I went to a gig in Birmingham on 15th November; on the undercard Sylosis, Children of Bodom (CoB), Lamb of God (LoG) and the headliners, Megadeth. As has been the case a number of times of late, my buddy for the evening was the whisky-drinking, welsh-blooded, hard-rocking and, slightly abbreviated, Hughesy.
The night’s entertainment prompted a few observations that I thought I’d share.
First up, the gig at the O2 Academy on Bristol Street came shortly after the atrocities in Paris and it was chilling to think how much carnage/bloodshed could have been caused if some lunatics with Kalashnikovs had managed to gain access. Fortunately no such thing occurred and so I only have myself to blame for my sorry looking, smelly state at the end of the night.
Having missed Sylosis altogether, Hughesy and I made our way towards the stage in time for CoB, a Scandinavian metal band, to begin its set. Bodom got the academy bouncing and, being rather close to the front (with standing tickets), I was caught up in the enthusiasm.
My second observation came from realising that one of my early heavy-metal-orientated beliefs had been permanently consigned to the grave. In my youth, I was firmly of the opinion that “real” heavy metal bands didn’t have keyboard players. If a band had a synthesizer/allotted user, it was lightweight and no better than “Europe”.
Now CoB has a designated ivory-tickler and yet the band plays some fast, heavy and mosh inducing music. Having accepted that my keyboard animosity was misguided, my only remaining, slightly negative thought was that the geezer playing the synth looked a bit like a spare part on the stage. Metal music suits singers and guitar wielders who can strut around, look confident and treat their instruments like big penises. For a keyboard player marooned at his station, there isn’t much to do.
After Bodom, and the obligatory sound checking, Lamb of God took to the stage and the moshing energy level went up a few notches. Again, still close to the stage, I was caught up in the melee and rather enjoyed myself. LoG’s sound was/is harder and more aggressive than CoB and the crowd responded to it.
Here’s what I remember most vividly from LoG’s slot. The bass player, John Campbell looked just like Saruman (Lord of The Rings) with his long white/grey hair and lengthy complementary beard. For an ageing rocker I have to say he looked damn cool. Though I was bloody surprised to find out, subsequent to the gig, that he is younger than me.
The next thing about the LoG session worthy of note was that it got stopped part way through because an audience member got hurt. Though I have no idea what happened, the medics were called in and ultimately an ambulance was summoned and, until the patient was removed, the gig was halted. In all the gigs over all the years, I have never seen one stopped like that. It was actually the audience members gesticulating wildly at the band that caught the attention of Randy Blythe (the singer) who stopped his colleagues in seconds.
LoG’s set was curtailed by the drama but I have to say the band went down a storm nonetheless.
Megadeth’s turn eventually came at almost ten pm.
I have been a Megadeth fan since I was a teenager, I have all the band’s albums and have been to a number of gigs over the years (the first of which occurred in 1988).
But, despite my fan status, I share the following:
Lamb of God was better than Megadeth…
And Dave Mustaine, Dave Ellefson and Kiko Loureiro need to accept that they are getting on a bit and maybe change their appearances/behaviours a little in recognition. Mustaine and Ellefson are in their fifties but there wasn’t a grey hair or bald spot in sight (despite there being lots and lots of hair). To me that means wigs or hair dying and neither of those things are cool. Loureiro, who is just about my age (again long hair, no grey), pranced around the stage, waggling his guitar a lot and just pissed me off with how sexy/glamorous he obviously thought he was.
It all felt a bit contrived.
Mustaine and Ellefson are looking their ages and it made me think that they should embrace the ageing process (like John Campbell – grey is okay) or call it a day and leave the thrash metal to the younger bands.
Don’t get me wrong, the band played a good selection of tunes from across the back catalogue, had a cool light show and had the audience singing and dancing along. But Megadeth’s pace was slower than LoG and that change of tempo seemed to affect the venue, the show actually felt a little tired to me. Then again I was tired too, the argy bargy of the earlier acts had left me decidedly hot and sweaty. The raining beer didn’t help much either.
