Sunday, May 14 2006, 4:03 PM

It starting seem that I'm destined to fail every time I try to see Nevermore live. The first failure was due to a misinterpretation of the stage schedule at Gigantour, but this time I was where I should have been! Well, apparently their singer, Warrel Dane, either wasn't able to perform, or wasn't even in the place. I couldn't make out what they said over the PA from where we were standing. In either case, I was pissed. They were the band I was looking forward to in this show, and they ditched. Lame.

Evergrey played first, much to our surprise. I would have placed them just before the headliner in that lineup, but I don't plan concerts. They might have been doing a rotating opener thing too, who knows. Since they were the first opener, their set was pretty short. I think they may have only been able to play 6 or 7 songs. They played some older ones, such as Blinded, She Speaks to the Dead, A Touch of Blessing, and maybe another one. They also played a couple songs off their new album, which I have yet to acquire. They sounded good - tight, clean, and in control. The volume on the keyboards was a little high, and it overshadowed the guitars in a lot of the verses, which is a drag. Both of Evergrey's guitarists can really shred, so they should always be front and center in my book. Overall, they were solid, even with the short set. Grade: B+

Nevermore... yah. After a 30-minute stage change, they didn't play. Grade: F-

The next band up was Throwdown. I saw them once before when they opened for Fear Factory, and they were pretty much what I remembered. They have a testosterone-laden vibe that's comparable to Pantera's "Far Beyond Driven" and "Vulgar Display of Power" albums, but they don't have the powerhouse on guitar that was Dimebag Darrel. I can't say that I was overly impressed with these guys, but at the same time, this music would be good to listen to if you were pissed off, or as workout music or something similar. The only member that was really impressive was the drummer. Jon commented that he should find some other bandmates to play with, because he was by far the most talented in the group. I agree. Since they had extra time to play due to Nevermore's absence, they threw in a few cover songs to extend their set a bit. They played "Roots, Bloody Roots" by Sepultura, and they sounded pretty good at it. That's not saying that much though, because it's a damn easy song to play. The other song they played was "A New Level" by Pantera. They played it in tribute to Dimebag, who was murdered on-stage about a year and a half ago. Jon and I both wondered how well they would pull it off. They did fine for the first part, which is just heavy rhythm. They cut the song off and went into one of their songs at the point in the song where the solo is played, which is probably a good thing. We could forsee nothing but a guitar abomination in the future if that guitarist tried to play a Dimebag solo. Overall, they weren't horrible, but not really my style. Grade: B-

In Flames headlined the show, and they were pretty good. I only have three of their albums, and my lack of knowledge about their catalog was really apparent. They played a good number of songs, probably in the 14-18 range, and I only recognized four of five of them. It didn't really matter though. They rocked out, no two ways about it. Their set was energetic, and the crowd matched it. The equalization on the guitars really bothered both Jon and myself, however. Both guitars seemed to be exceptionally mid-heavy, and their leads were almost inaudible during the first half of their set. The sound guys seemed to balance it out a little in the second half, but the treble was still too low. In Flames sports two very talented guitarists, and to barely be able to hear them flexing their muscles is a travesty. Overall, their show was quite good, and it will probably inspire me to go buy a few more of their CDs to fill in the gaps in my collection. Grade: A-

Although In Flames and Evergrey were good, I would still consider this show a disappointment. Nevermore was the band I wanted to see most, and they were AWOL. I was also disappointed with the order in which the bands played. Throwdown should never have a higher billing than Nevermore or Evergrey. I can see Nevermore or Evergrey competing for or rotating through the second and third opener spots, but neither one should be playing first opener. Had they played according to my ideal arrangement, Evergrey could have an extended set, which would have been great. I did have one cool experience though. About half way through the In Flames set, Tom, Henrik, and Jonas from Evergrey came out into the crowd where Jon and I were standing, toward the back. I partook in a little hero worship and shook Tom's hand, and thanked him for a good set. It's pretty insignificant in the whole scheme of things, but it was neat nonetheless. For the record, Tom is not 6'6"-plus like Jon and I had guessed the first time we saw Evergrey, but he is 6'3" or 6'4". I guess the stage adds a few inches.

