BLACK TIDE

Rides the lightening

By DAVE WEDGE

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There's a couple things the young dudes in Black Tide have learned during their brief four years in the metal world: Sharon Osbourne has their back, and jokes about their age get really old, really quick.

"At first a lot of people kind of tease you a little bit. They'll say, 'It's nine o'clock, shouldn't you be in bed?' It's like, 'Haha very funny,'" bassist Zakk Sandler told the Dig in a recent phone interview from England.

The Miami-based metal band, which plays Sunday with Escape the Fate, notoriously almost got booted from Ozzfest, but not for wrecking tour buses, dissing Ozzy or beating down some other band's roadie. It was because they were playing on the side stage, which was sponsored by Jägermeister, and they were all under 21.

"Sharon Osbourne stepped in and said, 'I said you guys can do the tour,'" Sandler says. "She put us on the main stage. We were like, 'Oh my god.' The basis of our career was just set on an amazing bit of good luck."

But the teen thrashers made the most of their main stage stint, melting faces with Dave Mustaine-inspired solos and Maiden-esque anthems that impressed headbangers young and old. Their 2008 Interscope debut, Light from Above, is an unabashed, hook-laden foray into classic speed metal—with a modern twist—that comes off as an homage to the genre's pioneers, not a cheap ripoff. It's a retro thrash fest that, had it been released in 1983, would have landed them in a no man's land between the dingy clubs of Metallica's Bay Area and the sleazy Sunset Strip glam scene.

"You either like us or you don't. We're not going to try and force people to like us," Sandler says candidly.

As an example, he pointed to a recent show in England where they were not overly well received by the emo, metal-crazed throng.

"It wasn't really our crowd," he said. "It was the complete polar opposite of what we usually play to and the crowds we play to. These kids are into dance rock and dance metal and hardcore. They're not into the idea of guitar solos and melody."

But, he added, "I'm not going to cry over it. 'Cause that's what pussies do."

The band, which has tracks on Rock Band and Skate 2 for Xbox, formed in 2003 when guitarist Gabriel Garcia was just 11. In 2005, they signed a demo deal with Atlantic and were picked up by Interscope two years later. Since then, they've toured with the likes of Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for My Valentine and Massachusetts' All That Remains.

This summer, they'll be on Warped Tour. And, still, all of them are under 20.

"I dropped out of school the day we signed our contract," Sandler said. "I was like, 'Fuck this.' I am in a rock & roll band and this is it. My mom was like, 'Cool.'

"I have a pretty cool mom."

BLACK TIDE

W/ ESCAPE THE FATE, WILLIAM CONTROL

AND ATTACK ATTACK

SUNDAY 2.22.09

MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTAIRS

480 MASS. AVE., CENTRAL SQ., CAMBRIDGE

617.864.3278

6PM/ALL AGES/$15 ADV, $16 DOS

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