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Tuesday, September 26 2006, 2:58 AM

It was a dark and stormy night.... Er, wait. It was a cold and stormy night.... Nah, that's not right either. It was a cold and windy night... Now we're cookin. It was certainly cold and windy, but I didn't care much since four of my favorite bands were going to share the same stage. I went with a few guys from work, Gene and Nick, and their buddy Aaron. We all made the pilgrimage to Pine Knob, one of my favorite spots to check out a show.

The four lesser-known bands that opened the show were all decent-to-good, the best being Overkill. They've been around for a long time from what I gather, and easily had the largest following of the opening four. They brought an old-school metal sound into the mix, with a lot of New York attitude. A huge sod fight also broke out on the lawn during their set. I can't remember if it was as spectacular as the one that took place during the Jerry Cantrell/Metallica show I saw at the Knob in '98, but it was a sight nonetheless. It also got old pretty quickly, but the teenager types thought it was a riot to pelt the people further down the hill with tufts of sod. I didn't think it was all that fun, but I remembering having a lot better time back in the day when I was the one throwing the grass. I guess grass-throwing loses its appeal with age.

Arch Enemy was the first of the larger bands to play. With eight bands playing, even the bigger bands had pretty abbreviated sets. AE probably played a good 45 minutes I would imagine. They played a good mix of songs, and the crowd was enjoying it, mostly because of Angela Gossow, their singer. Yep, she's hot. And her vocals would scare small children. Both are good qualities for a woman fronting a metal band. Given that they could only play for 45 minutes, they made the best of it. Definitely a good showing. Grade: A

Opeth was up next. They were the band I wanted to see most, by far. I had seen the other three big bands there at least once, but I hadn't seen Opeth yet. They made the most of their 45 minutes as well... by playing four songs. Opeth songs tend to be quite long, to say the least. They opened up with "Ghost of Perdition," followed by "Windowpane," "The Leper Affinity," and "Deliverance." It was a pretty good mix considering the curcumstances, but I really wish they had another fifteen minutes so they could have fit another song in there. Hearing something like "Blackwater Park" or "Serenity Painted Death" probably would have forced an accident in my pants. I was cracking up a decent amount during their set though. There were quite a few people there that knew Opeth and their style, but there were also a bunch that didn't. They were easily identified by the "WTF?" looks on their face whenever Opeth would drop into a clean section of a song, or pretty much through all of "Windowpane." These sections don't exactly fit in a stereotypical metal show. I don't care though - Opeth rules. The only bad thing about their set is that one of the guitars was barely audible, which made the songs sound pretty funny in places. Grade: A-

Lamb of God occupied the next-to-last slot, and because of it, they had a longer set, probably on the order of an hour and a half. They're a force to be reckoned with nowadays, and it was evident as soon as they came out. They showed up Slayer when I saw them together a few months back, and they were aiming to claim this show as their own as well. They easily had the tightest and most well-mixed sound of all the bands that played, and they weren't taking prisoners either. They played quite a few older songs, including my personal Lamb of God favorite, "Vigil." They also played a good three or four songs off the new album "Sacrament." They were on throughout their whole set, and the crowd was loving it. They definitely achieved their goals and stole the show. Grade: A

Gigantour is Dave Mustaine's baby, so it's natural that Megadeth headlined the show. This was my fifth time seeing Megadeth, but sadly, it was probably the worst show I saw them put on. I'm not sure why, but Dave Mustaine just wasn't on. He seemed visibly agitated for the first couple songs, walking off to the sides of the stage to talk to stage hands between songs and during long instrumental breaks. It may have been due to time restrictions, because he made a point of announcing that they had to rush through their set due to the hard kurfew present at Pine Knob. In any case, he just wasn't on his game. His vocals were pretty weak through most of the songs. He sings with a few distinct styles, and it didn't seem like he was hitting any of them. The mix was also really bad. The vocals and drums were noticiably quiet, while the guitars were way too loud. I like loud guitars as much as the next guy, but they shouldn't drown out the rest of the band. The set list was pretty strong, and they played a new song off the album they're releasing next year. It sounded pretty good. Not "Rust In Peace"-era Megadeth good, but good nonetheless. Grade: B

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Friday, August 25 2006, 1:22 AM

I guess I haven't been in much of a posting state of mind over the past few weeks juding by the lack of new words being shown around here. It happens. Some cool things have happened recently though, so I guess I could talk about them.

First, I got an office at work. There's no significant promotion or anything like that associated with it, but it is pretty damned cool. I got the office because it puts me in a position to share my experience with some of the newer guys while they work on servers, which was an area that was lacking beforehand. So that's good. It's also good that my office is pretty big, and it has a huge desk. I need to make it cooler still, but it's coming along. I have a few pictures in the gallery here.

