Black Wizard in Phoenix, AZ

I am just coming back from a business trip in Phoenix, Arizona, were I was attending a standardization committee on behalf of my employer. Phoenix is a very big American city located in a desert, so it is amazing to go there in February, were it is cold (although not so cold, for the moment) almost everywhere else, and find a June weather. Surely it's Better to be there in February than in July, I think...

I was there for a week (comprising one day to go there from France, one day to return), and I searched on the excellent Metal Travel Guide website to see if there were any Metal shows or Metal bars in the (very extensive) area.

Surprise, surprise, not much for a 1.5 million pop. city : Only one venue called Metal Devastation, with some metal gigs. There was one gig that could be interesting on Tuesday with a Californian metalcore band called Stick To Your Guns. Unfortunately, there was 3 different addresses for Metal Devastation, so how was it possible to find the good one, in this widespread city that look like a gigantic grid-based never ending suburb ? So OK, no Metal here for me.



But lets speak about driving here. This city is clearly for cars only. There is no public train transportation service on the area, and frankly I would not like to use buses here, considering the distances between places. My hotel was 50 minutes away from the meeting place, and once we from the committee went to eat (as advised by one of our Phoenix-based member) in a upscale posh place called "Sassi" (an excellent Italian restaurant, in a recent property recently build in the style of old Italian mansions). The restaurant was located in Scottsdale, and it was approx. 1 hour from the meeting center, or my hotel...

Plenty of time to listen to Emperor at full volume...

And speaking about Emperor, I was there in Wacken, I should tell about it one day...