Last Concert You Went To (Now with Pics)

[echo 547]

I saw Dangan NO LIMIT, LEZARD, and Jack Caper tonight at the Riostar Records tour final at Takadanobaba AREA! I just posted about it in the Dangan thread if you're interested! It was a lot of fun!!

 

 

[patientZERO 1066]

Not nearly enough tour towels and covered faces. Haha!

[Tokage 5930]

So yesterday was the first time in a good 2.5 years or so that I went to actually see a REAL concert again. God, I needed it.

 

Went to see Stoned Jesus, Dopelord & Sunnata w/ my gf, so it was basically an evening of jamming and rocking out to stoner rock/metal. Good shit. I ended up enjoying Sunnata's set the most, which surprised me considering they were my least favorite of the 3 in terms of studio material. Stoned Jesus was also really fun, the frontman has good energy and a nice sense of humor. They were the only band to actually interact with the crowd outside of just the usual "lol its gr8 2 b here", so that was nice. Dopelord were solid too, but it was just a pretty by-the-numbers type of gig lol

[Naaaaani 1173]

Saw Versailles and Soviet Soviet last week, awesome

[The Reverend 3566]

 

Didn't take any pictures so you'll have to settle for the tour ad I found.

 

Went and an awesome lineup of Alcest, The Body, and Creepers over the weekend in Philadelphia.

 

The venue- The Foundry is attached (part of?) the Fillmore in downtown Philly. I liked the LED lights in the stairway leading up to the venue. It was kind of chaotic outside because shows were happening in both venues; shout out to the bouncer who could obviously tell who was there for the metal show and plucked them out of line to go in a slightly different entrance haha.

 

The Foundry part had a giant prop foundy oven in the corner near the stage that glowed red/orange inside.. it was cool. They also were the kind of place that just sets out pitchers of water and cups so you don't have to bother a bartender (or just go thirsty) to get some H20, I love that.

 

Creepers - One(?) of the members of this is also in Deafheaven. Kind of a similar sound, but a little more relaxed and mostly singing. The crowd was still a little thin when they started right on time (I missed most of the first song myself!) and they only played for twenty minutes. They had one track I had to look up Spotify on the way home because it got stuck in my head. I felt like a dad going into the show because I had a plaid shirt on instead of a black metal tee, but the keyboard dude for Creepers made me feel better by rocking an OCBD under a sweater on stage.

 

The Body - a pet band of mine I was excited to see again, unfortunately their set was a little lackluster. Usually, they're a duo of drums and guitar live... for this tour I guess they decided they wanted to play their more digital songs so we were treated to the band members (and one other guy) mostly twisting knobs and hitting a drum pad for the set. It was seriously unclear if they were even making the sounds (other than drum pad guy who definitely was) or just changing the pitch with their knobs while the track played.

 

I really like some of their more electro-doom songs (like this one they did with Haxan Cloak) but the lack of movement on stage was kind of a bummer. It all seemed like a bad art school project (they had also set up a white screen where they projected grainy, creepy closeup film of some lady praying and hands and IDK for the whole set). I don't think they won anyone over who didn't already know who they were. They didn't say a single word to the audience.

 

Alcest - The new Kodama songs sounded really good live. Neige and the drummer's name I forget were joined by an additional guitarist and a bassist for this show. They played Alcest's breezy take on black-gaze professionally but without a ton of emotion. Luckily the songs are good enough that I wasn't totally relying on the performance and could just enjoy the music.

 

All the guitar tones were really clear and sounded loud but not painful, great sound from the Alcest boys. The other guitarist and Neige had some really pro vocal harmonies at times. All the guitarists had great hair they unfurled and let flow for the show. Neige stopped between a few songs to thank the crowd, and sounded very humble and gracious in his thanks. There wasn't a moment of "wow, remember when he did ____" that I'll take away from their set but the atmosphere and tunes were top-notch.

 

Check out Écailles de lune someone up front recorded pretty well:

 

 

 

[patientZERO 1066]

I looked up The Body and, man, that does not sound like something that would translate well live. I think they seriously need to reconsider taking their show on the road if all of their performances are as boring as you made them seem. 

