John Frank
06-05-2006, 04:30 PM
The Club
The Loft was a nice venue. It's a newer place, and whoever built it actually had a clue about youth concert behavior. There is a four foot deep area recessed below the main floor of the venue that's right in front of the stage. This sequesters all the moshers/emo kung fu fighters and all the folks that want to get crushed against the stage in the pit and lets old losers like myself and my friend lean against the railing around the pit and have a perfect view of the stage, which is maybe 20 feet away.
As James from Arsis said on stage, The Loft reminded him of the club in Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo I was one of probably about 10 people there that got the reference There was even a skating ramp just outside with skaters doing their thing throughout most of the show. This place is also a youth center, BTW. No drinks or food available though, which was the only bummer about the club.
Attendance was probably pushing 400 people. Mostly emo-type kids, but they were into all the bands, and I did not see a lot of scenester attitude. I guess I have not been to enough concerts yet to hate the little punks.
The Bands
Hewhocorrupts, Job for a Cowboy, Animosity
Screaming with breakdowns alternated with growling with breakdowns. They had energy, I'll give them that. Just that.
Alarum
This is the first complex/technical band I have seen live, and I was eager to see if I would find them boring like others had found Spiral Architect, Zero Hour, etc. boring. I did not find them boring. The drummer, in particular, was fun to watch, and it was cool to see them smoothly transition from death metal riffage to fusion interludes.
That said, I was not banging my head/jumping around much, as it's hard to do that when there is a new time signature every 30 seconds. Based on this single experience, I will continue to love tech on CD, but live performance probably won't be as invigorating as a more conventional band. No, I won't be going to any Edguy concerts in the near future, but I will likely prefer shows by other bands, such as...
The Mighty and All Powerful Arsis
I want James to be my friend. I want to be his neighbor, talking about the latest tune he wrote, the sadistic motives behind bereavement letters, the ball game, while we are grilling out on the deck. I think they only played 5 tunes - their set was far, far too short, and it was stalled with the only sound problem of the night for a few minutes (which the band took very well) - but they were god-like. As a frontman, James is a very low-key likeable guy. For proof of this, refer to the Breakin' 2 remark, and when he informed the crowd that the next song would have a "quote breakdown unquote" in it, and he challenged them to recognize it and behave accordingly. They did. I don't know if Mike is as laid back and witty as James, but his performance was amazing. Sorry Mike, I'd write more about you, but the front man gets all the attention, you know :D
In the past, I have not felt the need to talk with band members and tell them how much I love their work. Seems rather pointless, as they get that all the time. Well, I felt the need to seek out James and tell him I wanted to have his baby. Well, I hope I was a little less scary than that. We chatted briefly, and he seemed like a nice, gracious guy. Even though we won't be neighbors, I was content.
The Insanely Talented Necrophagist
Necro came across as very professional, highly skilled musicians. The focus was completely on the music with virtually no banter other than introducing the next song. Muhammed seemed to be a very focused perfectionist artist. He did not look like he was having the time of his life; he looked satisfied with his work. All the band members were awesome players - it was especially fun to see Muhammed and the other guitarist trade blazing leads.
The only issue I had with their stellar performance was the blasting overpowered the band's sound. As a result, the tunes from Onset came across considerably better than the songs from Epitaph. On CD, the guitar is not overwhelmed with the blasts, but it was an issue in the live environment. As with Alarum, it's hard to bang your head to tech, but Necro has plenty of segments that induce serious crowd reaction. I would use the more complex segments to recover from my spastic headbanging during the riff-tastic periods. It was an awesome performance, but I know now that brutal bands, especially those that are not as skilled as Necro, are not the ideal live band for me.
We were at a bar after the show, and I saw Muhammed there. I shook his hand and thanked him for coming to our town. He was very gracious and friendly - score another point for the fellowship of heavy metal.
The Loft was a nice venue. It's a newer place, and whoever built it actually had a clue about youth concert behavior. There is a four foot deep area recessed below the main floor of the venue that's right in front of the stage. This sequesters all the moshers/emo kung fu fighters and all the folks that want to get crushed against the stage in the pit and lets old losers like myself and my friend lean against the railing around the pit and have a perfect view of the stage, which is maybe 20 feet away.
As James from Arsis said on stage, The Loft reminded him of the club in Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo I was one of probably about 10 people there that got the reference There was even a skating ramp just outside with skaters doing their thing throughout most of the show. This place is also a youth center, BTW. No drinks or food available though, which was the only bummer about the club.
Attendance was probably pushing 400 people. Mostly emo-type kids, but they were into all the bands, and I did not see a lot of scenester attitude. I guess I have not been to enough concerts yet to hate the little punks.
The Bands
Hewhocorrupts, Job for a Cowboy, Animosity
Screaming with breakdowns alternated with growling with breakdowns. They had energy, I'll give them that. Just that.
Alarum
This is the first complex/technical band I have seen live, and I was eager to see if I would find them boring like others had found Spiral Architect, Zero Hour, etc. boring. I did not find them boring. The drummer, in particular, was fun to watch, and it was cool to see them smoothly transition from death metal riffage to fusion interludes.
That said, I was not banging my head/jumping around much, as it's hard to do that when there is a new time signature every 30 seconds. Based on this single experience, I will continue to love tech on CD, but live performance probably won't be as invigorating as a more conventional band. No, I won't be going to any Edguy concerts in the near future, but I will likely prefer shows by other bands, such as...
The Mighty and All Powerful Arsis
I want James to be my friend. I want to be his neighbor, talking about the latest tune he wrote, the sadistic motives behind bereavement letters, the ball game, while we are grilling out on the deck. I think they only played 5 tunes - their set was far, far too short, and it was stalled with the only sound problem of the night for a few minutes (which the band took very well) - but they were god-like. As a frontman, James is a very low-key likeable guy. For proof of this, refer to the Breakin' 2 remark, and when he informed the crowd that the next song would have a "quote breakdown unquote" in it, and he challenged them to recognize it and behave accordingly. They did. I don't know if Mike is as laid back and witty as James, but his performance was amazing. Sorry Mike, I'd write more about you, but the front man gets all the attention, you know :D
In the past, I have not felt the need to talk with band members and tell them how much I love their work. Seems rather pointless, as they get that all the time. Well, I felt the need to seek out James and tell him I wanted to have his baby. Well, I hope I was a little less scary than that. We chatted briefly, and he seemed like a nice, gracious guy. Even though we won't be neighbors, I was content.
The Insanely Talented Necrophagist
Necro came across as very professional, highly skilled musicians. The focus was completely on the music with virtually no banter other than introducing the next song. Muhammed seemed to be a very focused perfectionist artist. He did not look like he was having the time of his life; he looked satisfied with his work. All the band members were awesome players - it was especially fun to see Muhammed and the other guitarist trade blazing leads.
The only issue I had with their stellar performance was the blasting overpowered the band's sound. As a result, the tunes from Onset came across considerably better than the songs from Epitaph. On CD, the guitar is not overwhelmed with the blasts, but it was an issue in the live environment. As with Alarum, it's hard to bang your head to tech, but Necro has plenty of segments that induce serious crowd reaction. I would use the more complex segments to recover from my spastic headbanging during the riff-tastic periods. It was an awesome performance, but I know now that brutal bands, especially those that are not as skilled as Necro, are not the ideal live band for me.
We were at a bar after the show, and I saw Muhammed there. I shook his hand and thanked him for coming to our town. He was very gracious and friendly - score another point for the fellowship of heavy metal.