Children of Bodom/Trivium/Amon Amarth
Nov. 16 @ The Quest Nightclub
The Quest is having a nice little streak of good shows. Unfortunately the place sucks a bit. It seems every show is a little bit different in the way it is run but I’ve been there enough over the last few weeks that I think I’m learning it’s quirks. I will say that I probably had the best view for this show that I’ve ever had at this facility so things may be looking up.
In my mind metal is well on the way to recovery. 3 years ago I was going to shows with crowds ranging from 40-400 people. Over the last year I’ve seen crowds grow to about 1,000 for the same type of shows. The 4 metal shows over the last 2 weeks at The Quest either sold out or were near sellouts. Reminds me of the days before the hair bands took over and ruined everything for everybody. It also appears that people aren’t just going to these shows on random whims but they actually follow these bands that I’ve heard little about. You would be surprised to see how much they not only get into them but they also know the lyrics and sing along. DEVILDRIVER who opened for GWAR is one such band and I will say they got the largest circle pit going that I’ve seen in my years of concert attendance. AVENGED SEVENFOLD is a band that I’ve just started hearing about over the last 3-4 weeks and I was very surprised to find out they had sold out at The Quest. As it was years ago, video exposure on one of the MTV channels is very valuable and is giving bands notoriety.
There is an incredible amount of metal bands coming out of Sweden and Finland. This show had representatives from both. AMON AMARTH-SWEDEN, CHILDREN OF BODOM-FINLAND as well as TRIVIUM-U.S.
AMON AMARTH opened the show and had a typical death metal sound. Musically I enjoy death metal but I must admit typically the vocals suck. I found AMON AMARTH’s music enjoyable and the band fun to watch with all the head banging, hair swirling action but the vocals weren’t that great. While not as bad as most cookie monster death metal it was grating after awhile. One thing that I noticed was the fact that the singer had his shirt off. Back in the day almost every singer was shirtless at some point in a show but you never see it anymore. I’ve actually been wondering lately why nobody does it anymore. Now my mind is at ease somebody has carried on the tradition. Again AMON AMARTH is one of those bands that I had never heard of but people were really into them and not only knew their lyrics but sang them. (2 on a 5 scale—keep in mind I consider a 2 enjoyable just has lots of flaws).
Went upstairs for a beer between sets and it hit me that there is starting to be more women that are showing up for these shows. Keep in mind that this was a hardcore metal show so I was very impressed with quality of women in the “beer garden.” Plus everybody knows metal chicks wear the best outfits and these girls didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately these ladies all seem to be with guys but at least they’re showing up. Much better than all the 15 year old boys I was seeing at the shows the last couple years. Who know as metals popularity grows maybe some of the single women will start showing up.
As TRIVIUM started I headed downstairs to get a better view and noticed a nice opening to the side of the stage so I ended up with a primo vantage for the rest of the show. I have to admit I really like these guys and was pumped for another chance to see them. I would compare them to early METALLICA for the old school metal fans and SHADOWS FALL for those of you into the newer stuff. These guys give a steady beat to nod your head and I enjoy their mix of screaming vocals blended with the more melodic vocals that are somewhat prevalent in much of today’s metal. Their performance started a little weak as the vocalist was very poor during the melodic bits do to either monitor problems or lack of warming up his vocal chords but after 1-1/2 songs he started nailing everything and they put on another great performance. When I saw them open for DANZIG in February nobody knew these guys but things have changed. Crowd was pumped for them and once again knew lyrics. They’ve gained a lot of popularity in a few months. (3-1/2 out of 5).
This is CHILDREN OF BODOM’s first tour of the U.S. and they seem to be drawing nicely. In many ways these guys are a throwback band. Unlike most club shows every band member got his own solo. The music is a bit hard to get into as they use a lot of odd beats so it’s hard to get a nice even head nod going like you do with the power metal that I love. However, they do a lot of blazing guitar leads which are fun to hear and are very IRON MAIDENish. I think guitar players would probably really like this band. Interestingly enough they use keyboards for intro’s on almost every song. I kept waiting for them to break into FANTASY or FINAL COUNTDOWN at any moment. When the band came out for encore one of the guitarist’s played some CRUE for about 20-30 seconds before they busted into a song of their own. Once again crowd was into the band and knew the songs. Very impressive night. (3 out of 5).
Anybody with an inkling to catch a show should consider either EARLY MAN (metal-28th) or CLUTCH (rock-29th).
posted by IronMike @ 12:00 PM
0 comments