Edit: I just came across this news post, which states that the reason Warrel Dane couldn't perform was an unspecified illness. I suppose that's more acceptable than just not being there, but it's still frustrating.

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Monday, May 08 2006, 11:35 PM

My cataract surgery is tomorrow. One might think that I'd be nervous, but I'm not really. I'm hopeful more than anything. This operation won't be some miracle cure that will make my eye perfect for all time, but I'm hoping that it will at least remove the dirty veil that I've been looking through for some time now. I probably won't know whether things have been successful for at least a few days after the procedure, but waiting is part of the process I suppose.

If I am nervous about anything, it's about the Nevermore/Evergrey/In Flames concert that's coming up this saturday. I'm normally pretty excitable at a good metal show, and this will definitely be a good one. I'm not one of those guys that's in the mosh pit pummeling himself and others for hours straight - I'd rather see the show. I do, however, shout along with the music and bang my head in a manner that would probably look pretty badass if I had hair. Well, since I'll be nursing a damaged eye-bulb, I'll have to have a protective patch, and I probably won't be able to move around too much. Shouting along with the music might not even be comfortable. Who knows. I'm sure it'll still be a good time, but I'll probably have to take it easy.

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Monday, March 20 2006, 3:33 AM

I was just looking through my cached posts from the Metal Underground RSS feed and put together a list of concerts I want to see in the coming months. The list is pretty good so far, and this is a good thing.

4/22/2006 - Chimaira and Arch Enemy @ Harpos, Detroit. I've been wanting to see Chimaira for a while now, and now I'll have the opportunity. Nevermore is on this tour up until 4/14, which kind of chaps my ass. I'll miss them by 8 days. Not such a bad thing though... keep reading.

5/13/2006 - In Flames, Evergrey, and Nevermore @ The Orbit Room, Grand Rapids. This show has awesome written all over it. I'll finally get to see Nevermore after the near miss at last year's Gigantour. Evergrey and In Flames are also top notch. I've seen Evergrey once, and their show was a lot of fun. I can only expect that this will be great as well. I might have to put together a pilgrimage for this one given its saturday night timeslot.

7/6/2006 - Slayer, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Children of Bodom @ Cobo Hall, Detroit. This concert is going to be like a ten ton wrecking ball with guitars. I saw Slayer and Mastodon last year, and barely escaped with my life. This one should be even better. I'm a huge fan of all four bands mentioned, so this concert will be something to remember.

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Saturday, October 16 2004, 12:09 AM

I just got done reading the latest posts over at dooce.com, as is my almost-daily ritual. Today's post, along with a good portion of her other posts, talks a lot about poop in various forms in the way that only Heather B. Armstrong can muster. While I don't really share her would-be obsession with poop discussions, poop is on the platter for this post, figuratively speaking. Our still-unnamed dog is making huge strides... huge strides in soiling our carpet. Yesterday was his "pee on the floor" coming out party, where he made puddles no less than 5 times. Well, in the spirit of progress, today became crap on the carpet day. The first deposit was made after I went to work but while Greg was still home, under my desk apparently. I can't say I was too happy about that, but Greg cleaned things up well enough that I didn't notice. The second was after I got home and took the dog for a walk. I learned my lesson from the morning before and waited until I was ready to take him out before I let him out of the cage. It was raining outside, so I wasn't about to wait outside all day for him to do his business. He was a good dog though and added to the rather wet conditions outside with his own unique contribution. We both went back inside, and not 3 minutes after I let him off his leash he had laid cable underneath the kitchen table, as if to say "Ha! You thought I was done! I'll show you!" I suppose I'll have to get used to it.

And in something totally unrelated to poop, I finally got the third Evergrey album that I ordered almost two months ago: Recreation Day. It was back-ordered at Amazon, which I should learn to expect. This is the sound that I remember from the concert. The other albums are most certainly sweet, but this is the Evergrey I heard on April 24th. There is a ton of double-bass throughout, sweet riffs, killer harmonies, and a ton of energy. I would recommend this album to anyone who likes metal. You can't really miss here. "Blinded" and "Visions" kick total ass, but I'm sure I'll love the whole album once I give it a few more listens.

