I am incredibly thrilled to be seeing the world's most brutal band live to kick off the weekend. Hopefully Rybot and I will not end up casualties like so many fans do at their performances. I haven't been asked to sign a pain waiver yet, so there's still hope that it won't be super-dangerous.
UPDATE: Oh. My. God. What a mindblowing show.
Rybot and I missed the opening act by the time we got there, which was fine, since a lot of death metal is is the same. Second act Chimiara proved that. While they were not bad, they were typical of what the genre has to offer: indistinguishable lyrics, grinding guitars, blast beasts, and hair whipping around. Their sound was kinda muddy, but they had a kick ass light show - that guy was on it. Again, it bad, but certainly not the reason we were there.
After running into some guys from high school who had a terrific death metal band (and who were totally torn up), we ended up in the middle GA section. The floor space below was filled with early comers who had a wristband for access, but we had a fairly clear line of sight from where we stood on the cordoned off aisle on the left side. The staff had stopped letting people into our area too, which was nice, but that wouldn't hold for too long.
The lights went out, and there was a video that set up the premise of the concert - a plan to infect all the Dethklok fans with a virus that would mutate them (not much but) enough to keep them from spending money, effectively crippling the band. It would have worked too, because every time we saw the merch table there was a line across the whole foyer with at least 50 people. When Dethklok came on, the place went nuts.
Suddenly, the upper GA surged and came charging into our space, trying to get to the stage as the opening notes played. It was chaos, and the security staff couldn't contain the crush. The extra bodies found space to occupy and the rest of the show had little trouble with the crowd, allowing everybody to focus on the music instead of clawing for survival.
Seeing Dethklok perform was a nerd treat of epic proportion. Brendon Small, singer / guitarist / creator is also a Berklee College of Music grad, and he assembled hardcore musicians to play with him - legendary death metal drummer Gene Hoglan, and Frank Zappa alumni Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller. It's hard to remember a show where the skill level and musicianship was as high as this, and pulled it off so successfully. With such a technical degree of songcraft, it was great to see them pull it off, and they made it look effortless. The accompanying video was great, from the interstitial skits to the "performances". They added more original material and synced it flawlessly. It was just amazing, from start to finish.
It's strange that it was really a debut for Dethklok, but the response was closer to Metalocalypse, where they are an established group bigger than the Beatles. While there were the usual assortment of meatheads and heshers in the crowd, I would absolutely see them play again and try to convince as many people to see what an impressive production they put on.
Deththeme / Briefcase Full Of Guts / Birthday Dethday
Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle / Dethharmonic
Murmaider / Thunderhorse
Go Into The Water
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