The Concert Thread

My updated concert calendar (mostly for my own sanity):

Sun 2/18 - Sons of Apollo
Fri 2/23 - G3: Satriani, Petrucci, Collen
Tues 2/27 - Sabaton
Sat 3/31 - Nightwish
Fri 4/27 - Kamelot
Fri 6/15 - Brandi Carlile
Sun 7/29 - Foo Fighters
 
I made a last minute decision to go and see Accept in London yesterday. Very good gig, although I must admit I enjoyed Dirkschneider in 2016 more. That being said, seeing Wolf Hoffmann and Peter Baltes live was an experience, especially as I really like Wolf's guitar playing. They had another guitar player, a drummer, and a singer, but from the start it was clearly who were running the show calling the shots. :D

Joking aside, Mark Tornillo did a good job with the old tunes, struggling at some points though, and Uwe Ullis and Christopher Williams provided a solid backbone.

Special mention to Night Demon, a North American power trio who were the support act. Classic heavy metal with strong NWOBHM/early Riot/early Metallica influences. Very, very enjoyable.
 
Black Wizard said:
Myles is playing in the Birmingham Institute 2 (small room) and the Islington Assembly Hall (London). Two weeks after his Birmingham show I'll be seeing Testament play the main room (1500 capacity) for about £15 less than the Myles Kennedy ticket in the small room (600 capacity). Two years ago I saw Symphony X play in the Assembly Hall (900 capacity) for a similarly lower price than the Myles Kennedy show. Neither Testament nor Symphony X are as big a deal as Myles Kennedy of course so their tickets would naturally be cheaper than MA's. However, at those sort of prices and the demand for tickets his shows could easily have been upgraded to larger venues such as the KOKO which has 1400 capacity. Incidently, Delain, Thrice and Sepultura tickets for that venue all cost less than the MK ticket for the Assembly Hall. With tickets in excess of £30 his shows should be in the Brixton Academy (just short of 5000 capacity) where Helloween played at a similar price to the MK show. Even Alter Bridge's Royal Albert Hall show with an orchestra was a more appropriate value for money at £50. The pricing for this tour seems to be a very cynical supply-and-demand scheme or maybe Myles just demands a massive fee because he's such a big deal. It's not like his solo tour is going to have an extravagant stage show or a large number of roadies. Sad!
Click to expand...

Perhaps he wants to play more intimate venues...
 
Doesn't a smaller venue mean a rare chance to see a big artist close up? I'd love the chance to see some really big names play a small gig. One of the attractions of British Lion is seeing Steve Harris putting in pretty much the same amount of welly on a small stage that he would at a huge Maiden show. I saw Katatonia do their acoustic show on a tiny stage at a crappy looking working men's club in Leeds, and I was much happier with that than with gigs I've seen at the medium sized venues like Leeds O2 Academy and Manchester Apollo. Okay, so they only charge about £20, but it felt more than worth that.

I got the impression when I saw Slash and Myles that a lot of people were there to see Myles. The touts really hit that show hard. It sold out fast and standing tickets were resold for silly prices.
 
GhostofCain said:
Perhaps he wants to play more intimate venues...
Click to expand...
That's all well and good, but the ticket prices should be set accordingly.
Black Wizard said:
... larger venues such as the KOKO which has 1400 capacity. Incidently, Delain, Thrice and Sepultura tickets for that venue all cost less than the MK ticket for the Assembly Hall.
Click to expand...
Accept recently played in the KOKO and tickets cost a bit over £30. Far too much for a band with only one song!