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Sunday, September 26 2004, 8:14 AM

Ok, so I suppose it's later. So here I sit, about 1 hour from the end of this tour of midnight duty. I can't be more pleased. This is the first time I've done the two week stint of midnights, and let me tell you.... it sucks! Working 7 days straight is bad enough when you consider the things that go into it - screwed up sleep schedule, limited solar exposure, limited human exposure... you get the picture. Well, when you work 14 days straight, the same things apply times two, but everything seems to accumulate more. Phil mentioined quite a few times that he just felt himself turning almost antisocial, just wanting to snap at people all the time, especially at work. Well, I definitely got that too. Combine that with the nifty DoS event of last weekend and other things I won't mention, and it would be pretty safe to say that I was a grumpy asshole for most of the week. But, thankfully, it's almost over. My psyche and body will be happy to return to the realm of the living, but my wallet will be sorry to see the midnight shifts go. They are good for one thing - putting a good chunk of cash into the bank account.

Since things are slow (knock on wood) and there's nothing for me to do really except twiddle my fingers at this point, I suppose I can mention some things I've been meaning to mention. I've bought a few pretty sweet CDs over the past few weeks that I would definitely recommend. The first two were Evergrey CDs - 'In Search of Truth' and 'Solitude Dominance Tragedy'. I'd probably recommend ISoT more, but they're both sweet. ISoT is a concept album, which always seems to generate more interest on my part. The other disc I picked up was 'Comalies' by Lacuna Coil. This was a pretty sweet album as well, but all the songs were kinda slow. When they opened for Anthrax, I could have sworn they had some headbanging thrash songs in their repitore, but alas, they're not on this album. It's still sweet. Cristina Scabbia (their female vocalist) has a great voice, and it's kind of eerily haunting at times. And she's hot too. Does that affect her voice and the talent of the band? Probably not, but it never hurts to say it.

I might try to update some of the old stale pages on the site in my upcoming days off, and then again, I may not. I think I mentioned doing the same thing about 6 months ago, and I never touched them. We'll see I guess.

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Sunday, April 25 2004, 11:00 PM

Being one of my favorite bands, I had anticipated seeing Iced Earth for quite a while. I caught about the last 10 minutes of one of their shows when they opened up for Megadeth at St. Andrews a while back, and that 10 minutes planted the seed that made me want to look into them more. I did, and the rest is history. I went to the show with Jon, Matt, and Alex. We did the fasionably late thing, and missed the great majority of the first band's set. That's fine, because they didn't sound that great.

I'm not sure what the second band's name was, but when they said it, I couldn't hear exactly what they said. Chalk that one up to metal-show-ears. We think it's something like Bound or Mound or Pound. Whatever it is, they were pretty sweet. I don't know if they were local or were on the whole tour, because they're not listed on the Iced Earth site. Oh well. They kinda made us nervous for their first song... the singer came out and just started belting out the ball-grabbing shrieks that can turn your ears to jelly in no time, but that was the only song he did that in. They sported the 5-man power lineup - a singer, two guitarists, bass player, and a drummer. The drummer kinda looked like the main guy from Radiohead, which was kinda funny. They had a really heavy sound, and were very tight and crisp, which caught our attention right away. They did a decent amount of traded leads between the two guitarists, and they did some cool harmonies as well. There were also a few songs with really cool off-beat rhythms, which is always neat when you can pull it off, and they did. I'd like to find out exactly who they were, because they were really solid, and I'd definitely check them out further. Grade: B+

