June 23rd == Graspop.

Moonspell is playing and while i do not know if i'll make it on the friday, i'll certainly try. Also, going to Graspop with my brother and some friends is getting a bit of a yearly tradition. So Furia is pretty much out. Sorry.

nearly every band i want to see at Samsquantch is coming to Van. so we've scrapped that notion.

instead, we're going to Vegas for a weekend of debauchery.

quote:

Originally posted by charmakarmacat:

...instead, we're going to Vegas for a weekend of debauchery.

Sweeeeet - Enjoy

Opeth in Edmonton (aka "david, you're in for a treat")

So, we waited outside in the cold in a long line-up for about 40 minutes or so. Most hadn't brought jackets because we didn't want to coat-check, so there was a fair bit of shivering in the line (it was about -1 so not too bad). That meant I missed probably half of Dark Tranquility's set, which kinda sucked.

As advertised (by everyone I've talked to), the sound at Red's was pretty craptacular. Not surprising - the layout of the place was definitely not designed for acoustics. For Opeth's set I had a great spot above the stage where I could see plenty, but it was to the right of the stage and the sound was just too muddy: I couldn't even hear what Mikael was saying when he talked between songs. So I moved to a spot right behind the mixing desk for the rest of the show, and that was decent, though not as good as when I heard them in Vancouver.

I'd never heard Dark Tranquility before, but enjoyed their stuff, and they put on a great show. Their singer's voice is naturally baritone, not tenor like Mikael's, and his usual mode is more of a roar (it reminded me of Lemmy, and the guy from Kreator, and to my mind made the music sound 'German' somehow) rather than a full-on death metal grunt. Lots of heavy riffing, plenty of dynamics and some twin-guitar harmonies that reminded me of Iron Maiden at times but weren't quite the same. Pity they weren't the main support, I thought.

DevilDriver were very competent at what they did, played fast and well, worked the crowd... but it just didn't do that much for me. It was an unrelenting wall of noise. I dunno - on a bill where that's what I came for, maybe... but on a mello-death bill, the fit just didn't seem to be there.

Opeth was amazing as ever. They played a heavier set than in Vancouver, with plenty of variety. If I remember right the setlist was:

Ghost Reveries
White Cluster
The Amen Corner
Closure
The Baying Of The Hounds
Under the Weeping Moon
The Grand Conjuration
Drapery Falls
Deliverance (encore)

Mikael moved around more and seemed to be really enjoying his singing and playing. Peter's guitar sounded a bit 'tinny' in some of the parts, but that was totally the fault of the venue and the sound. Per Wiburg does a great job of playing the keys and singing backing vocals, and was more prominent in the stage show and more active than I've seen before. Martin Mendez stood still except for the headbanging and anchored the band with rock solid bass, and Martin Axenrot murdered the skins. (Do we know when/whether Martin Lopez is returning?)

Fantastic show from a fantastic band in an average venue... but I'm glad I went. Moving to Australia in a couple of months, it'll probably be a long time before I get to see Opeth live again.

I can't remember if I posted about that already :

I booked tickets for the London Wireless Festival on Firday June 23rd.

On that day, the lineup is :

Massive Attack
Flaming Lips
DJ Shadow
Terry Callier
Damian Marley
Pharrell

I think I'll miss a day of the Parisian WGB meeting because of that.
But hey... Massive Attack, the Flaming Lips and DJ Shadow on the same stage ? I'm in.


Insisting rumors claim that Radiohead will be playing at the Parisian Rock En Seine festival, around August 27th.

That could be very good too.

Now if only Hooverphonic was playing anywhere in France...

Oooh! I'm going to a concert tomorrow night.

My brother got us free tickets from a radio station thing. It's greek music; the kind I like!
Should be fun.

So... the gig!
It was a promo thing that my bro won tickets for from a radio station.
Two young up and coming artists. Yiorgos Peris and Anthriana Babali. Yiorgos was the opening act lets say. Anthriana was definitely the star!
Their style, if you have to categorize them is somewhere between pop and rock I guess. Anyway, it's my kind of greek music.