[The Reverend 3566]

^ I enjoy being pummeled by their normal set. And I'm all for experimentation.... but this experiment didn't' work.

 

Compare guitar and drums show:

 

 

 

To the hunched over some controllers, basically what we got two nights ago:

 

 

That little bit of kinetic energy from flailing arms and strumming a guitar is apparently important to me.

Edited February 20, 2017 by The Reverend

[patientZERO 1066]

Yeah, the second video looks very much like an art school project that nobody gets except for the one dude on stage in the white tee. The "drummer" is even concealed behind half of his crate. Why bother playing live if you're not going to be live-ly? It's all too (attempted) high-brow for me, as I'm sure it was with the audiences of the tour they were on.

 

I have a feeling this was MetalSucks' choice as they seem to be wavering on the line between metal hipsters and metal trolls. Sometimes they highlight really good bands (like last year they featured a tour with the amazing core band Toothgrinder), but this just screams of douchebaggery. 

[Mr.0 619]

Did two concerts in two days, in Barcelona:

 

Versailles 

And Bastille 

[Rika 2]

Just attended Versailles live at Budokan & Hizaki Birthday Live at Shibuya REX

[Shaolan974 6185]

Rock Festival "Rock à la buse" in Reunion Island with awesome surprises !

 

- The Wanton Bishops (from Beyrouth) Rock/Blues

 

 

- Frustration (from Paris) Punk/Rock/New Wave

 

 

- The Dizzy Brains (from Madagascar) Garage Rock/Punk

 

 

- Cortina Whiplash (from South Africa) Rock

 

 

and two bands from Reunion Island Tukatukas (Punk) and Kil Kil (Punk/Electronic)

[ghost 2687]

Saw Magic Sword and Carpenter Brut last night.
Amazing synth show!
 

 

 

[Bear 1817]

On 22.3.2017 at 7:20 AM, ghost said:

Saw Magic Sword and Carpenter Brut last night.
Amazing synth show!
 

 

I am so fucking jealous of this. I don't even have the vocabulary to tell you exactly how jealous I am. Carpenter Brut are the masters of retrosynth and Magic Sword is brilliant as well. So.Fucking.Jealous!

[ghost 2687]

On 3/24/2017 at 2:12 PM, Bear said:

 

I am so fucking jealous of this. I don't even have the vocabulary to tell you exactly how jealous I am. Carpenter Brut are the masters of retrosynth and Magic Sword is brilliant as well. So.Fucking.Jealous!

Oh man, I really hope you get a chance to listen to them live someday. That show was fantastic, the music, the performance, the lights, videos in the background, everything. They even did a cover of "She's a Maniac" and everyone went wild. Really hope they tour near you sometime!

[haido 13]

Last time as I really WENT to see some concert was... On February as BRILLIANT KINGDOM named VK-duet (also known from Japanese clothing brand Triple*Fortune) performed in Finland.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Went to see a black/death metal gig last night, although I wasn't in the mood at all, but it turned out to be a pretty okay show.

 

My friend and I got there a bit late,(half-intentionally) missing the first two bands, so we arrived just as Hate began their set. Just to clarify, cuz there's probably more than a dozen bands named "Hate", this one was the Polish act. As I see they have quite a lengthy history, and accordingly their playing and style was very professional too. I couldn't really get into it, so that's all I have to say about them. Maybe under different circumstances, in a different mood I'll check them out later.

 

Next up was the band I personally was the most excited for, Absu. I'm not too familiar with all of their output, but whatever I listen from them is always top-quality stuff, and I heard the drummer does most of the vocals, so I had to peep them live of course. I didn't expect them to be so entertaining, holy fuck, haha. Somehow I got an impression of Venom as I was watching them in the beginning, very old-school feel (sometimes borderline heavy-metal riffing) and oh god, Proscriptor (drummer/head honcho) hammed it up so much, it was hilarious. He did the first half drumming and then after a short break they came out with a support (?) drummer and then he was in centre-stage with his headset mic. He reminded me of the theatrics of Tribulation mixed with a depraved King Diamond clone, it was wonderful. Of course the music was epic too. The crowd really got into it too (nothing too violent), which was awesome. Absu alone was worth the ticket price.