Another cool thing is that my sister's boyfriend Jay sold me a nice quality TV. It's only a 24", but it has a beautiful picture, modern inputs, and it doesn't take 10 minutes to warm up like my previous TV. It's pretty nice to just be able to crash on the couch and watch something, even though I don't watch TV that much.

Third on the cool list is some cool musical acquistions. I picked up the new Lamb of God album, "Sacrament," on tuesday, and it kicks all kinds of ass. Lamb of God rocked hard before, but they've upped their game. I wouldn't say that they'd appeal to any metal fan because they have a somewhat prog-ish sound wth lots of rhythm changes, but I like it, and that's all that counts. Another sweet CD I picked up came at the recommendation of a guy from work - "In The Eyes of Fire" by Unearth. I hadn't heard any of their stuff before he lent me the CD, but I'll be hearing a lot more. They are a total powerhouse. Their guitarists play with a fury, alternating effortlessly between groove-laden riffs and frenetic melodies and solos. I've only had their CD for a day or so, but it's definitely one I'll be listening to for a long while.

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Wednesday, July 26 2006, 8:03 PM

Another string of sweet concerts just came down the concert news wire, and all in a ten day span. It would seem that my hearing is going to take a beating... :)

2006/09/15 - Mastodon at The Majestic Theater, Detroit, MI

2006/09/19 - Clutch at The Temple Club, Lansing, MI

2006/09/24 - Gigantour 2 at Pine Knob (a.k.a. DTE Energy Ampitheater), Clarkston, MI

I just saw Mastodon a few weeks ago, but they were in an opening slot and didn't get to play that much. They're headlining this tour, and should have ample room to play a ton of their songs, which will make for a sweet show. It's totally neat that Clutch is playing right here in town, so I won't have to go very far to see this one. The Temple Club isn't that big, so tickets may be hard to come by. This year's Gigantour has another round of sweet bands, including Megadeth, Opeth, Arch Enemy, and Lamb of God. Those four bands are probably enough to force an accident in my pants, but the idea of Gigantour is to have nothing but technically excellent bands who know how to rock, so I'm sure I'll find more bands to enjoy as well.

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Monday, July 10 2006, 12:56 PM

I guess it's just not my year for concerts. First off I have to ask - who starts a concert, which lies squarely in downtown Detroit, at 5:30 PM? I've only once heard of a concert starting before 7 PM on a weekday, and that was Gigantour last year. They had to start early though, as they had 10 bands that had to play, and had Pine Knob's 11PM outdoor-concerts-must-stop policy to contend with. This show, however, did not. Since the show started so early, we completely missed the two openers - Some band I don't know, and Children of Bodom. It sucks that we missed CoB, but I've seen them twice before, so I know what they're like. The other bands I've only seen once at most.

We arrived just in time for Mastodon. I saw them once before at the last Slayer show I attended, and at that point I didn't know any of their stuff. I was well prepared this time. They played a bunch of good songs, and a couple new ones off their new album, "Blood Mountain," which comes out sometime later in the summer. As much as I like their music, I think that the transition to live music isn't always the best for them. Their sound is naturally very thick, raw, and unproduced, and when that's combined with high volume and less-than-optimal acoustics, it just kinda turns into a droning noise that really makes it hard to pick out the subtle nuances that make their sound so unique. I still dig the show they put on though. They're a supremely talented band with a bright future. Grade: A-

Lamb of God was up next. This was the only band in the lineup that I hadn't seen before, so I was hoping for a good show. They didn't disappoint. They played pretty much every song I would have liked to hear. One thing I noticed is that they played noticbly slower than the recorded versions of their songs. It just could be that they wanted to introduce another element of heavyness to spur on the moshers down on the floor - who knows. In any case, they put on a great show with a lot of energy. Good times. Grade A-

Slayer closed out the bill, and were another small source of disappointment in the show. They played a good number of their 'classics,' but they just didn't really seem into the show. They just went through the motions from my perspective, and I could have sworn that I heard a few miscues in a couple songs. Not exactly something you'd expect from a band that's been around as long as they have. One possible source of their lack of enthusiasm very well might have been the crowd itself. We all made the observation that the crowd in general was much more enthusiastic for Lamb of God. A good portion of people were just standing around while Slayer was on stage, and I actually saw a few people sleeping towards the end of the show. Well, they may have been passed out drunk too, who knows. Not everyone shares my no-drinking-at-concerts sentiments. In any case, Slayer wasn't looking great, and neither was the crowd. This may have contributed to something I've only seen once or twice in all of the concerts I've been to - the headlining band not coming out for an encore. I guess I can understand, but it's rather disappointing. Grade: B-

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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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Monday, September 19 2005, 12:49 AM

Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated. It just seems like I'm in one of those funks where I lose interest in a lot of things, and it would seem that posting regularly on my website is one of those things. Combine that with the fact that I have nothing to say for the most part, and you get this. There are people like dooce that can post three times a day and it's always interesting, insightful, or humorous, but I'm not one of those people.

