So last night I went to a metal show. 5 acts, 7:30-like midnight (I left before the assumed encore of the final act). I payed twenty something dollars Good show, all-in-all.
The first two acts where local bands. Which means they were not that good. The first act, Immortal Guardian, seemed like a good band. Like, generic, but good. That's kinda the problem with small bands like that, I suppose. The second act was kinda lame. Their vocalist came on stage making the love sign instead of the metal sign (subtle, but key difference) and he didn't have a very good voice in my mind. Finally blackguard took the stage. Now, Blackguard is not by any means a special band in terms of sound. They have a good sound, but its generic. However, they have an amazing stage presence. They got on the stage and I instantly could tell the difference in their performance and even the quality of their music. Its generic, but its not super generic. They also managed to do something that I find very difficult: sound pretty much exactly the same as they do in the studio. They had a short set, like 30 minutes. However, it was a good set. I feel like they did their thing and gave us a show and it was over.
Next band was Powerglove. I knew very little about this band except that they were an instrumental band that sang music based off of 80s video games and TV shows. They come on stage dressed up as characters out of Mario, their drummer has flags attached to his back (more like Banners, honestly) and they start jamming away in the most metal fashion ever. I didn't think it was possible to Mosh to a Mario song, now I know it is. So amazing. I think these guys were the best act of the night, in all honesty. Its probably because I'm a bit biased towards silly music and the like, but a band that doesn't take itself seriously like that is my favorite. Their guitarist told me after the show that he “revels in the absurdity” of their style and I think he has the right mindset. Play your solos and riffs seriously, but play the silliest solos and riffs you can think of!
Symphony X was next and to be honest, I was a little disappointed. Metal is really loud, that's half the fun. But Symphony X is too technical to really have that enhance their music. You can fix that by making your bass and drums and low end sounds not so dominant, or you can ignore this problem and just hope the crowd doesn't mind. They chose the later and in my opinion they concert suffered as a result. Symphony X, unlike Blackguard, which is just a band you're supposed to headbang and mosh to, I feel are more of a “watch the performance” band. They had a good performance (props to their frontman for grabbing a inflatable sword left over from Powerguard and shadow fencing on stage), but I couldn't hear the details of their music, and that's what Prog metal is, in my mind, all about. If I could have heard their vocals and guitar solos 100% of the time, or even 80% of the time, really, I would have been happy. I felt like it was more like 75% or 60%, really. I mean, I guess their live sound works for them, after 8 albums and years of touring. But I wasn't a fan of it.
So Symphony X was a bit of the bummer, but the rest of the bands I think were respectable. Power Glove is amazing and everyone should go get their music, and Blackguard played a solid show just like I expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment