I went to go see Gojira live at Cardiff International Arena on Friday 17th February 2023. I have owned Gojira material since about 2012, but never really considered myself a big fan until April 2021, when the French Prog / Extreme Metal band released their absolutely phenomenal Fortitude album and everything just clicked for me, and I ended up buying all the rest of their discography.
I’d been hearing for years in podcast, website and magazine form about what a special live band they were, and so once I had finally gelled with the band and been converted I was incredibly excited to see them live ever since. About a year ago, I saw that they were playing close to me, but the tour date was so close to the birth of my son I couldn’t / wouldn’t go. Luckily for me however, the original dates got rescheduled by a year due to post-pandemic reasons, and I was able to go to the rescheduled date this year (and with a year more Gojira fandom under my belt, I’d be even more able to appreciate it).
Due to work and childcare commitments, I didn’t actually even leave the house until after doors had opened at the arena, and by the time I drove to the city, parked, hoofed it towarsds the arena and had been to the toilet at the arena, I had completely missed both support bands by the time I found my balcony seat (so cannot comment on the quality of the support acts at all). I arrived to witness a screen with a countdown, which was at about 80 seconds. I had just about got my coat off when the show started. Brilliant timing; didn’t miss any Gojira!
The setlist was brilliant for me, focusing mainly on Fortitude (6 songs of the 17-song set) and then some of their more noteworthy tracks from other albums (3 from Magma, 2 from L’Enfant Sauvage, 2 from The Way Of All Flesh, 3 from their From Mars To Sirius album and the one-off new single “Our Time Is Now”). I had a whale of a time, and am glad they took this approach, although I could imagine some longer-standing fans might be disappointed with the lack of early material. That being said, I think they chose the right material for the arena setting, and did well to balance their more heavy and dense material with their most accesible stuff so the show flowed very well without going too far in any one direction.
Visually, it is one of the most tasteful arena shows I’ve seen in years. Comparable to 10,000 Days-era Tool rather than say something big and theatrical like Rammstein or Alice Cooper. The production was great with all sorts of psychedelic videos, Floydian lasers, and even some sparing steam cannons and confetti whilst still seeming arty and tasteful most of the time. Even the lighting was really clever and well programmed. A treat for the eyes. (The photos don’t really do it any sort of justice at all, because it was all about slow evolving movements of trippy growing/changing imagery and lighting with arty intent, which was all tied and timed cleverly to the music. You know the bit in The Wall movie where the flowers grow during “Empty Spaces”? Like that, but for 2023).
Conversely, despite how understated and refined the stage-show was, the band’s actual performance was surprisingly fun. I was expecting a dour, serious, and moody afair… but they were fist pumping, headbanging, body swinging performers… the bassist was doing jumping splits and spins like a mixture of Blink 182 meets Van Halen… and despite being one of the most complex and technical drummers I’ve ever seen with my own eyes, Mario is a master showman who swings his arms about, flails and does stick tricks like a mix between Tommy Lee and the “this drummer is at the wrong gig” guy – there was even a fun drum solo with audience participation and which wasn’t boring (how few drum solos can you say that about?). Singer Joe made some jokes on stage and seemed genuinely concerned when a fan temporarily hurt themself, and there was the sort of song teasing and “hey, hey” bits you’d expect from a huge good time rock act like AC/DC rather than a crushing band who have songs like “Backbone” (stream it if you don’t know what I mean). Overall, they played like it was a party, even if they planned a show like an arthouse movie.
The sound was perfect, clear and brilliantly balanced. You could hear everything to almost album-perfect degrees, but with enough live edge to prevent it going too sterile.
They ended the evening with what has become my favourite song of theirs (“Amazonia”) and the whole thing felt like a massive celebration. Its crazy that a band this proggy, extreme and dense (see “Flying Whales”) get to headline an arena when much more melodic palatable bands like Anthrax and Megadeth can only sub-headline this same venue, and bands that have been all over “normal” radio like The Libertines or The Fratellis are playing smaller shows than this. What a triumph for this band!
A few days ago, I was kind of dreading the show a bit, because as much as I love Fortitude and Magma, I felt a bit of imposter syndrome about not being a big enough fan… due to being a latecomer, but it was a magnificent show and I’m really glad I went. I know I write this almost every time but I really recommend seeing them live.
I went to go see Parkway Drive (with While She Sleeps and Lorna Shore supporting) in Cardiff last night, at the Motorpoint Arena, on Monday 3rd October 2022. To say I was hyped up for this would be an understatement. Parkway Drive are routinely called on podcasts and magazines and websites etc “the best live band of their generation” and the last time I saw them is pretty much the single best concert I’ve ever been to. One of their albums (Ire) was my album of the decade (the entire decade) and we are fresh in the hype cycle for their new record so I had Parkway on the brain this month anyway so excellent timing.
After work, travel, parking and finding a bathroom, I got to the gig in time for the opening band, Lorna Shore’s first song. I had heard good things about them online, but after this concert I can safely say they are not my cup of tea. Their singer has an excellent voice (very Randy Blythe live) but they have no memorable songs. It was technical, impressive, but utterly unmoving.
A band to appreciate rather than enjoy. It didn’t help that their music is a bit too extreme for a big echoey arena, they would have sounded much better on a club stage. They also didn’t have the stage presence or show for a big stage and the sound mix was utterly terrible (curse of the opening act). I did see quite a few people in their merch, so they must have their own fans, but I wasn’t converted tonight.
Next came the British Melodic Metalcore band While She Sleeps. I had heard of this band for years and years, ever since The North Stands For Nothing was raved about on the old Metal Hammer Podcast many years ago, and have heard hype for all their album releases and major UK festival appearances and steps up in size over the years, but never actually heard a second of their music myself until tonight. It was very entertaining. If you like Architects, Enter Shikari or BMTH you’d probably enjoy them. They don’t sound exactly like any of those bands, but I think their audience would cross over quite a bit. They were very bouncy, energetic, poppy in places, there was a lot of electronics, and their light show was very colourful.
It was a bright, loud, youthful, party, with electronics and lots of clapping and singing along. The singer got in the crowd and sang a song whilst crowd-surfing. Even though I didn’t really know their music, and am not sure if I would buy any, I had a good time and can recognise that objectively they are a very good live band. If you do like them and yet haven’t seen them live yet, you’re definitely missing out.
Finally, the main even took the stage. They didn’t just repeat the same stage set up and spectacle as last time. The stage was covered in spikes (Maybe military “dragon’s teeth” ?), there was a big screen at the back that projected cool imagery like rotting trees, creepy bell towers and a mountain pass “opening,” on top of some of the cool stuff they did last time like the robed figures carrying torches, the boatloads of pyro, the sparks and explosions etc. (Shame about no flaming spinning drumkit though, that is entertainment gold).
As a spectacle, Parkway Drive do live concerts as well as any major “must see” live band. I’ve seen Rammstein now and didn’t think they did “show” as well as Parkway. Slipknot, Tool, Ghost, Alice Cooper, none of them were as well-designed, aesthetically pleasing and sheer smile-inducing as Parkway. (To get an idea, go on youtube and look up “Parkway Drive – Crushed Live at Bloodstock 2019” – and that’s only the flames not even the rest of it). They just look incredible on stage.
But, even on an empty, unlit, no-spectacle stage, Parkway Drive would still have been one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen due to the sheer power, presence and character of the performance. Winston McCall is the absolute best frontman in music right now in my personal opinion. No one is more commanding, endearing and captivating on a stage. He has such a gravitas, class and spirit that is utterly spell binding. Other people can hammer their arms or punch the floor, or stand in silhouette, but when Winston does it, you feel like something important and life changing is happening. He is just utterly magnetic and incandescent.
The band also all get spotlights for key guitar solos (that massive November Rain style mountain top guitar solo I mentioned on the title track for the new album for example) or drum fills or bass grooves. On a few songs a string section came out and really rocked out, thrashing around, headbanging and getting really into it. The energy was electric, the magic was palpable. Jeff is an absolute guitar hero nowadays and Ben’s drums are utterly thunderous (especially when he rides the floor tom, like the verses to “Prey”), you feel like you are watching absolute masters of the craft.
The setlist was great, four songs each from the three newest albums (meaning four songs from the peerless Ire album) plus a song each from the three albums before that. The songs chosen were the ones that demand the most crowd singalong or clapping or jumping. It was very cleverly chosen to make the most audience participation possible. Looking at the setlist, there may be songs you like more on record, but they clearly know what they need to get a crowd in a frenzy, singing along to every guitar line like south American Iron Maiden fans. There were so many little memorable moments I wouldn’t even want to write them all down, but one of my favourites the guitarists running around Winston in a circle when he was asking the crowd for circle pits.
The sound/mix was great, the heavy parts sounding massive and the guitar leads were clear, the drums were prominent and you could hear every word of the vocals. It felt bigger than a typical concert, it was mixed to feel cinematic, which I guess aligns with the dark arty video screens and hooded monks on stage etc.
Great sound, great songs, great performance, great spectacle, absolutely great all around. “I recommend you go see them” is the understatement of the year. If I could only see one band live ever again, I’d pick Parkway Drive. Big words, but not hyperbole. I’m dead level-headed serious!
I Went to go and see Machine Head & Amon Amarth Live in Cardiff at the Motorpoint Arena, on Friday the 9th of September 2022. This was the fourth time I have seen Machine Head live, and the second time I’ve seen Amon Amarth live (although 3rd time I’ve had tickets to Amon Amarth… and accidentally forgot to go once, what a twat!).
I’ve been really hyped for this Machine Head concert since the release of their surprisingly great new album, Of Kingdom And Crown, and have been on a bit of a Machine Head listening-bender for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been on setlistfm nearly every day for the past week and a half trying to predict what they’ll play. They’ve done some warm up shows in Scotland and brought out some great setlist surprises that you don’t hear every time, but then in interviews frontman Rob Flynn has stated he is just going to keep it simple and play the hits everyone wants.
I’ve said it before, but Machine Head, especially on their killer run from Ashes’ through to Bloodstone’ (and their first two records are all time classics too) are in my opinion one of the absolute best bands in the whole Metal genre, and they are an utterly excellent live band so any time I can for the rest of my life, I’m going to be hyped to see them live.
The first two times I saw them, they were doing their epic three hour long An Evening With shows, both of which I have some of my fondest concert memories of, and the third time was touring the publicly-maligned Catharsis album really soon before excellent drummer and guitarist Dave McClain and Phil Demmel left the band. This will be my first time seeing the band with new guitarist Vogg (Decapitated) and drummer Matt Alston (Devilment) – I was very curious to see if the band could retain their sense of identity without their longest-serving drummer or their fan favourite guitarist who totally revitalised the band back in the day.
Amon Amarth have come a long way since I first saw them opening for Trivium, Mastodon and Slayer in Wolverhampton with no stage show back in around 2008, touring their now-iconic Twilight Of The Thundergod album, getting bigger and bigger over time until now they are an arena band. Judging from their live DVD they had been putting on bigger stage shows before then too, but it has really escalated over the years and now they are famed as a big-spectacle live act that everyone must see. I was very excited to see them again and reconnect. I remember in the wake of that previous concert, I was very excited for the band, and started being a fan then and there, but due to the cost of some of their old albums at the time, I never got all of their back catalogue, and then each time they released a new album after the Thundergod-follow-up Surtur Rising, I’d always been planning to get it, but then just not got around to it due to money or timing against other band’s releases, and slowly fell out of synch with the band for no particular reason. In the build-up for this concert though, I’ve been listening to the Amon Amarth albums that I do own, and streaming the stuff I’ve missed, and I feel quite the fool. They really are a stellar band, and the stuff released after Surtur seems to be even more to my taste (“Shield Wall,” “Put Your Back Into The Oar” and “Fafner’s Gold” in particular are so catchy and memorable, I’m kicking myself for not keeping up with the band).
But enough of the preamble, onto the show…
The opening act were The Halo Effect, a new band, but made up of ex-members of In Flames. I’ve seen In Flames live before and wasn’t particularly won over. After a long day at work, some time with the kids and food, I made it to the concert while The Halo Effect were already on stage, so only caught about 3 full songs. The sound was ok, but there was something wrong with the lead guitar audio, it came out distorted and weird sounding in a way you could tell was a mistake. The songs seemed decent enough, the direction was slightly clean melodeath, nothing particularly fancy. There wasn’t much to talk about really. It was a fine opening, but I wasn’t exactly converted for life.
Next up, came the Norsemen. They certainly didn’t come across as amateur. It was a high production value, massive spectacle, very impressive show. There were people in costumes (soldiers, men at arms swordfighting, and even in the grand tradition of bands like Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden having a roadie in a monster costume running around… the trickster god Loki during the ‘Deceiver title track) as well as big inflatables in the tradition of Dio (Statues, Viking Longships, and even the sea serpent Ragnarok), there were props like Thor’s hammer Mjoliner which fireworks were cunningly times to coincide with it striking, a lot of pyro, cool stage set pieces, multiple backdrops, a clever lightshow that simulated storms or seas etc depending on the story of the song, and video screens in the eyes of the helmet. Very impressive… a proper arena show.
They played basically all the 10 most-played songs on youtube-music, most of the above mentioned songs, some classics like “The Pursuit Of Vikings,” and “Guardians Of Asguard,” Some newer tracks from the brand new album, one from ‘Deciever, and bits from Jomsviking and Berserker. They closed with a rousing rendition of “Twilight Of The Thundergod” which was absolutely stupendous. I was surprised they didn’t play “Death In Fire” as I was under the impression that was a real must-have, but I guess it’s a bit old fashioned, and they didn’t play my personal favourite song of theirs “Runes To My Memory” but I didn’t mind because it was a completely riotous set of wall-to-wall bangers. The only time the energy dipped a bit was for the title track of the new album, but otherwise it was pure adrenaline, catchy melodies, memorable vocal hooks and lots of “hey….hey….hey…” fist pumping/chanting. Lovely, lovely stuff.
Sometimes heavy metal is serious and dour. Sometimes, Johan Hegg has an entire crowd of people making rowing-gestures in a song about oarsmen. Variety is the spice of life.
I utterly fucking loved this show, and have a hugely renewed interest in Amon Amarth, and will make sure to get more of their records now. I have such respect and admiration for them. (Not only for the brilliant spectacle of the visuals, but the immensely fun heavy metal music).
If that had been the concert finished then and there, I’d have been very satisfied. However, I wasn’t ready for the near transcendent experience that was a renewed, reviatalised, firing on all cylinders, something to prove Machine Head delivering just the hits in a condensed, furious, no bullshit, hard as nails manner. Every cliché I’ve just written there… not actually a cliché… actually 100% true accurate description.
Visually it was a very different beast than Amon Amarth were, there were no balloons, actors, costume changes… it was a really tasteful but clever light show, with the occasional bit of tasteful pyro and one confetti storm at the end… but the main vibe was sleek, clean, futuristic and minimalist (as far as an arena level lighting and laser show can be). I really enjoyed it. It doesn’t look it from the photos, but it was actually even cooler than Amon Amarth’s very cool show. Just in a totally different way.
It wasn’t the visuals that made Machine Head the best band of the night though, it was the songs, and the way they were performed.
They opened with the heaviest song off the crushing new album, then proceeded to play basically all the songs with a music video, like “Ten Ton Hammer,” “Davidian,” “Imperium,” “Aesthetics Of Hate ,“ “Locust,” “Halo” etc. The odd song out was “From This Day” which isn’t one of their fast heavy super-metal ones, but rather a bouncy rap-metal experiment, but it was great anyway. They played three songs from my favourite album, Unto The Locust, which I found especially enjoyable. I would have liked to see more from the new record, but I’ve just been spoiled by their previous 25-29 song Evening-With tours. For a coheadline set, it was sheer perfection. So many all-time gems in such a short space of time was really life affirming. What made it even better was the deep and profound conviction, breath-taking performance and sheer fucking joy of the band on stage. It wasn’t even weird that Dave and Phil were gone… it was sheer quality from start to finish, utter triumph.
I have rarely screamed harder, clapped more, or basically enjoyed myself more than I did tonight. Air-drumming basically every song for the whole night, air guitaring every solo, singing every chorus and mosh call. The atmosphere was unbelievably electric. I utterly adored this concert. Every time I see the band, they become closer and closer to my favourite band, and this was perhaps the best I’ve ever seen them, and that is a ridiculously high bar!
If you have any chance at all, go see this. You will not regret it.
This was my first concert, gig or night out at all since the pandemic. I actually got the tickthts for this as a birthday gift in 2019!
Other bands who I had tickets for pre-pandemic, like WASP castagencelled their gigs, some postponed theirs until it wasn't possible for me to go anymore, with work or around the birth of my second son. One, I was just straight up was too anxious to go, having been stuck inside too long and I eneded up chickening-out and just giving the tickets away for free to a random fan on the internet.
I still didn't really feel ready for this gig yet either, and thought about cancelling many times... but the idea of it being a birthday gift, and of having the tickets for basically three years now, kind of made me feel obliged to go.
In the run up to the event, I had seen news peices about how Cardiff wasn't a good city for stadium gigs, with travel chaos and inadequate infastructure, people missing gigs due to being stuck in the car etc, which didn't help my trepidation any.
Despite me only living a 25 minute drive from Cardiff (35 until parked and out of the car), I only arrived at the stadium exactly 40 seconds before the band played their first song, having had a ridiculous commute with lots of shenanigans, including taking of 40 minutes to drive down a road no longer than 200m that I drive through in mere seconds any other time I visit the city, then getting to my usual car park to find it full (but the "full" sign is not visible until you already enter the building, thus being totally pointless, and condeming you to a 5 minute loop de loop to get back to the very start of the road, and thus sufffer another 40 minutes again to get down the same 200m you just drove).
After accidentally going down a one way street, missing my correct turn due to a psychotic taxi driver tailgaiting me too aggressively for me to safely turn, I then proceeded to get stuck in a residential street whilst trying to lose the taxi guy as any more beeping of his horn and I would probably get out of the car, murder him and end up in prison. After deciding prison didn't seem like the best option, I trued to do a 3 point turn in about 18 turns, then finally make my way to an alternative car park after some more shenanigans involving a train track, and finally hoof it across the city to the stadium.
The Welsh flag, as the intro music played
After a quick trip to the bathroom, I walked out onto the stadium floor, and 40 seconds later, the band started playing.
The band taking the stage, hard to see because the ground had adverse camber
The setlist was mostly drawn from their first 3 albums and their newest 2 albums, with approximately 3-4 songs from each, and then just 1 song each from LIFAD and Reise Reise, plus nothing from Rosenrot at all. Mostly hits and fan favourites, maybe 1-2 unexpected songs, but with a crowd this size that’s exactly the right call.
Pyro
This was the first gig I had ever attended at the stadium, and I am not too impressed with it as a music venue. It is clearly a sports venue, and the flooring they put into it to protect the grass was weird, at the wrong angel, slippery, and made it hard to see the band as it felt like you were downhill, and hard to keep your footing (I saw so many people fall over compared to normal gigs in clubs and theaters, or even arenas). It definitely wasn’t the ideal place for a rowdy metal crowd who need firm footing.
That being said, the venue wasn’t all bad – the staff were very friendly and trained, the bathrooms were good, and best of all the sound was very good, probably the best thing about the stadium experience.
Rammstein’s pounding, simplsitic, mostly mid-tempo industrial style suits a big arena sound, its not too busy for the sound system. Big gigs often have poor sound, but I was very happy with this, I could hear every thing – every drum, every bass line, every guitar chord, every word.
Light show
As you have no doubt heard if you pay any attention to metal music, Rammstein put on a good stage show.
There were all sorts of things to make the show visually interesting. Lights, lazers, confetti, foam, explosions, sparks, flames, fireworks, a flamethrower-guitar, band members using different parts of the stage or an alternative stage at times, lots of props, an elevator, a treadmill, musicians going out into the crowd. Basically, it wasn’t low-effort.
Sparks showerKeyboardist Flake ascending into the sky on an elevator for a DJ set.
Of course other bands do big shows too, in the last few years I’ve seen Alice Cooper and Ghost do props and confetti, Slayer‘s final tour did pretty good pyro, and Parkway Drive do the flames and sparks and elevator plus going out to a second stage and going in the crowd, Slipknot do the cool stage set and treadmill. I didn’t see it with my own eyes because I didn’t want to spend the money at the time with Vince Neil’s voice being bad and with me not having time off work, but I know Motley Crue do the flame-thrower (bass) guitar thing, you can see it on their The End DVD.
Rammstein was kind of like seeing all of that in one show. It didn’t quite seem like it was living up to the hype for the first few songs, they started off without much spectacle, but they built more and more over the course of the show, and by the time it went dark outside, and they played “Sonne” I was starting to think maybe this was at least bigger than anything I’ve seen.
The band on an alternate stage in the middle of the crowd doing a piano ballad reimagining of early hit Engel.
The crowd were pretty decent where I was standing, no crowd-killing, everyone respecting eachother’s space, drunks and pot smokers just merry – not falling down or vommiting or fighting. Quite respectful of wheelchairs and mobility scooters too, which wasn’t always the case in previous gigs I’ve been to. The crowd didn’t seem full or sold-out, but there is a pandemic and the show was rescheduled twice, so they did well to have it quite full.
Because I was deliberately trying to hang back at a quite spot with lots of breathing room and space for pandemic reasons, and not getting up and sweaty, I didn’t really buy into the atmosphere of the gig, and it was mostly just an “ok” gig for me, rather than something amazing or life-changing, but the music was good, the sound was good, the stage show (if not something I’ve never seen before) was still good, and the band’s performance was pretty decent. They definitely put a lot of thought, planning and effort into it, and they did well to fill the size of the venue.
Was this the best show I have ever been to? No. Was it nice to be back at a concert after two years? Yeah, kind of, but I just worry I’ve contracted Covid after being so careful and avoidant for such a long time (time will tell). Would I go back to this stadium for any other band? Probably not, unless it was something really special that I couldn’t see anywhere else, like AC/DC maybe. Would I see Rammsteing again? Definitely, but only if it was in a better venue, in a city with better infastructure. If this same show was in the same place at the same time next year, I’d give it a miss (and I wouldn’t say that for Slipknot at the Motorpoint Arena for example).
The way home was luckily much less eventful and chaotic – just a nice orderly queue for a very long time, then a clear shot home. Once I got out of the city centre, I was arguably home faster than during my normal work day commute.
Had this have been in the Motorpoint Arena instead, or had it been in a pre-pandemic world, I probably would give it an absolutely gushing rave review, but all the stress and the feelings or risk and the subpar venue took a little bit of the rose tint away for me personally.
Don’t get me wrong though, great band and I’m glad I went, I’ll probably just not be in the mood for this sort of thing the same sort of way I used to be for another year or two. I’m currently debating whether to go to any gigs at all this year (there are some tempting ones, like Machine Head, Parkway Drive and Volbeat coming to Cardiff at various points this year) but I’m still a bit uncomfortable being outdoors or in crowds at present.
I’m not usually in the habit of booking two concerts a week apart. There was a time between the ages of 12-18 when I went to about one a year, and 18-25 when I went to about one every 2-3 years. However; as I explained in my last post, I really wanted to see Slipknot after falling so in love with their new album, but the tickets sold out in less than a second. I thought I would book this as a consolation prize. (Then as things turned out, I ended up going to both, a week apart!).
Now I wasn’t expecting too much from this gig. I’ve been a Megadeth fan for about two decades now, but based on all the live albums they can be hit and miss live. I’d also seen Megadeth before, and Dave’s vocals were never the best live as he has to concentrate on such blistering guitar parts. Considering all we’ve been reading about Dave’s health recently, particularly as it involved the throat, I thought the singing would probably suffer even further and he also might not be in the best of spirits. Add into it that this was a short support slot instead of a nice long headliner and I was expecting a nice-enough evening out, but not a game-changer, like recent concerts at this very same venue from Parkway Drive, Ghost or Slipknot had been.
I’d also never seen Five Finger Death Punch before, despite being a fan of theirs for over a decade. Don’t get me wrong, I’d tried to see them live before. They played Manchester twice when I was there, and I queued at the box office in person both times due to an issue with Ticketmaster not recognising my address the first time and just out of habit the second time. Unfortunately the tickets were sold out each time. They’d also played Download Festival before too, and almost tempted me to commit, but I was always too afraid to go before I finally took the plunge in 2018.
I didn’t really know what to expect from FFDP live though, as the podcast I listen to always calls them an amazing live band and the next big festival headliner, but Blabbermouth was always full of stories about their singer having a breakdown on stage or their drummer being high or similar problems, and their live album, Purgatory Tales From The Pit or that bonus Live DVD that comes with ‘Wrong Side Of Heaven Part 2 both aren’t very good. (But that’s just a bonus material, so you never know).
Now, in my head I was telling myself I was there for Megadeth, and that Megadeth should have been headlining. I’d been a fan of them for longer, I like them more, and they are legendary and more important to the history of metal. You can find at least 3 Megadeth albums in almost any list of best-ever-metal-albums, but you rarely if ever see any ‘Death Punch in any such list. Megadeth have a reputation for musos at times due to their technical guitar work, and ‘Death Punch have a tough-guy image which isn’t always a positive thing. I think they have a credibility problem among the over-35s. I guess that’s why they’ve been doing things like having Rob Halford guest on a song and taking Megadeth out as a support act. They’ve definitely got the youth vote down, but a lot of people still look down their nose at them.
Don’t get me wrong I like them, I like them a lot (I’ve reviewed every single one of their albums on this blog, and given all buy one a positive review) but I always feel this tiny sense of shame about liking them. Along with Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine they are one of the bands I’d be kind of afraid to wear a t-shirt of, for fear of some snobby elitist making fun of me. Now, I know that’s ridiculous, but sometimes I can’t help myself. Usually I can get over it. For example; when I grew up, in the Nu Metal era, Hair Metal was the most uncool and non-credible thing you could ever lower yourself to listen to, and I got over that mindset pretty easily and own dozens and dozens of hair metal albums now. But still… sometimes, against my better judgment, the 13 year old part of my brain rears its ugly head and sometimes worries what the ‘real fans’ will think of me, despite the fact that academically I know its all nonsense anyway, and as comedian Brian Posein very neatly put it ‘’Metal is not a competition.’’
There was, as it goes, also a third band on the bill. They were called Bad Wolves, but I arrived late due to work and missed them entirely. Not even the last song. Not one second. Not even the Cranberries cover that the internet keeps talking about. By the time I got there after work, Megadeth were already sound-checked, banners up, and there was just enough time to go to the toilet, with only three tracks over the speakers between me getting through security and when they got on stage.
(Come to think of it, last time I saw Megadeth, I missed their support band as well. Is it a Megadeth thing? Hmmm…)
Bladder now empty, Megadeth took to the stage, and I enjoyed myself a lot. One of the all time great bands and I was lucky enough to see them for a second time. It has been seven years since I last saw them and everything about my life is different, from where I live to the career I am in, to the fact that I am married and a father.
I was very grateful and pleased to get to see Megadeth again. There were a few downsides though; first off, the sound was a bit muddy. Dave’s vocals were super low in the mix and I had to strain to hear anything. (I guess that’s better than jarring bad vocals, but still). The hi hats were also too low if we’re getting pedantic. Secondly; I don’t know if its just were I was stood, but considering I was more interested in Megadeth than ‘Death Punch, there was a lack of audience energy around me for the first half of the show. This is one of the most important bands in the business. Nobody was singing along to ‘Wake Up Dead’ for goodness sakes, which is tantamount to a crime in my book. Bizarrely, they didn’t even sing along to ‘Trust’ which was one of the biggest sing-longs when I saw them last time. Its not a great feeling when you are having way more fun that everyone around you. Thirdly, the aforementioned length of the set. I mean, how do you do a short setlist when you have so many albums and almost all of them are crazily good? (To be honest, I could see them perform their first six albums in their entirety and still hunger for more. I’d be all like ‘Aw man, they didn’t play ‘’Blackmail The Universe’’ or ‘’Endgame,’’ I wish they had longer’)
But these are minor complaints. I enjoyed the show. And when they played tracks off of Countdown To Extinction the crowd sang along, so its not like there was no enthusiasm from the crowd. Although the sound mix wasn’t perfect you could hear all the guitar parts, which is what you need most from Megadeth. And of course, I think we can all cut the vocals some slack given the recent health issues. Also, although it was short on time, they packed it with hits and even threw in a few deep cuts from Rust In Peace and one song off the new album.
I’ve been looking on SetlistFM, and found out that on this tour, the setlist was pretty set in stone, but there is always one song per night that could change. For example, they’ll always play nine of the same songs they played tonight, but there is one spot where you can get something different, such as ‘She Wolf,’ ‘A Tout La Mond,’ ‘The Conjuring,’ or ‘Mechanix.’ Tonight we got ‘Mechanix’ which I was chuffed for, as it was one of my favourite songs and they didn’t play it last time I saw them. I have very fond memories of ebing a teenager and failing to master it on guitar or drums, but having much fun in the effort.
Between songs, Dave did a speech in which he announced he was now, quote, ‘’100% cancer free’’ which was a nice moment. I deal with a lot of death a misery and disease at work so its nice to see it work out for someone. There were lots of nice moments. Hey, for not headlining, they sure did have a good light show. Hey, this new guitarist Kiko from Angra, is quite good. Hey, I guess they don’t have a lot of time, but they sure are making it count, with all the unmissable tracks like ‘Wake Up Dead’ ‘Hanger 18’ ‘Holy Wars’ and ‘Peace Sells’ all represented. Dave seemed in a very good mood all night, very amused by the Vic Rattlehead actor who came out towards the end, and coming out for extra applause after it ended, to briefly playing air guitar to a Sid Vicious song.
Overall, while not the world’s best concert, very far from poor. I had a good time. (I’ve been really spoiled these last two years, with the showmanship of Alice Cooper, the fun of Volbeat, the satisfaction of Slipknot, the much anticipated Libertines, and the love-those-songs good times of Corrosion Of Conformity).
Next up, it was time for Five Finger Death Punch. I really didn’t know what to expect. I could go either way really.