Last night a I saw Anneke van Giersbergen's lastest band Vuur play in a fairly crappy venue in Birmingham called The Asylum. It was actually an OK venue compared to what I expected, and had a load of Rock/Metal memorabilia on the walls of the stairway, such as a photo of Blaze Bayley from his 2004 tour and a signed drumskin. The support band, Exploding Birdsong (cool name!), were totally unknown to everyone. They have two keyboard players, one of whom is the lead singer, and a backing singer. They literally have a girl whose sole role is backing vocals. I suppose they were OK, nice enough music but a totally random support band. Vuur were great though. The setlist included a few songs from AvG's previous projects which I am not familiar with and an Audioslave cover in tribute to Chris Cornell. A couple of songs were acoustic, such as an Ayreon cover which AvG gave a big build up to and them forgot the words or how to play it just after the start of the song. She said that 20 years ago (in "the dark ages") she could've got away with it but now it'll end up on Youtube. :lol: She's an amazing singer and is absolutely flawless live. It was great to see Vuur up close in such a small venue (250 capacity, although Myles Kennedy would probably charge £50) and I hope they come back soon! AvG stayed around to sign stuff and take photos afterwards. She's super nice and made a low key entrance such that we almost didn't notice she'd come out. Probably because she's tiny, which is very un-Dutch.

My upcoming live music schedule is as follows:

3/3 Blaze Bayley, Camden Underworld (@Albie @national acrobat you guys going?)
18/3 Sepultura, Camden KOKO
26/3 Sumo Cyco, Boston Music Room (London, haven't been here yet!)
29/3 Testament, Motion Bristol
31/3 Testament, Birmingham Institute
5/4 Cellar Darling, Boston Music Room
13/4 Epica, Kentish Town Forum
1/6 Iron Maiden, Stockholm
5/6 Iron Maiden, Copenhagen
16/6 Scorpions/Megadave, O2 Arena (London)
4/8 Iron Maiden, Aberdeen
7/8 Iron Maiden, Birmingham
9-12/8 Judas Priest/Gojira/Nightwish/Kamelot/Devildriver etc., Bloodstock Festival
10/11 Within Temptation, Manchester Apollo

So just a few then.
 
After a new announcement this morning of Sons of Apollo doing a full US tour, now on May 9 in Houston here are my choices:

Sons of Apollo @Scout Bar
Prong/Helmet @Warehouse Live
Kamelot/Delain/Battle Beast @House of Blues
:eek:

Decisions, decisions...I have seen both Prong and Helmet before. Delain I have seen while Kamelot and Battle Beast I have not seen and would like to. However, I am very intrigued by Sons of Apollo and will probably go to that one.
 
Last night I saw Blaze Bayley in the Camden Underworld. It was a good show and a relief that it went ahead considering the recent weather.

My upcoming schedule is:

18/3 Sepultura, Camden KOKO
26/3 Sumo Cyco, Boston Music Room
29/3 Testament, Bristol Motion
31/3 Testament, Birmingham Institute
5/4 Cellar Darling, Boston Music Room
13/4 Epica, Kentish Town Forum
1/6 Iron Maiden, Stockholm
5/6 Iron Maiden, Copenhagen
16/6 Scorpions/Megadave, O2 Arena
4/8 Iron Maiden, Aberdeen
7/8 Iron Maiden, Birmingham
9-12/8 Judas Priest/Gojira/Nightwish/Devildriver/Kamelot/At the Gates/Emperor, Bloodstock Festival
10/11 Within Temptation, Manchester Apollo

Mark Tremonti's side project, creatively names Tremonti, has a few UK dates end of June/start of July. I checked out one of his albums and it was pretty good. Is this worth going to see @Ariana? I don't know where I'll be living at the time so any decision would have to be made late on.
 
Black Wizard said:
Mark Tremonti's side project, creatively names Tremonti, has a few UK dates end of June/start of July. I checked out one of his albums and it was pretty good. Is this worth going to see @Ariana? I don't know where I'll be living at the time so any decision would have to be made late on.
Click to expand...

Tremonti, as a band, is the most metal of all projects he's ever been involved in. Their music has mostly thrash and speed influences, with very melodic vocals. I love everything Tremonti (the band) have released. They're currently recording album number 4, which will be out in late spring. I'd say it's worth checking out, if you're prepared for the fact that Mark is probably not the best singer you have heard live.
 