 

The closing act was the German kvlt black metal band Nargaroth, who I didn't even know were still around and making music, lol.  I figured I'd check them out, just as a tribute to my teenage self blasting "Black Metal Ist Krieg" a lifetime ago. Well, it wasn't great. They had props galore on stage and the atmosphere was there for sure too, but the actual music felt a bit boring after a couple of songs. It didn't help that apparently they do not have a bassist, so the 'string section' was just two guitars. Btw this was pretty cool at the beginning, but then I missed those sweet low tones more and more. Overall, they were competent but nothing special. We left at around 3/4 of the set without any regrets.

 

All in all, not a bad night. Absu totally saved it.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[Bear 1817]

Absu is a fantastic band, and watching Proscriptor do the vocals while he play as he does is insane. Superb live band!

 

As far as Nargaroth goes they're not a cult band. Generally regarded as a retarded band, and one of the most disliked metal bands around. No figure in the word of metal ash been asgaming ridiculed as Ash/Kanwulf. They do look shitty live too.

 

I do like 3-4 of their releases a lot tho. Not gonna deny that. But Black Metal Ist Krieg is a really embarrassing release. Godawful!

[Flame-X 441]

Last weekend at Anime Central, I went to see May'n concert. It was held outdoors which was the first for the convention and thankfully the weather didn't ruin it. I'm not big into her stuff other than Macross Frontier songs, but for the most part, there wasn't a single performance I disliked.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUb6gZDlSngsahfY_UrJPcVe7KJkebXki7qa1s0/

[sixnightmares 1]

On 5/25/2017 at 5:19 PM, Flame-X said:

Last weekend at Anime Central, I went to see May'n concert. It was held outdoors which was the first for the convention and thankfully the weather didn't ruin it. I'm not big into her stuff other than Macross Frontier songs, but for the most part, there wasn't a single performance I disliked.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUb6gZDlSngsahfY_UrJPcVe7KJkebXki7qa1s0/

 

I also (unintentionally) was at that concert, as I was part of the lolita meetup at Sugar Factory. it was AWESOME! and I wasn't familiar with May'n at all.

[Hohchicano96 153]

I went to Bled Fest, located at the Hartland Performing Arts Center in Howell, MI on Saturday, May 27.

 

 

 

• First act I saw was Heart Attack Man; the Cleveland duo, with a support bassist and a support guitarist, started the day right for me. Check out this interview, with vocalist/guitarist Eric Egan,  about how close the duo were to rerecording the entirety of their recently released album: http://modern-vinyl.com/2017/03/03/interview-eric-egan-heart-attack-man/

 

 

• Eighth act was Koji. The Pennsylvanian man of Filipino-Japanese descent shared a few stories throughout his set regarding his personal life, career and political activities; one of them was his couchsurfing days, ongoing at the time of speaking, because of him being denied of housing after arriving at a Brooklyn apartment complex and him finding all of belongings stolen from the trunk of his car during early 2017. Despite those happenings, he was optimistic of his future being free from consumerism and materialism. The set ended with a cover of Pete Seeger's We Shall Overcome.

 

 

• Final act was La Dispute. The Grand Rapids, Michigan band performed, from front to back, their sophomore album Wildlife, with an encore consisting of two songs from their most recent album Rooms of the House and two songs from their debut album Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair. If you want to see what passion fans display for a band, especially with the vocalist's lyrics often written as if they are spoken word pieces, this is the band to go see live.  They've done, in my eyes, the West Michigan music scene proud. If you would like to learn more about their history, do consider buying or streaming their documentary film Tiny Dots. 

[kyounoowari 6]

Last one I went to was in April. I got to see Miyavi, Kiha and the Faces, and Slot Machine. It was an  awesome experience and you can see how close I managed to get. Miyavi himself did not play any complete song, but played bits of some and just shredded on the guitar. The crazy thing is, he really was not the best act of the night, he was great, but the others were awesome.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Went to see Skinny Puppy last night. Needless to say, it was amazing.

