'The Roar of L'Amour'

OLD BRIDGE MILITIA - They were metal before metal was cool

Taken from a Facebook post

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If you are a fan of metal and used to go to L'Amour during my era and you don't know who they are, you should.

While L'Amour was still figuring out what club it should be and before I was hired, there was a group of guys in NJ called The Old Bridge Militia

There were many involved, but they were headed by Metal Joe  and Rockin' Ray, and they were the hardest of hard core metal-heads.

Along with Jon Zazula (RIP), the OB crew were the pioneer fans of the metal/trash movement in the area.

As a matter of fact, when Zazula sold metal records and cassettes at a flea market and saw them walking over he would say to his wife ... "Marsha we made rent"

Metallica actually used to stay at MJ's house and wrote Ride The Lightning there and even discussed him on Howard Stern.

THEY WERE METAL BEFORE METAL WAS COOL

They were metal when L'Amour was playing dance music.

When I surfaced again the other day, Metal Joe reached out to me and asked me to call him.It was fn 5am on a weekday and I was wondering ... WHY?

See, I always thought the Militia hated me. They were the hardest of hard and while I certainly appealed to that clientele, I never really spoke with them.

You see one night very early into my time at the club, a band Blessed Death played. BD were a very heavy band from the area and part of the Militia.

I forget the night they played, but it wasn't a complete thrash night, it might have been a Thursday when the club would just book bands without trying to match genres (I changed that).

One of the Militia comes up to the booth (later identified as 'Rockin' Ray") and was angry I was playing "poser shit", I told him that while BD was trash other bands weren't and its my job to make everyone happy musically.

He asked why I don't play BD demo. I explained I have it but it didn't sound good over the club sound system. Sadly back them 99% of demos and even a good % of LP's sounded like crap loud. What i called "sonic mud"

I liked BD, but ...

He left in a huff and I shrugged it off.

I pleased many but not everyone. I had a job to do and that was my focus.

As time went by, we never really talked or connected.

I respected what they did but thought they hated me because I wasn't playing Venom on the nights Kix played lol.

Also Ray and Joe were metal DJ's, so I just sorted them into the "haters" pile.

Then in 2025 ... 36.5 years after I left the club, Metal Joe wants to talk to me.

My first instinct was FUCK OFF, but I respected his place in Metal history, even if I didn't think he respected mine.

No biggie.

He answered and as a goof I say "Ah Yes Indeed". I figured he would either laugh or be a d*ck, he did neither.He said it reminded him of calling the club and hearing my announcements in Brooklyn.

Then we talk ... and talk ... and talk.

70 minutes in total.

He explained that the Militia always respected what I did for the scene and wondered why a lot of my contributions weren't being represented.

I told him I left the scene and by doing that, I understood "out of sight, out of mind"

He was shocked I thought they hated me.

It was so silly, we could have worked together through-out the 80's.

Heck, I would have done Old Bridge nights at L'Amour and let them DJ if we talked.

I had no issue letting others DJ, as history shows and Alex Kayne can attest to that

Joe recently told me that I 'influenced" their DJ sets, who knew?

But that is in the past and in the present/future we will be working together to tell two unique perspectives from the glory days.

They also do charity work through - https://oldbridgemilitia.org/

They haven't done an event in a bit, but look for an announcement soon that is pretty cool

We are discussing ways for me to be involved in future charity events, including two events that err ... ummm ... well ... TBA

The true story of the 80's metal scene needs to be told (while some of us are still alive) and we will do our best to tell it truthfully

I wanted to give some props to some people that sadly go under the radar when it comes to credit.

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"Chuck was the voice for the tristate area metal scene. He doesn't realize it, but he was a legend. We still talked about him 4 decades after he left the scene and how he made a nightclub seem like MSG"

"When it comes to L'Amour and those metal years, there was only one voice that was heard loud and clear and that was the 'Roar of L'Amour' - Chuck Kaye. He drove that metal right down your throat.

When we saw he re-appeared, we immediately asked him to bring his voice to our Cliff Burton tribute. "

- Metal Joe (Old Bridge Militia)

Chuck Kaye

Ah Yes Indeed

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