Ariana said:
if you're prepared for the fact that Mark is probably not the best singer you have heard live.
Click to expand...
When I saw Alter Bridge last year he sang one song ('Waters Rising' I think) and he sounded OK. Anyway, I've seen Dave Mustaine multiple times and Tom Araya a few times. Even Lemmy, who couldn't even sing in the studio.:puke:
 
I've seen some pics from the Blaze gig - that venue looks absolutely tiny! Two people I know got their pics with Blaze and he signed stuff for them.
 
Saw Skid Row last night. Decent show, not amazing but I'm not a mega fan really so it was good enough for me. Gig was sold out and the guys down the front seemed to love it.
They played all the big tunes, Slave to the Grind, Youth Gone Wild, 18 & Life, Monkey Business, Psycho Therapy (Ramones cover). One major fault though, they opened with Slave to the Grind. For me, its easily one of their very best songs and would suit being played later, once the crowd is warmed up.
 
Brigantium said:
I've seen some pics from the Blaze gig - that venue looks absolutely tiny! Two people I know got their pics with Blaze and he signed stuff for them.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is a shithole of a venue. There's also a pillar really close to the stage.:facepalm:

I didn't bother queuing up to meet Blaze before the show, but I think Albie did. It's nice of Blaze to take the time to do this at every show. I met Anneke van Giersbergen last month though, which is better.:wub:
 
Saw Between the Buried and Me with Dear Hunter and Leprous. Some thoughts on each.

Leprous - They were great live. I was really impressed. Their live sound is excellent, nice balance of instruments and lots of clarity. It was also somehow very heavy and smooth sounding at the same time, kinda like on the record but not so much so that it felt like a playback of the record. If that makes sense. Some of the newer songs had more energy live, although some of the Congregation stuff felt a little watered down. Seems like they're still finding a balance with the heaviness. Wasn't sure how much they won the crowd over. A lot of people seemed to enjoy it but they aren't really the type of band to pump up a crowd (this goes for Dear Hunter too, although there were clearly more fans in the audience). There were a couple songs that people really got into though, such as The Flood (which was fantastic live). Bonneville was not a good opener. I like the song but a lot of people seemed kinda bored in the audience. It works as an opener on the album but definitely not a great way to start the show. It kinda reminded me of the opening song on Gojira's new album, except Gojira knew better and opened the concert with something else.

Dear Hunter - Meh. I've tried getting into this band before and while on paper I like what they're doing, I have a hard time really getting into it. The weird thing is that before the concert I listened to some of their latest album as preparation and actually really liked some of it. I thought maybe this band was starting to grow on me. But then I saw the concert and it was the same as before, pretty boring. Both Dear Hunter and Leprous were strange choices as openers because their music is fairly mellow compared to Between the Buried and Me. Nice diversity with the bands but they should've had someone more energetic in there.

Between the Buried and Me - This was interesting for a couple reasons. The first is that about a third of the setlist was made up of brand new material. The album is not out yet officially (they are selling it at the shows and it's probably on the internet) and it was obvious that most people didn't know the new songs. This is also the third show of the tour so even if people did hear the album, they're probably not familiar with it at all. I actually really liked this. It showed a lot of confidence in the new material and confidence that the fans would go along with it. I always liked hearing bootlegs from older bands like Maiden who would start the tour weeks before the album release and still play most of it live. I wish more bands did that today.

The other interesting thing is that I'm used to this band playing entire albums live. I have a DVD of them performing the Colors album and last time I saw them live they performed the Coma Ecliptic album and nothing else. This was my first time seeing them play a "normal" setlist that took bits off several different albums. I have to say that this format didn't really work for them, at least not at this show. None of the songs seemed to flow very well into each other, it just seemed like BTBAM on shuffle. I guess they're like a Metal Pink Floyd in that their music has to be experienced in album format. This is true for other bands, like Dream Theater and Opeth, but those bands still have really great setlists (see Dream Theater 2014 and Opeth 2013 for great setlist flow). Maybe I caught a weaker set, but I can't really think of any way to make a BTBAM setlist flow well without them playing one of their albums in its entirety.

I know there aren't many fans of these bands on the forum but I thought I'd post anyway for my general thoughts on live concerts and setlists (the latter being a favorite Maidenfans topic).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top