When they took to the stage the crowd went really wild. I knew they had a big fan following, even if the critics are snobby about them, but boy I was not prepared for how wild the crowd went for them. All the enthusiasm that was missing for Megadeth, they had in spades for ‘Death Punch. The sing-alongs were so loud, the cheers so energetic, it was crazy to see just how much people loved them. I mean, I am a big fan, with all their records, singing all the choruses and most of the verses to all the songs tonight, and I almost felt like a bit of a fraud, (like…wow…why don’t I love them that much?). Based on tonight’s crowd reaction, I have a feeling that once there is a generation-change in the critics, then this band are going to be classified as one of the real big names in metal, the way Slipknot and System Of A Down are now, even though they were the new upstarts lacking credibility with the old guard when I was young.
Speaking of Slipknot, rather strangely, singer Ivan Moody made a little speech about how he was similar to Slipknot’s Corey Taylor because they both survived overdoses and didn’t take shit from anyone, which seemed a bit weird, but then he also did a good speech about sobriety. And he sang happy birthday for a little 13 year old kid and got everyone to shine their phones/lighters to represent birthday candles. He also did a bit about what an honour it was to meet Dave Mustaine and how important So Far, So Good, So What was to him as a kid. I was really impressed with him as a front man, he seemed like a really warm, genuine and humble guy. Which is interesting, as I always had him pegged as being a big douche, but I guess addiction may have had a big part in that, or maybe press misrepresentation (I mean, they have at least three songs about how he is misrepresented by the press, and played two of them live tonight).
There was a moment, during the power ballad ‘The Wrong Side Of Heaven’ when he said how he didn’t like to talk about his lyrics and preferred the fans to make their own interpretation. Now, this is where I got a bit sceptical. I mean, they aren’t Tool. These aren’t mystical esoteric songs with triple meanings. Most of the songs, in my mind, essentially boil down to swearing whilst threatening to beat someone up. In my mind, if you mix Limp Bizkit’s ‘’Full Nelson’’ and Pantera’s ‘’Five Minutes Alone’’ threats with Slipknot’s ‘’Surfacing’’ swearing, then you get 99% of Five Finger Death Punch lyrics. Turns out, in actual fact however, that the song was actually about his dead grandmother. Who knew? I guess I was being a bit of an elitist too. My bad. I’ll work on that.
They played a really great setlist tonight, with about 2-3 songs from every album, plus one new song from their upcoming next album F8. They played a mixture of fast songs, groovy heavy songs and then a few quieter tracks in the middle for balance. They played most of the big singles but a few deeper tunes. I was over the moon to hear tracks from the first two albums like ‘Never Enough’ and ‘Burn It Down’ and I was excited to hear the new song ‘Inside Out.’ I even enjoyed the cheesy country cover ‘Blue On Black’ live, which I was initially sceptical of when I first got And Justice For None.
They put on a good show too, with an even bigger light show than Ghost had. They had their big mascot back drop, lots of pyro and guitarist Jason Hook rose up into the sky at one point. Several songs featured very large quantities of confetti, and even though they aren’t a theatrical band, Ivan had some mini-costume changes throughout the show (such as switching between a top-hat and cane for ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ a t-shirt that said ‘I hate me 2’ for one of their more self-deprecating songs, and Fred Durst style baggy outfit at the start).
The sound was good. Much better than it had been for Megadeth. Not quite as good as say Slipknot, Parkway’ or Ghost from recent times at the same venue, but pretty damn good. The actual musician’s performance was also good. Zoltan and Jason played great leads, bassist Chris Kael had a lot of physical presence and handled the backing vocals enthusiastically, there was a very entertaining and not boring drum solo from new-ish drummer Charlie Engen (I still find it weird that Jeremy Spencer is gone, he was always one of the most in the press members of the band and the person’s face I see in my mind’s eye when someone says the band’s name).
This was a great night overall. I know that beforehand I was sort of expecting this to be a let down after what a great run of concerts I’ve had lately, but I’ll be danged if tonight wasn’t great as well. I was extra impressed due to aforementioned the weird psychological prejudice I have about them and fear of judgement from snobs. It sounds like sort of a backhanded compliment, but I was extra impressed none-the-less. You expect the ‘70s and ‘80s legends to be amazing, but its always nice when bands from the last 15 years or so can match or succeed the greats. It gives you hope for the future of the genre. Highlights included ‘Under and Over It,’ ‘Wash It All Away’ and the final song, and their best song, ‘The Bleeding.’ (‘Burn MF’ was also notable for how much pyro they set off during it).
That’s all for tonight folks. Luckily for my bank account, I don’t have any more concerts next week, so this will be the last concert post for a while, but I will be going to catch Bay Area Thrash legends Testament and Exodus, with support from Death Angel in a few months, so you’re not quite safe from gig reviews just yet.
I went to go see Slipknot live last night at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena 22.01.20. I almost didn’t get to see them though. I was sat there logged into the site, ready to buy tickets for 30 mins before they went on sale. I counted the seconds and got ready to buy them at the precise second they went on sale. However, disaster struck. They sold out in a single second (except for super expensive VIP meet and greet packages I can’t afford to be shelling out for now that I have a baby to worry about, and even they sold out about a week or two later also). By the time my purchase button was loaded, I was informed tickets were sold out. Sort of annoying. However, when I googled, less than a moment later, there were hundreds of tickets up for re-sale at double and even triple the price. Very annoying. That should be illegal. Think of how many genuine fans would miss out as a bunch of swindlers just bought hundreds of tickets in the hope that they could sell some of them at inflated prices. And the money isn’t even going to the band, or keeping the music industry going, its purely some low life trying to rip off fans. Very annoying indeed.
I learned of a resale site called Twickets, (after writing an online rant about how frustrated I was by this should-be-illegal practice of instant online ticket scalping), when someone else who felt similar told me about a site, where actual fans who can’t go due to financial or medical or work reasons sell the tickets to other fans, face value. I signed up to that and held out hope that a face value standing ticket would come up. I would check it almost every 2-3 days for a few months. There were lots of tickets for other concerts in other cities, but I had the time booked off work for the Cardiff date from the day the dates were announced. One or two Cardiff tickets came up but were snapped up in seconds by other people like me. I also looked at those double or triple price tickets every week or so, but I couldn’t go through with that. Even if I could afford it, it’s the principal.
Then with less than a week to go, somebody on social media said they got a ticket by just phoning up the venue and asking if there were any extras stowed away. I mean, I never thought of that. The ticket website said it was sold out. The band’s social media and official website said it was sold out. The venue’s own website said it was sold out. But screw it, what do I have to lose? So I phoned them, and said, ‘’I know its sold out, but just in case…’’ and the man on the phone was just ‘’Oh no, we still have one or two tickets left’’ and sold me one face value. Needless to say I felt Over. The. Goddamn. Moon.
And so I did get to go after all. This was my fourth time catching Slipknot live. The 2nd concert I ever went to was Slipknot headlining on the Iowa tour at Belfast Odyssey arena very early on in my highschool career (this gig was a few days around the recording of their Disasterpeices DVD, with a similar set list and stage show, so if you wonder what it was like, it was as good as Disasterpieces, minus the bigger touches like the snow and flying drummer).
I also saw them supporting Metallica in Dublin once, around the time of Vol. 3, with a slightly shorter set and stripped down stage show. Finally; I also caught them headlining in Dublin on the Vol. 3 tour, supported by Shadows Fall and Helmet (with Frankie Bello from Anthrax temporarily on bass). It wasn’t included on their 9.0 live album which took material off most shows from that tour however, as Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan had to take the show off for a family emergency and they only included shows with the full band.
I never lived anywhere near where they played in the intervening years. I didn’t drive and was much too anxious to attempt to book public transport and hotels on my own back then. I didn’t really have the mindset until I was in my mid-20s. The idea of catching a train to London makes me dizzy even now, and back then it would have caused full blown panic.
There was once, when I potentially could have seen them once more, when I lived in Manchester, just before The Gray Chapter came out, but I couldn’t afford it at the time due to being a broke student, and it coinciding with exams, while I was also working crazy unpredictable hours including flipping between 14 hour shifts and 12 hour night shifts, or two sets of normal 8 hour shifts, with only a weeks notice of what I’d be doing, all the while also studying. Overall this made it hard to predict when I would be out of work. (I also couldn’t afford it, having blown all my money on a high volume of cheaper concerts at smaller venues beforehand, back when my work shifts were previously more predictable; leaving no cash or time off left for expensive arena shows).
That makes it the case that the last time I saw them was 2005. 15 years and 3 studio albums later I was chomping at the bit to see them again. Especially as their newest album, We Are Not Your Kind is so damn good. I mean, I like every Slipknot album, but WANYK is special. It has grown on me so much it is now my 3rd favourite album of theirs, behind only Iowa and the debut, and that is insanely high praise, as nothing will ever top those two due to such heavy nostalgia-value I have around them due the profound almost religious effect they had on me as a kid and all the happy memories associated with them.
Damn do I love Slipknot’s first two albums. I don’t think any other band has ever had such a big affect on me. I wouldn’t have had the friends I did in highschool without a shared love of Slipknot. I wouldn’t have been so into concerts if it wasn’t for Slipknot. I wouldn’t have fallen in love with music and had it overpower all other hobbies and interests without Slipknot. I wouldn’t love band biographies so much if it wasn’t for Slipknot. I wouldn’t have learned to play the drums if it wasn’t for Slipknot. Some people may write them off as a gimmick due to the masks. Some people may complain they aren’t true metal due to the DJs and Samples. Some people may think of them as an embarrassment due to the adolescent sweary violent lyrics. But to much more people they are a generation defining band, the next in the chain of succession that starts at Sabbath, runs through the likes of Priest and Maiden, to Metallica and Slayer, to Pantera. Above all though, they have the tunes. Just some of the best songs I ever have or likely ever will hear. I’ve said it before, but I imagine that if I had a way to tell (as LastFM didn’t exist back then) I am almost sure that Slipknot’s debut album would be the album I have listened to most in my entire life. Iowa may be close by, but has some catching up to do as it came out after the debut got a head-start, and the younger you are and fewer albums you own, the more you tend to listen to an album over and over again.
Anyway; on to the night in question. I decided to work late, and get there well after doors open, so as to not have to que up. I knew Slipknot were more popular than most gigs I go to so there’s no chance I could get anywhere near the front, so I wasn’t even going to try. However, I forgot just how popular Slipknot are, and even arriving there at least an hour later than I ever have, I still had to que up. I have never had to que in Cardiff before. But Slipknot are just that gigantic.