It was a small venue. we were in the back of the room (cause we got there late...).



That's Yiorgos back there on stage. He was a great showman and a decent voice.

And this is Anthriana.





She was awesome. The energy and her wit. Just perfect.

I caught her back stage when she was over (but the crowd was asking for an encore!!! and she was getting ready to come out again). I was on my way to the restrooms.

_{I tried to explain the restroom project to her... I don't think she understood.}

Oh my! She's lovely!

That's the lady who did Serenata?

Whoa!

That motion shot is SWEET!

Yeah, I love that motion shot too. It gives you an idea of her on stage... just grooving.

She is the one who did Serenata!

I'm listening to it again now!

Earlier, Misty turned me on to a great Streets song.

I've been hearing so much cool music onna writing message board! This place rocks big!

quote:

Originally posted by striv:
So... the gig!

Nice report, and cool pictures (specially the last three) !

I really like that club too; the brick walls give it a great look. What sort of building is that?

last night saw an inpromtu Hot Hot heat gig. i say impromptu because it was the first of two nights "practice" before heading oot in support of The Killers. first time i've seen these guys and i didn't pick the show very well. a soundman i've never seen before, and since they weren't in "tour mode" it's concieveable that the only equiptment they brought were their own instruments. started oot really rocky. technical difficulties with the bass and mics. by the time the fourth song started, things were more under control, although everything was still muddy.

i was with someone who's seen them a dozen times easily, and she said this performance was definately not indicitive of their usual level.
still, they played with energy and managed to whip a less thean energetic crowd into a decent sort of frenzy.

the highlight was that they played six new songs. that's half a record which is good news. five of them were good, but nothing too ambitious, but the sixth (and final of the eve) was awesome. really hard-driving pounding keyboards and drums. i hope they push themselves like that more, else i can see their sound growing tiresome.

Saw the Sisters of Mercy tonight. It was a lot more awful than I expected. They actually had a lot prerecorded and a drum machine. The entire stage was flooded with fog throughout the show, maybe so we wouldn't notice there were only 3 guys and 2 instruments up there (eldritch just sings). When they ended early and proceeded to have two encores, they did finally seem to accumulate some momentum, and the last few songs were pretty good. I stood and danced in the row. Stupid seated concerts...

I also hate seated concerts.

The gig I'm looking forward to is the Download Festival in June.

My wife has convinced me that we should go for the whole weekend so that should be fun.

got my ticket yesterday for the krs-one lecture and show tonight. fuck yeah.

well, the real hip hop was over here tonight. smallish show at about 200 folks, dialecs, a local crew, opened. nice without being anything special. they played a short set.

krs-one took the stage and immediately the energy of the audience was up, and stayed up through the rest of the hour and a half show. after the first song, he called out his unannounced special guest, BUSY BEE, who played backup and counterpoint to the blast master, and along with their talented dj, worked the crowd really, really well. krs-one has amazing stage presence, a round and powerful voice, and intelligent positivity that combined beautifully to drive me and everyone else FUCKING BONKERS. this show was amazing. he freestyled 3 or 4 times for several minutes, and when busy bee took verses, kris would pull out his sharpie tag anything people handed him, including cell phones, which he left out going messages (in freestyle verse, of course) and rhyming to audience members friends and parents, while still keeping the show live. amazing, amazing show. i feel lucky.

there's more (there always is) but i haven't slept in two days, and it's TIME. goodnight, all.

Getting ready for a huge gig for several thou people getting crazy for the Prodigy ^__^

I'll smack my bitch up!
But first I have to get a dog...
Off to the store then...

Oh, yeah, the gig is in more than a month's time, but I'm already practicing my dance moves

I wonder if Psychoinductive will be at Hank Williams III's gig in Lawrence, Kansas tonight.