One thing I can say is that I've been listening to a few new bands as of late, and they all have made it into my "cool bands" category. Chimaira and Nevermore top that list. Chimaira's latest album, "Chimaira," is fucking awesome, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone that gives the horns on a regular basis. There are some total headbanger songs on it, the most of which being "Save Ourselves." That song really gets the blood moving. Nevermore's latest album, "This Godless Endeavor," is also quite sweet. I missed them on Gigantour, but I won't let that stop me. They actually benefit from a good singer, which is in short supply these days. They are a total 7-string band, but in the best way. They use the whole range of the 7-string instead of just banging on the low B like all of the crap bands of today seem to do. They also are quite masterful with leads, and their drummer is sweet as well.

I've also picked up a few In Flames and Lamb of God discs as well. They get a bit more of a mixed review. In Flames is pretty good musically, but they have another one of those horrid singers, somewhat along the lines of Children of Bodom. Their older stuff seems to be musically awesome though, so it looks like I'll be learning to tolerate more crappy vocals much like I have with CoB. Lamb of God is an enigma to me... one minute I'm totally digging what they're doing, and the next I'm like, "why am I listening to this again?" They're growing on me though. They have a pretty talented rhythm section that does a lot of cool syncopated rhythms, but a lot of the time they sound like one of those crappy 7-string bands that I referred to earlier. Then they'll prove me wrong and rip off a sweet riff or a cool harmonized lead part, and then I'm confused again. Their vocalist could be better classified as a "barker," but at least barks coherently and clearly. It's suprisingly easy to understand what he's saying, so I guess there's something to be said about that.

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Monday, October 11 2004, 2:50 AM

I'm up and I can't friggin sleep, so I guess I'll write this up now. Technically there were three other bands at the show, but Fear Factory and Children of Bodom were the bands we went to see. I went with my metal-concert-buddy Matt, and his friend Anne from LTU.

The first band was pretty bad to be brutally honest. I think they were a local band, because they weren't listed on the bill anywhere. They looked like they were going for some sort of gimmick, because they had three complete drum kits out on the stage, and there were always at least three guys beating on them. A few times, the guitarists and bass player would put down their instruments, and grab some drumsticks and start beating on a floor tom or something... It was really lame. Other than the lame drumming thing, the rest of the music was pretty lame too... totally simplistic riffs, lame vocals, just really not that interesting. I give them credit for getting out there and trying, but that's about it. Grade: D.

The next band that played was called Throwdown. They were all right, much better than the asshats in the first band. They were a hardcore rap-metal band, but weren't really anything special in the grand scheme of things. They got my foot tapping a bit, so I guess they must have been doing something right. Grade: B-

Next up was Children of Bodom. I saw them open for Iced Earth a while back, and I've been hooked ever since. They only played two songs I recognized from the one album I've been able to find, but it was still sweet. They have a lot of energy up on stage, and always look like they're having a great time, which helps keep the crowd into the show. I definitely need to find a way to get more of their CDs... stupid stores not having good music... Anyways, I digress. Their set wasn't nearly as long as I would have liked, but they're an opening band, such is life. Had they been able to play more songs, their set would have easily got an A grade, but since they only got 40 minutes, it gets an A-.

Fear Factory was up next. I've been listening to them for a long time, proabably since I heard Zero Signal on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. Yes, I own the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. Shut up. I've been a sucker for any decent music with a double-bass drum presence, and Fear Factory gives out huge doses of that. Raymond Herrera is freakin nuts when he's playing. I don't know how his legs move that fast. It's as much of a quandry to me as Jon Schaffer's (Iced Earth) insane triplet riffing. Damn rockstars and their bionic limbs... This was also my first glimpse of the new Fear Factory lineup... You'd never know Christian used to be their bass player. He's picked up the guitar duties without missing a beat. He doesn't have the stage presence Dino had, but the metal was surely flowing freely from his guitar. Due to the dual-headlining nature of the show, they were also forced into a shorter set list, but they made the best of it. They opened up with the first two songs of Archetype, Slave Labor and Cyberwaste. They set up a pattern where they played two of the better songs from each of their albums, which was sweet. If I remember right the set included (in no particular order) Martyr, Big God (raped souls), Demanufacture, Zero Signal, Replica, Shock, Edgecrusher, the before-mentioned Slave Labor and Cyberwaste, and Archetype. Those are pretty much the Fear Factory A-List as far as I'm concerned. The only two songs I would consider "missing" would be Obsolete and H-K. Had the set been longer, perhaps I would have heard them, but alas, that's the nature of the beast. Overall, they rocked. Grade: A.

We left after Fear Factory, mainly due to the fact that none of us except Matt had heard any Lamb of God songs, and he said he wasn't impressed by them. So we took off early, beat the crowds, and got a head start on getting shitcanned back in Anne's room. All in all, a very good night.

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