I managed to get in just as opening act, satanic extreme metal legends, Behemoth, were starting their first song. I had to miss it to go to the bathroom, visit the merch stand etc, but was ready by the time of their 2nd song. Loveable frontman Nergel was dressed up like a mixture of Dani Filth and the pope, with creepy serpentine stands and big banners up. They had a respectable amount of pyro for an opening band, and basically had a show worthy of a headliner. The music from the two new albums is so accessible live. ‘Bartzebel’ in particular was banging live. It seemed like a bizarre choice of opening act at first glance, but it worked well. Better than Slayer supported by Obituary. And when you think about it, Slipknot do mix in death growls, blast beats and Deicide/Morbid Angel influences riffs every so often, so extreme metal bands supporting Slipknot isn’t as strange as it first appears.
Behemoth were very entertaining. A big show, good sound, surprisingly accessible material and a lot of charisma. When they played their little cinematic drum laiden outro, I made a mental note to buy the two newest Behemoth albums as soon as it was financially reasonable to do so.
Nergal PopeBehemoth LiveDrumkit on fireDrum laiden climax
Then after the usual wait between bands, it was finally time for Slipknot again. Last time I saw them three members were different. Iconic drummer Joey Jordinson was now gone, late bassist Paul Gray is no-longer with us, and additional percussionist/background vocalist Chris Fehn has recently been sacked due to legal issues, much discussed already in the press.
Paul is deceased so no one can resent his replacement Alex anyway, and although I like him in documentaries and interviews, I never had strong enough feelings about Chris’ musical contributions to think it would change the band notably when he left. However; Joey is gone. That is a big deal. Man, when Slipknot first lost Joey Jordinson, I thought the band should break up. That’s like Mastodon without Brann Dailor. Its like Pantera without Vinnie Paul. So much of why Slipknot feel like they do is in Joey’s work. There is probably no other band I am as emotionally invested in line up changes with.
What must kids who knew them in the ’70s have thought when Peter Chris or Ace Frehley left Kiss? What must kids who liked Motley Crue in the ’80s have felt when Vince Neil or Tommy Lee left the band? It’s such a unit of a band, who capture a young fan’s imagination so hard, that its hard to imagine any change. I did eventually come around though after their recent ‘Gusano DVD showed me that replacement drummer Jay Weinberg was more than equal to the task, and if that didn’t already 100% do the trick, then their new album certainly cemented it. I was actually excited to see them with the new line up.
Since I hadn’t seen them since Vol. 3, there is a lot of material I have never caught live yet. As I said, I like every Slipknot album. (Probably every Slipknot song if you don’t count demos and remixes). Unfortunately, they didn’t play anything off of ‘Gray Chapter this time, which I was a bit gutted by. I really like that album and would have loved to see something like ‘Custer,’ ‘AOV’ or ‘Sarcastrophe’ live. ‘Custer’ especially. From the first time I heard it I said to myself ”that is a song that will be in their setlists forevermore.” They also only played one song from All Hope Is Gone. I guess that’s reason enough to try see them a few more times, as I really want to catch more songs I haven’t heard live before. I’m keen to hear it all.
But given how great the new album is, I was most keen to see material from We Are Not Your Kind live. I was thinking about how much I wanted it on such a regular basis since end of the week that the album was released and it had all started to click with me. Turns out I was in luck, because if you count the 2018 stand-alone single ‘All Out Life’ which technically isn’t on the album (but which features the lyric ‘we are not your kind’ repeatedly chanted and I always mentally count as being part of that album, and have attached to the album in my itunes and on my phone and just pretend it is on the album anyway), then they played 5 new songs. Aforementioned ‘All Out Life.’ Big single ‘Unsainted,’ which opened the show. The dark, weird, almost formless album closer ‘Solway Firth.’ The groovy ‘Birth Of The Cruel’ and the stompy new single ‘Nero Forte.’ It was great to see this much new material live. It shows you how much confidence the band must have in the new album, and given the audience reaction, this confidence was well placed.
Not counting intros and outros over the speakers, there were 17 tracks. 6 of which I had never seen live before. Pretty great value. No wonder they didn’t have room for much material off All Hope’ or ‘Gray Chapter. The rest of the set featured the big singles from Vol 3; ‘Duality,’ ‘Before I Forget’ and ‘Vermillion’ as well as many classic concert favourites from the debut like ‘(Sic),’ ‘Surfacing’ and ‘Eyeless’ and topped off with a few of the heavier numbers from Iowa, like ‘Disasterpiece’ and ‘People=Shit.’
Slipknot are pretty great at mixing up sets, and not just playing the same thing every tour, swapping in a surprise or two, and dropping a few expected tunes now and again for a deep cut. The (sort of) surprises in the set were first album bonus-track ‘Eeyore’ and Iowa deepish-cut ‘New Abortion’ although I have seen both live before and both have been on official live releases so not super surprising if you want to be pedantic, but I was satisfied. In terms of dropping an expected tune, this time they dropped ‘Spit It Out’ which is almost unfathomable, as therefore they didn’t do the ‘’Jump The Fuck Up’’ moment, (where they make the whole crowd crouch for a few minutes then jump up in unison) but I’ve had that three times and on all their live albums too, so I was glad to lose it if it meant more time for new songs.
In terms of stage show, it was the biggest and best I’d ever seen them. There were videoscreens all over the place (even on the drums). There was pyro and steam. There were fireworks. There was a Nikki Sixx style bass guitar flamethrower like on Motley Crue’s The End DVD. There were treadmills which the more expendable members like the DJ, Sid, would go and play about on when not needed musically. He did the moonwalk on a treadmill at one point. Their setlist didn’t feature many turn-table focused songs this time so I guess he’s got to do something. Clown got a flaming baseball bat out for the keg smashes on ‘Duality.’
Performance and sound wise, it was really good. That’s not always a given. As much as love this band, they aren’t what I’d call consistent. Some bands are just perfect every single time (Hatebreed spring to mind). Slipknot are not one of those bands. I mean, when you have 9 members, complex awkward songs with atypical structures, and a singer inside a mask running around, its hard to get everything sounding perfect…
If you look across all of Slipknot’s official and unofficial live releases, you’ll notice they have been really hit and miss over the years in terms of both vocals and audio mix. Even on just their Voliminal DVD, which features footage from a few different shows, the live stuff goes from amazing to quite poor. The 9.0 live album which I mentioned earlier features material from across a whole tour, and that album has quite poor live vocals and subpar sound mixes. Conversely though the Disasterpeices and (Sic)nesses DVDs have superb live vocals and mixes and are absolutely must-own. The pro shot live stuff from various festivals on the first two album cycles is really mixed also. I remember MTV2 used to have footage of the band on the Iowa cycle in Germany, where Corey’s vocals were really muffled and the kick drums overpowered all the guitars. When I first got into them, on the debut album cycle, the only live stuff available was bootlegs, and they were always pretty rough. You could get pirate CDs from shows like their first time in London or from dates on the US Ozzfest, but you could tell from the CD that Corey was running around, bouncing and going crazy so much, that the vocals would suffer. Even my own live experiences of the band were mixed. When I saw them live myself in Belfast the mix and vocals were brilliant and its still one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. When I saw them headlining on the Vol. 3 cycle, the vocals were poor (he has discussed in interviews over the years that he was drinking heavily in that period) but the mix was great. When I saw them supporting Metallica on that same album cycle, the mix was poor but the vocals were good. As I said, its not a given.
I guess there’s a lot of variables for the soundmen to get right and lots of chances to get it wrong. Depending on how much running and bouncing singer Corey Taylor does, and how his mask affects the microphones, there’s a big gap between his best and his worst shows.
However, tonight it was great. It was pretty close to a perfect show. I mean, if I had to pick pedantic holes in it then I guess the guitar-intro to ‘Surfacing’ sounded a bit weird, and the vocals on the chorus to ‘Nero Forte’ were a bit thin, but otherwise it was magnificent.
The sound mix was perfectly balanced. Even the additional percussion was actually audible and you could tell why they have three drummers. The bass was thick. The guitars were clear and didn’t go muddy. The drum kit was powerful and you could pick every element out individually. The vocals were just right. I couldn’t have asked for a better mix.
The band were energetic and enthusiastic and played like a band on the rise. Drums were absolutely battered. Riffs were practically thrown into the crowd. I guess buoyed by the success of the new album, they are revitalised and fired-up. This was definitely the 2nd-best I ever seen them live; sceond only to that very first time I saw them, back in Belfast in 2002, which boasted many more songs from my favourite album, Iowa, in the set, and featured the classic line-up when they were still mysterious and I was wide-eyed and young. (And to be fair, my memory of that could in fact be a little clouded in a rose-tinted teenage nostalgia).
I always regretted not seeing them live on the last two album cycles, but I would have been heartbroken to miss them this time. Thank goodness for the weird phone/website discrepancy! This was awesome. One of the bands that have meant the most to me in my whole life, playing brilliantly, with a great setlist and sounding great. This is going to be a show I remember for a long time.
I went to go see Alice Cooper live at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena last night on Saturday 12th October 2019. I had balcony seats, which isn’t usually my thing (I’ve only seen 4 concerts sitting down ever; this one last night, The Rolling Stones in Dublin with my parents when I was a child, Tool in Glasgow when I was a teenager and Avenged Sevenfold in Manchester a few years ago) but considering what a show Alice puts on, you wouldn’t to miss it being at the wrong angle or having some tall guy in front of you.
The first of the support acts was MC5 (or MC50 now, as they’ve been around for so long). I’m not a huge fan, but I respect them, and like seeing Wayne in documentaries. I have Kick Out The Jams but that’s as far as I know them, and even then I only like about 2-3 songs from it anyway, so I wasn’t super excited to see them, but it was still a good start to the evening. Interestingly though, Billy Gould from Faith No More and Kim Thayil from Soundgarden were in the band tonight, so that was a very welcome surprise. Especially as I’ve spent the last month or so enjoying reading Everybody Loves Our Town (a book about Grunge with lots of Kim quotes) and watching Live From The Artist’s Den (the new Soundgarden concert video). Wayne Kramer seemed very grateful and excited and was quite entertaining. (He and Kim also came out at the end of Alice’s show for some bonus guitar and taking a bow).
MC50, that’s Thayil in the beanie, stage left.