The third band was Evergrey. From what they said and what I saw on their website, they're from Sweden. The first thing we noticed was how freakin tall the frontman was... the dude had to be at least 6'5". The guitar looked like a freaking toy in his hands. They had a really cool sound. They could thrash with the best of them, but they also had a very melodic side, which is very cool. There were a few songs where they would combine both aspects - opening up with a insanely fast sequence, then calming down and doing some really cool melodic stuff. They also had a good amount of dual lead responsibilities between their two guitarists, with a lot of harmonies. Since I know who they are, I'll definitely give these guys some further attention. Grade: B+

The last in a long series of opening bands was Children of Bodom. They were pretty sweet musically, but their singer/lead guitarist had a vocal style that grated on me pretty heavily. It just sounded like a bark, and he didn't vary it at all. He should definitely stick to his guitar playing, which was very sweet. He did tons of crazy lead stuff, and in most of their songs, did some awesome harmonized lead lines with their keyboard player, who was also pretty damn good. I may check these guys out further, but the constant barking vocals kinda turned me off. These guys had a pretty large following in attendance, which kinda surprised me. A good portion of the crowd was chanting for them before they came out. It must be pretty cool to be a Finnish band having people chant your name in Detroit before you come out on stage. Grade: B

After 4 opening bands, Iced Earth came out, probably around 11:00pm. They opened up with Declaration Day from The Glorious Burden. Following that (in no particular order) were Angels Holocaust, Violate, Vengeance is Mine, Burning Times, Melancholy, Dracula, When the Eagle Cries, Greenface, and Red Baron. They closed out the 'main' portion of their show with the Something Wicked This Way Comes trilogy (Prophecy, Birth of the Wicked, and The Coming Curse). They finished that portion of the show and said goodnight at about 12:15, so we knew there was more in store. We weren't disappointed. They came back out shortly after, with Jon Schaffer in a Confederate soldier's jacket, holding a Les Paul with a Confederate flag painted on it. Ralph Santolla (I assume it's him) had a Union Jacket on, with the US flag of that time painted on his Les Paul. They proceeded to play the entire Gettysburg Trilogy (The Devil to Pay, Hold At All Costs, High Water Mark), which was a treat. They closed out the show with Iced Earth, which is pretty much a staple as far as I know. It was insane though - somewhere during one of the changes between a heavy part and a slower melodic part, Tim Owens belted out one of his trademark ball-grabbing screams, but he held the note for at least 30 seconds. It was insane. Everyone in the band was just standing there looking at him. Jon Shaffer was just staring at him with this awestruck smile, Richard Christy stood up in his drum kit and did the Wayne's World "We're not worthy" thing about half-way through, and the bass player (James MacDonough I assume) brought up a bottle of water and put it next to his mouth after about 20 seconds of the wail. It was great.

Overall, I think Iced Earth played very well, but the mix seemed a bit off from our vantage point. Jon Schaffer's guitar was a tad loud, and Ralph Santolla's guitar was a bit quiet, but only in the higher ranges. When he let a power chord fly, it smacked you in the stomach, but his leads sounded quiet to me. Also, the bass drums on the drum kit seemed too quiet, but the rest of the drums were fine. Tim Owens was at a perfect volume, and he was very clear and discernable, which is a credit to his voice. My suspicions about Jon Schaffer have to be true after seeing him play his triplet-riffing madness style in person - he's either got a bionic right arm or he's superhuman in someway. He played every song flawlessly, nailing every part that would turn the right arms of mere mortals into jelly in 10 seconds flat. Tim Owens sounded awesome. I had my reservations on how well his voice would make the Matt Barlow era songs sound, but he did an excellent job with them. The older songs (pre-Matt Barlow) sound like they were made for him, so there was no problems there. The song selection was really cool, and seeing both the Something Wicked and Gettysburg trilogies played in their entriety was a treat. As sweet as it was, I'm not convinced that the Gettysburg trilogy was a great choice for a live show. They played all of the orchestration and the miscellaneous sound effects as a track, while the band played the rather simple (for the most part) rhythms and leads. Owens nailed the vocal parts for it, but in my opinion, those three songs would be better suited to stay in their CD form, where they're nothing short of excellence. All in all, the show was very sweet, and well worth the 4 opening bands and the 6 hours of standing. Grade: A+

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