My final observation was that Chris Adler drummed for LoG and then Megadeth too. Respect to him for playing back to back sets – whilst Megadeth lacked a little bit of energy, Adler most definitely didn’t.
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The night’s entertainment prompted a few observations that I thought I’d share.
First up, the gig at the O2 Academy on Bristol Street came shortly after the atrocities in Paris and it was chilling to think how much carnage/bloodshed could have been caused if some lunatics with Kalashnikovs had managed to gain access. Fortunately no such thing occurred and so I only have myself to blame for my sorry looking, smelly state at the end of the night.
Having missed Sylosis altogether, Hughesy and I made our way towards the stage in time for CoB, a Scandinavian metal band, to begin its set. Bodom got the academy bouncing and, being rather close to the front (with standing tickets), I was caught up in the enthusiasm.
My second observation came from realising that one of my early heavy-metal-orientated beliefs had been permanently consigned to the grave. In my youth, I was firmly of the opinion that “real” heavy metal bands didn’t have keyboard players. If a band had a synthesizer/allotted user, it was lightweight and no better than “Europe”.
Now CoB has a designated ivory-tickler and yet the band plays some fast, heavy and mosh inducing music. Having accepted that my keyboard animosity was misguided, my only remaining, slightly negative thought was that the geezer playing the synth looked a bit like a spare part on the stage. Metal music suits singers and guitar wielders who can strut around, look confident and treat their instruments like big penises. For a keyboard player marooned at his station, there isn’t much to do.
After Bodom, and the obligatory sound checking, Lamb of God took to the stage and the moshing energy level went up a few notches. Again, still close to the stage, I was caught up in the melee and rather enjoyed myself. LoG’s sound was/is harder and more aggressive than CoB and the crowd responded to it.
Here’s what I remember most vividly from LoG’s slot. The bass player, John Campbell looked just like Saruman (Lord of The Rings) with his long white/grey hair and lengthy complementary beard. For an ageing rocker I have to say he looked damn cool. Though I was bloody surprised to find out, subsequent to the gig, that he is younger than me.
The next thing about the LoG session worthy of note was that it got stopped part way through because an audience member got hurt. Though I have no idea what happened, the medics were called in and ultimately an ambulance was summoned and, until the patient was removed, the gig was halted. In all the gigs over all the years, I have never seen one stopped like that. It was actually the audience members gesticulating wildly at the band that caught the attention of Randy Blythe (the singer) who stopped his colleagues in seconds.
LoG’s set was curtailed by the drama but I have to say the band went down a storm nonetheless.
Megadeth’s turn eventually came at almost ten pm.
I have been a Megadeth fan since I was a teenager, I have all the band’s albums and have been to a number of gigs over the years (the first of which occurred in 1988).
But, despite my fan status, I share the following:
Lamb of God was better than Megadeth…
And Dave Mustaine, Dave Ellefson and Kiko Loureiro need to accept that they are getting on a bit and maybe change their appearances/behaviours a little in recognition. Mustaine and Ellefson are in their fifties but there wasn’t a grey hair or bald spot in sight (despite there being lots and lots of hair). To me that means wigs or hair dying and neither of those things are cool. Loureiro, who is just about my age (again long hair, no grey), pranced around the stage, waggling his guitar a lot and just pissed me off with how sexy/glamorous he obviously thought he was.
It all felt a bit contrived.
Mustaine and Ellefson are looking their ages and it made me think that they should embrace the ageing process (like John Campbell – grey is okay) or call it a day and leave the thrash metal to the younger bands.
Don’t get me wrong, the band played a good selection of tunes from across the back catalogue, had a cool light show and had the audience singing and dancing along. But Megadeth’s pace was slower than LoG and that change of tempo seemed to affect the venue, the show actually felt a little tired to me. Then again I was tired too, the argy bargy of the earlier acts had left me decidedly hot and sweaty. The raining beer didn’t help much either.
My final observation was that Chris Adler drummed for LoG and then Megadeth too. Respect to him for playing back to back sets – whilst Megadeth lacked a little bit of energy, Adler most definitely didn’t.
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