 

Finnish duo K-X-P opened the night with their trance-like electronic rock, at times reminiscent of krautrock with its repetitive "motorik" beats and zoned-out performance style. It was an interesting choice, but nevertheless, we at the front really dug it and danced our asses off. Great vibes all around. Here I'd like to mention that since Skinny Puppy's bus broke down during the day, they announced they would be arriving later than scheduled, so to have enough time for the staff to set up SP's elaborate stage,  the opening act played in the venue's middle-sized gig room, which boosted a lot on the atmosphere. Might not have worked that much in the big hall anyway.

 

After a tedious 20-minute wait crushed into a hall with lots of sweaty and impatient people, they finally let us in to the main hall. Me and my friend quickly glanced at the hilarious(ly over-the-top) merch prices, then promptly placed ourselves in the middle of the crowd. The lights dimmed and then the show started, and oh boy, what a show it was! Total mad respect to Nivek Ogre and his band of Skinny Puppys. Everything looked and sounded amazing. Not to mention the stage antics of the mainman himself, who was first led onto the stage by a cyber-minotaur hunchback looking fellow. He looked like a post-apocalyptic shaman with his ragged robes and helmet and proceeded to perform a sort of dervish dance to a lesser worldly god (dollar symbols flashing on his stoles, ka-ching!). Throughout the show as he took of layers off clothing, he transformed into a kind of nameless zombie soldier, then finally to a bloody-faced mad scientist type who was repeatedly stabbed by the minotaur minion with giant hypodermic syringes that stuck out of his mummy-like white rags all throughout, slowly spreading bloody marks over his clothes as the show progressed. Later these were switched for syringes containing glow-in-the-dark green liquid, which he copiously spread onto himself at the climactic singalong of "Assimilate". The band then went off for a quick breather, then came back for a casual two-punch encore. All in all, one of the best gigs and definitely the most entertaining gig of the year so far for me.

 

Some vids to get you in the mood too (not taken by me):

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[Tokage 5930]

Saw Rammstein today. What can I say? If you know anything about their live shows, you know how it was; spectacular, cool, lots of pyrotechnics, etc.. It might be because I haven't gone to very many concerts in the last couple of years, but this so far was probably the best gig of the year. 

[Bear 1817]

Went to see Goblin and Tusmørke at Blitz, an anarchist, communist and socialist youth community in Oslo. I'm not a Blitzer myself and I was very surprised to see them arrange a gig like this. But while I don't give a shit about their politics, it works really good as a concert house. You can also bring your own drinks to the club, which makes it cheap and nice as fuck.

 

Anyway, Tusmørke was kinda disappointed. It was good, but I've seen them better 2-3 times before.

 

Goblin on the other hand was beyond amazing. I've seen Goblin before, but that was Claudio Simonetti's Goblin which is Claudio and the four other members of Daemonia. At that time we saw and interview with Claudio before the showing of Suspiria at Cinemateket in Oslo, with a concert in the evening. It was amazing and one of my favourite concerts ever. This time around however it was Goblin with 4/5 of the original(?) line up with Massimo Morante, Maurizio Guarini, Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo.

 

What a fucking fantastic gig! The atmosphere, the tightness of the band. Jesus, it was incredible! And they ended the gig playing Magic Thriller, Mad Puppet, Dr. Frankenstein, Roller, E Suono Rock, Aquaman, Death Farm, Goblin, Dawn of the Dead, Tenebre, Suspiria, Profondo Rosso and Zaratozom in that order if I am not mistaken. Oh wait, that's actually the entire setlist. What a setlist! Says it all really!

 

Doesn't matter which Goblin plays. Best prog band ever!

[ArtFart 375]

Went to see this band called The Coathangers with my mom and her cousin last night. They were pretty good and I actually got to meet and hang out with all of them and help them pack up their equipment lol small bands are the best cause you can get way more personal with them!