Next up was The Stranglers who I was not really aware of. When they started playing I recognised quite a few of their songs, such as ‘Get A Grip On Yourself’ which Prong cover. They also played ‘Golden Brown’ and ‘No More Heroes’ as well as a song about walking on the beaches looking at the peaches which I recognised from various TV shows over the years. They were a weird mix of punky bass, ‘80s arty pop vocals and yet jaunty Yes style keyboards. It was a bizarre combination. I haven’t researched them but can’t even figure out what genre they were. New Wave? Post Punk? I really wasn’t sure. Kind of fun though. They had some amusing stage banter about grey hair in the audience and them being twats while Alice was a nice bloke.
The Stranglers
After that it was time for Frank Sinatra. Oh sorry, I read
the poster wrong, it wasn’t Ol’ Blue Eyes, it was Ol’ Black Eyes and his
nightmare castle. I almost don’t know what to talk about first. The music, the
set list, the stage antics, the sound or the band?
Nightmare Castle
I think I’ll go with set list. I was very satisfied. Lots of material from Welcome To My Nightmare and Billion Dollar Babies, which are the two Cooper albums I’m most familiar with. Also mega perennial hits like ‘I’m 18,’ ‘School’s Out’ and ‘Poison.’ One newer song from Paranormal (‘Fallen In Love’) and a few of the more energetic ‘80s moments like ‘Roses On White Lace,’ ‘He’s Back, The Man Behind The Mask’ and ‘Bed Of Nails.’ The show opened with my favourite Alice Cooper song, ‘Feed My Frankenstein’ which essentially got me into the man/band due to its Wayne’s World and Motley Crue connections. Also early on they played ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ which I was into via the Megadeth cover for years before I heard the original. (Actually, same goes for ‘I’m 18’ which I loved for years prior to be ing a Cooper fan due to Anthrax covering it).
In terms of the sound it was brilliant, very crunchy and
metallic. The drums and bass were very clear and you could hear every cymbal
and bass line clearly and separately.
The vocals were crystal clear. I
was really satisfied with the sound. I’ve seen some arena shows where you can’t
hear the vocals, or the bass, or everything is just a big reverby mess. This
however was brilliant.
Cooper
The band were great. Nina Strausse lives up to all the hype, with stage moves halfway between prime era Slash and Zack Wylde and playing that would make Eddie Van Halen slightly nervous. I really assumed all the blabbermouth hype was just hype, but colour me wrong. She was definitely captivating and beyond impressive.
Strausse Up Top
Also; have you ever seen the famous youtube video ‘’This Drummer Is At The Wrong Gig’’ ? The one with all the stick tricks and showmanship. Drummer Glen Sobel was like that, sticks on the wrong side of the kit, sticks upside down, sticks constantly 30ft up in the air. The drum solo was even entertaining. Most live drum solos I have seen have bored me, and I’m a drummer so they must bore the average fan even more, but this was mad fun. He got such an applause. Since becoming a Cooper fan recently, I have always enjoyed ‘The Black Widow’ and its great how heavy it sounds like, in the weird medley with ‘Black Juju’ and ‘Devils Food’ and unexpectedly for me at least, ‘My Stars’ off of Schools Out.
I never really liked the School’s Out album. I got it a good few years before I became a Cooper fan and it put me off him for a few years. It wasn’t until I got Hey Stoopid and Billion Dollar Babies that I really clicked with Alice Cooper. But as the band make everything so heavy live, ‘My Stars’ really popped live. I guess I will have to revisit Schools Out a bit more often now thanks to tonight. I guess it is more than just an amazing title track and a bunch of weird broadway music, which was my opinion of it up ’til now.
Guillotine
Anyway, back to the show. In terms of showmanship, Alice
himself, or Vince or whatever, is the ultimate professional. Every wiggle of
the hips, tilt of the cane, costume change, mock kiss and swish of the sword
perfectly placed. His body language and stage presence all mastered over years
and years of practice. Then there are the actors, running around, getting
knifed, putting Alice in straight Jackets, wearing wedding dresses, pushing
prams. Its all very pantomime but I loved it. Alice got guillotined, which I
knew would happen but which was still very entertaining. What I didn’t expect
was the Iron Maiden style Frankenstein puppet running around during ‘Teenage
Frankenstein’ and giant baby puppet during ‘Dead Babies.’
Big Baby Puppets
Interestingly, even though I was singing along to every
other song all evening, even the ones I was less familiar with like ‘Fallen In
Love,’ …I was surprisingly unable to sing along to ‘Dead Babies’ for some weird
psychological reason due to recently having had my own baby son. Weird. Still a
classic song though.
At the end, Alice came out in the top hat and tails, launching balloons and glitter and confetti all over the place and adding in a bit of Another Brick In The Wall’s lyrics into arguably his best known song in the UK, ‘School’s Out.’ They then got all the bands and actors out from the whole evening and everyone took a bow while a big cannon shot golden streamers into the audience (like the cannons they had already shot fake money with, during ‘Billon Dollar Babies’ earlier on ).
I don’t care if it was cheesy, it was a truck load of fun. (Several truckloads actually, as I was walking home, all the taxi ranks around the arena were full of trucks, presumably here to carry his castle and all the cannons and guillotines etc).
Taking A Bow
Someone once said every rock and metal fan has to see Alice
Cooper live at least once. I completely agree. I had an absolute whale of time.
Great sound, great set, great vocals, great onstage nonsense.
I went to go see Parkway Drive with Killswitch Engage live in Cardiff Motorpoint Arena tonight, (February 1st 2019). It was my second time seeing Parkway, after they decimated Download Festival and were so powerful that they made Guns N’ Roses, even with all their money and with Slash and Duff back in the band, still pale in comparison. It was my third time seeing Killswitch, who I had seen supporting Bullet For My Valentine on Incarnate and Headlining over Trivium on Disarm The Descent.
I wasn’t sure if the gig was going to go ahead though, as it had been snowing prior and I was afraid (given that we live in Britain and they close down all the schools if a snowflake looks at them funny) that it might be called off, but luckily by the time I needed to leave, the roads were clear. (This must sound funny to my Canadian readers, but seriously, google ‘frozen Britain’ and see what the British reaction to snow is like).
Rather than arrive late and hang at the back like I did for Architects a few weeks ago, I new I had to be in the front row. Parkway at Download had whetted my appetite, and I needed more.
So I got there just as
doors opened and didn’t have to queue in the post snow chill, but got
to walk right to the front without any trouble at all.
The speakers usually play the same few songs at all the gigs I go to. Walk by Pantera, Snap Your Finger Snap Your Neck by Prong, Sad But True by Metallica, Psychosocial by Slipknot.
Not this time. They played some obscure hardcore punk. I couldn’t pin point anything I recognized from my meager 20-30 album Hardcore punk collection. I am not an expert, but I heard something that sounded like or was early Suicidal Tendencies (pre-Thrash) and something that sounded like but probably wasn’t Black Flag.
Not important, but
just, different that basically every concert I’ve went to since 2012.
To open the evening where Deathcore lads, Thy Art Is Murder. Their front-man announced he regretted eating fruit around the start, and ended up barfing on stage around the end. He was a weirdly unprofessional burping, farting lads lad who was very charming, like how Orange Goblin‘s singer won me over with his topless enthusiasm a few months ago. Their music was Deathcore, which I am not too familiar with, but I know Metalcore, and I know Death metal, and its basically a mixture of that. There were death growls and blast beats, but there were beat downs and grooves. They were fun enough, and their guitarist has a fun sweeping style of leads/solos that reminded me more of Periphery or Dream Theater (or the Periphery song with John Petrucci from Dream Theater guesting on it). The drummer was very fun to watch, he was very inventive as a blast beater, and did it in more ways than I knew existed, and alternated hands and speeds and cymbals the way Tommy Lee would for a rock beat. They even had a catchy bit in ‘Puppet Master’ where the intro sounded a bit like Lamb Of God‘s ‘Redneck’ gone evil.
I enjoyed them. A much better support band than Beartooth had been last time. I’d be happy to see them again. A heck of a lot more than Asking Alexandria had been at Download. Generally, one of the better modern bands I’ve seen supporting people I like, but whom I didn’t know the support act beforehand.
It takes strength of the mind
Then the room got a bit fuller. After a Thin Lizzy ‘Boys ‘Back In Town intro; metalcore legends Killswitch Engage took to the stage. I have written before about how utterly majestic KSE are live, and how captivating it is when a whole room full of people sing ‘The End Of Heart Ache’, with its big long…
”This distance This disillusion I cling to memories While falling Sleep brings release And the hope of a new day Waking the misery Of being without you”
…all done in perfect time, in its entirety. As a music fan it is one of the purest joys you can experience. Its crazy how good it makes you feel. And the band are always such fun, with Adam D clowning around like a hyperactive toddler making better masturbation jokes than Blink 182 ever did and brightening up the room with his infectious sense of fun and his big smile.
You knooooooooow me, you knooow me all too well!
I’ve also said before that Jesse is one of the, if not the, greatest live singers in the genre. Almost no-one can sing cleans that well live. He is a master of this type of music. Sam Carter, Ashe O’Harra and Jesse Leech are probably the best clean singers I’ve ever seen with my own two eye. Up there with Maynard incomparable James Keenan.
They played a set-list that was mostly greatest hits (Rose Of Sharyn, My Curse, End Of Heart Ache, All In Due Time, My Last Serenade) with a few early numbers (Fixation On The Darkness, Breathe Life) and it was more compact than any other time I’d seen them but no less potent.
The crowd seemed to really, really love ‘Always’ too, and Jesse doing the very last line while the band were all silent was some Freddie Mercury level skills. They played the two best songs off the new album too, (‘Hate By Design’ and ‘Strength Of The Mind’) which are even better live than on record, with more of a crushing Pantera groove to them.
Darkness will give way to light
Speaking of better live; ‘My Last Serenade’ is so, so good live. Joint with ‘End Of Heartache’ for the most audience participation (and augmented by all the fun guitar squeals and extra shenanigans) it is just excellent live in every way. And of course, they finished on my favourite Killswitch song, the fantastic ‘All In Due Time’ which turned me from a Jesse-reunion skeptic into the kinda guy who goes and sees em three times even though I don’t go to that many gigs.
