The Concert Thread

As it replaced 'Damage Inc' from Sunday's show, not really. :P It's not a song I'm too keen on, and the latest album was pretty dull overall. 'Halo on Fire' is the stand-out track from 'Hardwired to Self-Destruct' though and it was pretty good live, and 'Atlas Rise' has grown on me recently.
 
I saw The Iron Maidens a couple of nights ago. They were good fun and they played 'Alexander the Great' and 'Flash of the Blade' which I'll never see the real thing perform. Some old guys around me didn't seem to enjoy themselves very much. I guess they wanted an Iron Maiden show that didn't cost £70 and were a but underwhelmed. 'Hallowed be thy Name' was a particular highlight, especially after not seeing it this year. Oh, and the guitarists are so god damn hot too. :wub:

Next I've got Delain on Wednesday with Marco Hietelalalalala from Nightwish, plus Serenity and Cellar Darling in support.

Current schedule is:

1/11 Delain, Camden Koko
14/11 Helloween, Brixton Academy
17/12 Trans Siberian Orchestra, Tampa
18/3 Sepultura, Camden Koko
13/4 Epica, Kentish Town Forum
9-12/8 Judas Priest, Gojira, Nightwish, Bloodstock Festival

I could do with some gigs in January and February to fill in the big gap, and some Maiden shows in summer.
 
Last edited:
Black Wizard said:
I saw The Iron Maidens a couple of nights ago. They were good fun and they played 'Alexander the Great' and 'Flash of the Blade' which I'll never see the real thing perform. Some old guys around me didn't seem to enjoy themselves very much. I guess they wanted an Iron Maiden show that didn't cost £70 and were a but underwhelmed. 'Hallowed be thy Name' was a particular highlight, especially after not seeing it this year. Oh, and the guitarists are so god damn hot too. :wub:
Click to expand...

Yep, seeing TIMs is always confusing. I’m cheering for the guitar solos of Adrian Smith, but Adrian Smith is so much hotter than Adrian Smith...
 
Saw Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tonight. I didn't know much outside of the last 3 albums since I slacked off and didn't prepare by listening to the discography, even though I bought the ticket like 3 months ago :facepalm: Anyway, it was still quite a great show. Nick Cave is truly a force of nature. Can't even imagine the intensity for the people in the front row considering he was holding hands with people there, took selfies with their phones and almost crowd-surfed a few times. He would also often give the microphone to someone in the audience so that he can clap and would then take it and continue singing. Thankfully, it's not a thrash metal show otherwise he would've had to get a new microphone. Arena was sold out, but he was basically singing and looking at just the first few rows :D There was also a Heaven Can Wait moment when he let people on stage for the last 2 songs.

Anyway, will probably check out his discography for real now :)

Next shows:
  • Scorpions on December 7th, Belgrade
  • Helloween on December 14th, Sofia
  • Kreator and Vader on January 19th, Belgrade
 
Just saw Ben Folds last night and it was pretty awesome. The whole show was just Ben and a piano with one set prepared and one set made up of all requests that had to be written down on paper airplanes and thrown at the stage. He would get up after each song, pick up an airplane, unfold it, and then play whichever song was written on there!

Truth be told, I haven't been a huge Ben Folds fan in the last 10 years so the newer stuff and slower stuff was a little meh for me, but "The Classics" were great. It's still truly inspiring to see a guy take a stage by himself and play for two hours to 1000+ screaming fans.
 
Paradise Lost on 4 April.

happy-dance-animated-gif-image-1-2.gif
 
Tomorrow I'm seeing Delain with Serenity and Cellar Darling.

Testament just announced a UK tour in Spring which has a show in Bristol on my birthday!
 
Metallica were great in Birmingham. I had what I thought was a nose bleed ticket, but still had a pretty decent view due to the in the round style stage.

I’ve been going to gigs since 1995, even had a long sleeved black album shirt as a teenager but I’d never seen them live. I guess because they rarely play proper U.K. tours, more sporadic festival dates like Maiden do nower days.

Last time i nearly went to see them was 2008 but didn’t in protest to Robert Trujillo being in the group and not Jason.

This time I thought it might be my last chance, they didn’t disappoint.

Great set list, great atmosphere, can’t criticise at all. 10/10.
 
On Wednesday night I saw Delain play at the Koko in London with Marco Hietelalalalala from Nightwish. The support bands were Serenity and Cellar Darling. Overall it was one of the best shows I've ever been to with great performances from each band and a great atmosphere.

Cellar Darling opened the show a few minutes after doors opened so the venue was half full for much of their set, but they were really good and everyone who saw them seemed to enjoy them. Hopefully I'll get to see them again at some point in the not too distant future!

