ghoul 5 was a St. Louis band from the way-back-when of the middle to late '90s. Specializing in volume and amp damage, the group brought a cocky swagger and ambiguous panache to the local and regional scene, trying like the devil to sell out. Unfortunately, because no one was buying in those rock-unfriendly times, the Ghoul gang gigged circuitously until finally self-destructing in a haze of distortion, blown equipment and back rent. Going their separate ways, the Ghouls wandered the wastelands until eventually crossing paths again. Realizing their time had passed too fast, they decided to put on one last extravaganza and invite everyone to come dance in the ashes of their funeral pyre.

Life affords few opportunities to say goodbye and even fewer to write your own epitaph. The Ghoul 5 intend to do both of these things before taking that uncomfortable stumble into the future, nailing the coffin shut as they go. Join them, but don't mourn the past that's gone or worry too much about what's going to happen tomorrow. Instead, celebrate the glorious now and enjoy what you have for the fleeting moment that it's here.