Building a revolution to heal nations
If it was over then, it would’ve been enough. A solid opener, and mighty Killswitch doing themselves proud with a perfect set-list, excellent performance and decent sound & lighting. That would’ve done me nicely as a gig.
But I wasn’t ready for
what happened next.
Now, I’ve banged on and on in this blog numerous times about how good Parkway were at download festival, and if you’ve met me in real life I’ve probably talked about how Ire is a modern classic that deserves to have the reputation sort of The Blackening has. You’ll have noticed the new album Reverence was high in my most played albums and highly ranked in my end of year list for this year just gone.
Well, that’s about to
get a whole to more, because I have just seen. The. Best. Show. Of my
whole life. No qualifications. No caveats. No exceptions.
I am not been
hyperbolic. I am not exagerating. This was the best concert I have
ever seen in every way. Visually, muscially, sonically, intangiable
x-factor magiaclly. It was absolute bliss.
The set-list leaned heavily on the newest two albums, with just one song from Atlas and Deep Blue each, and two songs from Horizons, but otherwise all newer stuff since the change in direction.
The sound was immense,
and the cruch and chug of big riffs like ‘Absolute Power’ or
‘Crushed’ was immense and made you pull that satisfied ”riff face”
even harder than usualy. My view was perfect for most of the show,
with a spot where I could see every member and even every cymbal on
the drum kit. And the band’s performance was so bombastic, confident
and commanding that it felt like witnessing something truly
extraordinary.
The way Winston would sweep his hands or stomp his feet, or when he got topless and the end and would throw fists, always timed to some musical highlight like a conductor or film director was so entertaining. He is such a fucking golden rock star like we were back in the 1980s again. Having only been born as the ’80s died, its great someone is that for this generation and I don’t just have to read about it in old books.
The crowd were so into it, doing a gigantic circle pit during ‘Idols and Anchors’ and clapping along to the drumbeat in ‘Writings On The Wall’ like it was ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen. They sang out not one or two but five or six songs guitar lines like when you see footage of Maiden or Megadeth playing South America. It was a brilliant vibe.
And that’s all without mentioning the fucking sheer spectacle of it all. If you haven’t been paying attention, it might be surprising to learn that Parkway Drive have become one of the most explosive live bands of the modern era. (Or any era).
The evening started
with a dubstep or electronic noise while various lights were going
off on the empty stage, with crazily loud concussion bombs going off
to match the ‘the truth drops like a bomb’ lyrical theme.
Behind use, we could feel heat. Then in unsion we turned and saw that the mixing desk behind the crowd had pyro on it. And then the band, marched through the middle of the crowd, carrying flaming torches like a strange religious ceremony until they got up on stage. Then, wearing matching black outfits like some kind of Apple technology expo, they moved in choreographed and weirdly alien or robotic unison until the music really kicked in after the intro.
Crushed by the fist of god Attention, attention, welcome to the stage
The first few songs
they played in a tasteful white lighting set up. But it just got
bigger and bigger.
You never miss your shadow Till you’re alone, alone in the dark
There were various lights. And then there was smoke. And then there were fire balls. And then there were towers of fire. And then there were rows of fire. And then there were hydrolic platforms going up and down. And then there was a string quartet.
And we all go to heaven in a little row boat Let’s get this straight, while you’re listening
And then there was an acoustic moment somehow behind the audience again. Then there was mini fire works. Then lights, lasers and fire together. Then well timed concussion bombs, like literally going ‘bang bang bang’ when Winston sang ‘bang bang bang’ in ‘Absolute Power.’ There was a Kiss-esque shower of sparks from the ceiling bouncing off their heads.
We’ve been waiting for the sky to fall!
At one point he came
out with a bottle, and a rag in it, and set it on fire for real with
a real lighter, and tossed it onto a big floating PWD shield, and
there was really well timed explosives that made it look like he blew
it up. And they just kept adding in more and more pyro and
explosives until it looked like the whole building was on fire, and
Winston would sweep his hands and flames would match the directions,
such as during ‘Crushed.’
The truth drops like a bombBang, Bang, Bang, drop the hammer of conscience
Between the spark and the ember You are smoke threading the wind Messages written within our columns of fire No life blooms from the ashes of ire
Slayer had more pyro than I expected on their Farewell tour, but this made them look like a bar band with a packet of sparklers. It was almost Rammstein levels. At one point they had everything going off all at once in complete strobe light sensory overload destined to trigger epilepsy and PTSD sufferers in a way I would genuinely advise them not to attend due to. Absolute bloody war. I’m surprised health and safety let them get away with it to be honest.
Burn your heaven, flood your hell
Bombastic doesn’t do it justice. It was so well thought out and planned, cribbing all the best ideas from Motley Crue and Kiss and updating them with touches of Maiden and Rammstein and Tool but somehow feeling like a really cohesive and excellently orchestrated performance piece than a cobbled together greatest hits of concert ideas, the spectacle side of things was off the charts.
And all that being said, if they had have came out in day clothes and played the same set in an empty room with not so much as dry ice or a single light, it would’ve still been the best concert I saw in the last decade purely on the utter majesty and perfection of the performance. Songs like ‘Vice Grip’ are so goddamn triumphant sounding that when you see it live you feel like your team won the world cup. Songs like ‘Wishing Wells’ and ‘Chronos’ are so well constructed that you feel like a tween discovering the love of music for the first time. Songs like ‘Wild Eyes’ and ‘Karma’ are sing along fun that you just don’t have enough of as an adult. And best of all, ‘Bottom Feeder’ and ‘Crushed’ just level the place. When he sang ‘Now snap your neck to this’ and the payoff riff after the build up came in I got the kind of euphoric rush normally exclusive to a wedding day or the birth of a child. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the best part is…not by much!
Speaking of the birth of children. This will probably be my last concert for a while. Ozzy with Judas Priest got cancelled due to Ozzy’s ill health (just like my first ever Ozzfest, Ozzy didn’t play due to a quad bike accident.). My son is going to be born just a few months before Kiss say farewell and Download rolls around again so as much as I love music I’m not traveling for any of that this year, and so far nobody seems to be playing in between now and then.
As a last concert for a
while, possibly of the year, I could not have asked for a better one.
Hands sown the best concert of my life so far. If you ever get the
chance to see Parkway live I advise and border on demand that you go.
I hope to high heaven that they release a live DVD from this tour.
This is how live music is done!
I went to go see Architects at the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena last night (Friday 18th January 2019) with support from BearTooth.
I had to work so didn’t get there in time for the opening act, Polaris. I’ve never been into Polaris though, so it wasn’t too much of a disappointment (even if that sounds a bit rude). I had heard of BearTooth before, and had checked out a few of their songs on Spotify/Amazon Music over the years due to a podcast I like talking about them a few times, but wasn’t really familiar with them overall.
I decided, due to late arrival and back ache, not to bother getting right up to the front, and stood as close to the back as was possible. No moshing and crowd surfing for me. I had loads of space and wasn’t bustled around too much. It was nice being right up near the front for Slayer and Anthrax, but I wasn’t in the mood to be smashed around tonight and just wan’t to look at and listen to the live band.
BearTooth sounded a lot more raw and natural live than of what I vaugley remember about their recorded output, from what I sort of remember they were a bit wet and overproduced and a bit electronic. Live it was less wet and more natural, but still generic melodic metalcore. I feel they’re a little late for me to really fall in love with them.
All the metalcore slots in my brain are taken up by the likes of Shadows Fall and Chimaira and Killswitch Engage and don’t really feel like there’s that much more I can get into. When I saw a few more modern melodic metalcore bands at Download Festival, like the forgettable Black Veil Brides and Asking Alexandria or even the quite good Bury Tomorrow, I felt like I’ve had my fill already. Beartooth similarly offer nothing new, and didn’t win me over enough to go buy any of their albums, but where pleasant enough while they were on.
Their singer was very enthusiastic and called out specific riffs to pay attention to and seemed to be enjoying it. The sound for them wasn’t so good though, and you couldn’t really make out the vocals.
Then after a brief interlude with bands like Limp Bizkit and Rammstein played over the sound system, the main event, Architects took to the stage.
I’d seen them live before, back when I lived in Manchester, on the Lost Forever // Lost Together cycle. I really wanted to see them on the All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us cycle too but it was sold out when I got to the counter to buy tickets (should’ve bloody done it online in hindsight!).
I got into Architects when Hollow Crown was their newest album, but I feel like they’ve been getting better over time, and I’d take albums like Daybreaker, All Our Gods’ and even the controversial The Hear And Now over earlier albums like Ruin or Hollow Crown. Lucky for me, the set-list last night was almost entirely off their new album Holy Hell, and the previous two albums Lost’ and Gods’ (as well as one single track off of Daybreaker), which made it quite a different set-list than the last time I saw them, with 12 songs tonight I didn’t see last time (I quite like it when bands do that).
I really, really enjoyed ‘Gone With The Wind,’ ‘Downfall’ and ‘Doomsday’ especially, they worked so well live. If you haven’t heard of the band before and you wanted to check them out, they would be good tracks to try out.
Some people online have said the sound wasn’t good, but from where I stood last night, it sounded pretty good to me. A lot better than BearTooth. You could hear everything, each cymbal, all the vocals, every riff was clear (Except in the really heavy parts, like the start of ‘Nay Sayer’).
Sam was very grateful in the stage banter, repeatedly thanking the crowd and pointing out how they used to be in smaller venues and how cool it was to get to play somewhere this big. (He thanked the crowd so much, he ironically called himself a broken record numerous times, so that shows you how much it was!).
Performance wise, they were top notch. Flawless. Can’t say enough good things about them. Sam’s clean vocals are almost record-perfect live which is impressive as hell and something his peers aren’t half as good at.
The production was really good too. Fire balls. Steam cannons. Confetti Cannons. Confetti from the roof. Lights. Lazers. Video footage of trippy wolves and falling bodies and mountain-scapes. A lot of variety and really well sequenced and well timed. There were lazers coming out above the crowd as well as strobes on stage and interestingly laid out lights and beams on stage. Sometimes all of it was going off at the same time, Very entertaining. It was halfway between the time I saw Tool in Dublin and the time I saw Killswitch in Manchester.