Serenity were on after and they seemed to be pretty popular. I'd never listened to them until a couple of days before the show they're quite upbeat/anthemic Power/Symphonic Metal but I'm not a fan of the singer's vocals. However, they put on a really good show and the singer is a great frontman. Their music does lend itself to the live setting nicely.

This was the second year running I've seen Delain play in this venue and the second year running that they've absolutely nailed it. Charlotte Wessels is a phenomenal frontwoman and her singing is flawless live. In fact everyone in the band puts on a great performance and really enjoys what they're doing. The setlist was quite interesting, with a couple of their more obscure songs thrown in, but made all the better for the fact that 'We Are the Others' was the second song which got it out of the way early. They did six songs with Marco Hietalalalalalala, two of which were in the encore. It was also the drummer's final show with the band. I definitely recommend seeing Delain live if you get the chance.


Next is Helloween in ten days time.
 
Ziggyplayedguitar said:
Metallica were great in Birmingham. I had what I thought was a nose bleed ticket, but still had a pretty decent view due to the in the round style stage.

I’ve been going to gigs since 1995, even had a long sleeved black album shirt as a teenager but I’d never seen them live. I guess because they rarely play proper U.K. tours, more sporadic festival dates like Maiden do nower days.

Last time i nearly went to see them was 2008 but didn’t in protest to Robert Trujillo being in the group and not Jason.

This time I thought it might be my last chance, they didn’t disappoint.

Great set list, great atmosphere, can’t criticise at all. 10/10.
Click to expand...

Was there too! My first time seeing Metallica, and it just blew my mind! After seeing so many comments over the years about how they're a bit of a spent force. I refuse to believe it, their performances are heavy, tight and passionate. And the new tracks went down incredibly.

Shame the power went out during One before the best part of the song.

22853397_10213107337870258_986702108531446771_n.jpg
 
Current concert slate:

March 2, 2018: Sabaton feat. Kreator - MTelus, Montreal, QC, Canada.
March 20, 2018: Nightwish - MTelus, Montreal, QC, Canada.
March 25, 2018: Judas Priest feat. Saxon & Black Star Riders - TD Place Arena, Ottawa, Canada.
 
Just got tickets to see Foo Fighters at Wrigley Field in July!

Updated concert calendar:

Feb 23, 2018 - G3 (Satriani/Petrucci)
Feb 27, 2018 - Sabaton
March 31, 2018 - Nightwish
April 27, 2018 - Kamelot
July 29, 2018 - Foo Fighters
 
Marillion at Manchester Academy.

Brilliant band, the set list mostly comprised of tracks from the recent FEAR album, I was slightly disappointed they didn’t just carry on after 5 songs and play the album in full. It’s certainly the best album since Marbles, maybe even Seasons End.

The band played for 2.5 hours.

Surprisingly they did happily dip into the FISH era of the band too, namely classic tracks such as Heart of Lothian and Market Square Heroes.

Steve Hogarth was in fine sprints and cracked jokes with the crowed, even teasing Don’t Look Back In Anger by Oasis.

I’ve rarely seen a band where the crowd were so into it, a rarety these days. Just superb musicians and a masterclass in how a show should be executed. Instead of gazing into iphones, everyone was just savouring the moment.
 
Not metal, but just added Brandi Carlile to my list for next year (6/15 at Chicago Theatre). Never seen her before and quite excited. Pretty close seats, too!
 
Last night I saw Helloween on the Pumpkins United tour i.e. the regular members of Helloween plus Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske who were in the band back in the 80s when they released the 'Keeper of the Seven Keys' albums that basically defined Power Metal. You can read my review in the Helloween and Gamma Ray topic, but it was a very good show with a nearly three hour set. :)

On Sunday I went to a significantly smaller gig in Oxford with former World Superbike champion James Toseland's band. He had to quit racing a few years ago after sustaining too many injuries and since he's a pretty good musician as well he decided to form a rock band. They're nothing special and James sings like a poor man's Myles Kennedy but they play upbeat, fun Rock music that sounds really good live.

Today I bought a ticket for a Dutch band called Vuur, Anneke van Giersbergen's latest band. And I told myself I was going to take it easy on the gigs after Christmas and finish the PhD. Oh well, I simply couldn't miss this one.

Current schedule is this:

17/12 Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Tampa
10/02 Vuur, Birmingham
03/03 Blaze Bayley, London
18/03 Sepultura, London
29/03 Testament, Bristol
31/03 Testament, Birmingham
13/04 Epica, London
04/08 Iron Maiden, Aberdeen
07/08 Iron Maiden, Birmingham
10-12/08 Judas Priest/Gojira/Nightwish, Bloodstock Festival

The dates in italics are still provisional but I'm pretty sure I'll be going, plus one or two European shows for Maiden too. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top