There was also a bit where they had a bit paying tribute to late guitarist Tom Searle, and had a nice speech about how his brother, drummer Dan Searle got the band back together when they were all bereaved. It was really nice, and the had a ‘T // S’ in a heart up on the screen.
It was a very good evening, which is good, because I almost didn’t go. I had a difficult day at work, had a massive headache, had just got new glasses and hadn’t got used to driving in them yet, and a bunch of other lame-o excuses, but the gist of it is I wasn’t in the mood. I was very tempted to just skip it, but I remember how good Architects were last time, and I’d heard they had a really good production this time around, and I really like their newer three albums. Getting in and out of Cardiff was nice and easy too, even though it was a Friday night, the streets were quiet and the roads were pretty empty and it was no hassal with the travel.
Good night. Next up for me concert-wise; is also an evening of Metalcore: Killswtich Engage and Parkway Drive at the venue is February, and that’s going to be madness, if tonight’s production was good, I can’t wait to see the upside down flaming drum-kit like at Download Festival, but at their own show, in a more controlled environment than a festival. Can’t wait.
I went to go and see Corrosion Of Conformity live in Cardiff Uni Great Hall last night (Saturday 03.11.18), supported by Orange Goblin and Fireball Ministry. A pretty good bill for Stoner Rock fans. I’ve been having a wall-punchingly, burst out in tears, sleeplessly dreadful week at work even though this should be one of the best weeks of my life due to a pregnancy scan earlier in the week, and getting to go see C.O.C seems like the perfect stress release. I’ve been playing Live Volume repeatedly all week in anticipation.
C.O.C have over the years become one of my absolute favourite bands. There’s always certain bands at the start of your musical life, in your teens and such, that get stuck and become a favourite forever by default, but C.O.C, along with Queensryche, Helloween and Manowar have been absolutely defining my musical landscape as an adult. If I picture in my mind’s eye the best albums of all time or albums I want on my wall as decoration Deliverance and Wiseblood and America’s Volume Dealer are always there. One of my favourite photos of me and my wife together has me in a C.O.C shirt. My metal jacket has a C.O.C patch right on the front in one of the three most important spots (the back is Helloween and the other prime spot is Pantera in case you were wondering).
I have seen C.O.C twice before, once this year at Download Festival 2018 (quite a short set) and once before in Manchester Academy on their
Deliverance Revival shows where Pepper returned to the band (one of the best concerts in recent memory). I remember thinking after Download when they’d only played one new song, that I would really love to see a concert as long as the reunion one, but with more songs from their real grower of a new album, No Cross No Crown.
Always one for a good spoiler, I’ve been looking up the band’s recent setlists online on Setlsit FM and was glad to see they are mixing it up. One night there’ll be more songs from ‘Volume Dealer, One night there’ll be more songs from In The Arms Of God and then one night there’ll be more songs from No Cross No Crown. Exciting stuff. For example, Dublin got ‘It Is That Way’ and Nottingham got ‘The Door’ and Houston Texas got ‘Long Whip Big America.’ Just like Clutch, you never know what you’re going to get.
Speaking of Clutch, they played some Clutch over the PA in between bands. Good taste.
Anyway; I also saw Orange Goblin once before supporting Down in 2012. I remember thinking they were good but hadn’t totally won me over. I never did get around to checking a full album out. Fireball Ministry are new for me.
So now onto the evening itself; I turn up to the gig, que for about 10 minutes and then doors open. There’s only about 15 people in the que. We get in. The merch stand isn’t there like it has been for the past few gigs I’ve been to at this venue. Hmmm, surely they sell merch right? Oh ok, they put it right in the hall with the band. Previously it had its own dedicated area outside. The merch is crazy cheap. I think my Guns N Roses t-shirt from Download cost me about 30 quid. The C.O.C merch was so low priced I got 2 t-shirts for £25. Bloody bargin! I got a No Cross No Crown one and a general C.O.C skull logo one. I wanted a new C.O.C shirt to replace my Deliverance Revival one which had been my favourite shirt for about 3 years but now has the deadly combination of being shrunk in the wash and me haven gotten too fat, so it just looks ridiculous on me. I’ve still got a trio-lineup C.O.C shirt that fits though, wore that to gig tonight actually. (Oh, and I got to wear my jacket, which I am always excited about, and no one even stole any of the patches because they’re a lot better secured after the last incident).
Anyway, while I was getting the merch, a familiar sound was playing in the background. Was that Fireball Ministry? I thought I didn’t know any of their songs?
Oh. Would you look at that. Actually; Black Moth are on the bill and I didn’t even know. I like a bit of Black Moth. I haven’t thought about them in a few years, but I remember liking their debut album back in 2012. (2012 was the first year I saw Pepper Keenan live actually, in Down, back when C.O.C were still doing the trio line-up without him.)
Black Moth were pretty cracking tonight. They played nice Sabbathy groovey Stoner Metal with clean vocals and a very enthusiastic drummer. The drummer looked like he has having great fun and I really dig that. He also looked very similar to C.O.C’s fill-in drummer John Green (to the point where I had to google if they weren’t the same person). I have nothing but good things to say about them. Their singer seemed really grateful and she kept thanking everyone.
Black Moth
Next up after a pleasantly short wait, were Fireball Ministry. Man. Their drummer hits hard. He is a big bouncer looking Kirk Weinstein kind of guy and he beats the absolute shite out of his drums! The man hits hard. The singer kept trying to get everyone energy up but the thin crowd didn’t seem to want to move or make much noise. Also, what was up with this tiny crowd. C.O.C got a tiny crowd at Download un-befitting of their status and quality. Was it happening here again tonight?
The Fireball Ministry guy kept telling everyone to be louder but it wasn’t really happening much. By the end of their set though, they won me over with their melodic choruses and they said it was the best night of the tour for em, so maybe the audiences have all been this sleepy.
Fireball Ministry
Then came Orange Goblin. Or ‘Orange-Fucking-Goblin, baby!’ to give them their preferred title. Their singer burst on to stage like an affable hurricane. He was full of grins and cheeky expressions but an absolute presence on stage, swinging fists and spitting clouds of water and using the mic stand as a pretend guitar and actually getting the crowd riled up this time. He really pumped the energy in the room up 200%.
I remember that the last time I saw this band it was ok, but didn’t make me want to explore further. Not so this time. They were a bloody revelation this time. So powerful, so much energy, such a good vibe off of them. Their friendly but intense singer just absolutely commanded the room, and they have a speed (which he said on stage was influenced by Motorhead) that a lot of Stoner bands are missing. Some Stoner bands worship Sabbath and only Sabbath, but hearing Sabbath through a Motorhead filter was a lot of fun tonight. There was also an amusingly British moment when the singer announced that the next song was ‘The Wolf Bites Back’ and the lead guitarist said ‘Not yet he don’t’ at which point the singer realized he had missed a song. He then made a joke about it when it was time to actually play that song, and got a better laugh out of the crowd than a lot of comedians I’ve seen live. Orange Goblin definitely made a very good impression on me and I think I’ll definitely be getting some of their albums in the future.
Orange Fucking Goblin, Baby
Anyway; that was the warm up. Time for the main event. Yes. It was time for C.O.C. Now; as I’ve said before, C.O.C are one of the most important and favourite bands of my adult life, and the first time I saw them live was a religious experience that few gigs could rival. Them only playing about 4 songs at Download to an unenthusiastic crowd of Babymetal fans was a pretty different gig experience. But hey; its their own gig this time. With people who know the score. Some woman ran up to the barrier and started screeching hysterically in a Beatlemania kind of way, for like the first four whole songs. And hey, it had filled up a lot since Fireball Ministry were on. It almost looked as full as when I saw Saxon or Mastodon here. Thank goodness it was so quiet at the start actually, because I was able at the start to just walk right up and stand immediately at the barrier and wait for this moment. Unlike the screeching woman who had to fight tooth and claw to get a good view. Man. This was a goooood view.
Up close and personal
I was right in from of Woody Weatherman (a brilliant showman with all his gesturing and stage moves) with a perfect diagonal view of John the drummer and Mike Dean and Pepper Keenan. I could literally see every hit of every drum and every note of Woody’s guitar, and a pretty excellent view of the bass and vocals. I think this is one of the best views I’ve had at a gig ever. Maybe its because the stage is low to the ground? (Orange Goblin’s singer was able to touch a crowdsurfer from the stage and rustle his hair up). Also maybe it was because all the crowd-surfing happening stage left and me sat at stage right was unmolested all evening. Man I love comfortable gigs. You can keep your 1980s hardcore punk face punching gigs, give me a good view and a good sound any day, especially if it is with no one hitting you in the head.
C.O.C – Houselights down.
The set-list was pretty great. The hits from Deliverance. Vote With A Bullet from Blind.Wise Blood‘s title track. 3 new songs off of No Cross No Crown (which were absolutely savage live by the way, they sound even better and rawer and heavier live! – ‘The Luddite’ was crushing and ‘Forgive Me’ was even more energetic than the studio version) and hey, 3 songs from my favourite C.O.C record, the immensely underrated America’s Volume Dealer. I guess I chose the right night to see ’em. ‘Diablo BLVD’ was such a top of the lungs sing-along for me, as was ‘Who’s Got The Fire?’ – I think the only thing I would change about the first time I saw this band was that there was not enough Volume Dealer. Now I’ve had my fair share. Bloody loved it too!
I feel like they maybe played less than Orange Goblin, but maybe ‘Goblin have shorter songs. Or maybe time flies when you’re having fun. Or maybe they ran out of time. The houselights after-all did come up and they almost didn’t play an encore but then people chanted and they did the last one (‘Clean My Wounds’ – with extra jamming) with the house lights up, after asking if the power would not be cut from the amps. It actually looked really cool with the lights up. I wonder if they did it on purpose actually?
C.O.C – Houselights up.
Anyway. That was my lot. What a concert. Bonus Black Moth I didn’t expect. Cheap merch prices. A very entertaining Fireball Ministry first timer and a strong new interest in Orange Goblin. And best of all; C.O.C played an utterly fantastic gig and reaffirmed themselves as one of my favourite bands of all time. They are just such a really special band, and its great to have them deliver so well live. I just had a brilliant time.
I won’t have to wait long for another gig. Monday night sees the mightly Slayer rolling into town for the last ever time. I’ll let you know how that turns out too. ‘Til we meet again…
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Metal-Nerd Blog 
