I was getting a little eye fatigue on the way out to this; charging hard on various fronts had been the order of the day, so I was still incompletely recovered from Humanity Falls the night before. What worked to cut down on it, though, was the car's AC, which boded ill for the gig itself. The Palladium is always wicked hot, especially in the upstairs, and especially for a death metal show with a lot of motion in the audience.
I got up just about doors, which meant only about a 15-minute wait or so at the end of the line. This was necessary because the Palladium has previous for being nebulous about what actually "doors" means, and since I'd gotten my ticket off Black Trip back at Destruction, I wanted to make sure I at least saw them. After getting processed in, I got a beer, looked over the merch selection, and found myself a decently close spot on the floor where my Old Person knees wouldn't end up getting absolutely killed.
Black Trip [5/7]
The sound was pretty good to these guys, and while they have a host of structural debits that I'll get into in a sec, they put out a decent performance that brought me a lot closer to being able to concretely describe their sound. With crunchy death grooves and a lot of prog/power metal influences in the guitar leads, Black Trip resemble nothing so much as a less blended, less-finished endZone, though that is a hopelessly impenetrable reference because nobody listens to Russian metal that isn't NSBM, and fuck-all nobody was listening to Russian music at all at the turn of the century when these guys were actually active. There's promise for this kind of music, but not in slots or on bills like this. Black Trip didn't really match in with the rest of the bill soundwise, which explains the lukewarm reception they got from the audience, and they didn't really appear to have a handle on the time demands on their set; despite nearly running over their slot, it looked like they were cut off midway through relative to expectations. This, though, like the better blending of their heavy and melodic influences, is something that should get better with experience.
The only really major sticking point in this set was at the end, when they called out for noise for every single band on the bill except Sexcrement. This is really, really bad form; it might be just honest tunnel vision, but when you're one of two local openers and ignore the other one to call out for appreesh to yourselves and the touring bill, it looks like you're trying to get over on them, and this is a bad idea generally -- but especially when the band getting dissed by omission is as high-profile as Sexcrement. It's not just being a long-running, fun, well-liked band that includes members of other well-liked bands and leading promoters; Sexcrement is pretty much the one band that people ask me about first when I'm on the road overseas, after they find out I'm from New England. It's bad form anywhere, on any bill, to single out bands by omission, no matter how well or poorly they played, but in this case, that omission might have specific and significant negative consequences, and they could have easily been avoided by going "oh yeah, and SEXCREMENT!!!" in response to the audience yelling "what about Sexcrement?!"
Sexcrement [6/7]
Sexcrement also got a pretty short set, as expected from opening, but handled it in a simple and effective way: they came out, set up, and fucking killed it straight across. Their fairly simple, always solid grooving slam-death battered the audience and got the pit nice and proper violent. Though they cut against the more tech-oriented grain of the bill, they were effective and enjoyable, and that ultimately is what playing live comes down to. Killer.
The sole disappointing thing about this outing was that when I went up to hit the merch deck, Sexcrement was sold out of the XXX Bargain Bin EP. Bad luck, but a good lesson: when good bands put something out on their own hook, go see them and get a damn copy, because it's going to sell out and not get re-pressed sooner rather than later.
Abysmal Dawn [5.5/7]
Maybe it was the sound -- which was kind of inconsistent here, good for some bands, less good for others -- but for whatever reason Abysmal Dawn didn't really translate live. A lot of the more technical stuff from their Leveling the Plane of Existence record either didn't end up in the setlist or, more likely, didn't make it through the mix, leaving them sounding like a less-varied Immolation. This was still a good set, with enough of the music making it through to get the crowd into it, but it could have been better, at least according to the recorded evidence, with a better presentation.
Speaking of that recorded evidence, I went up for the third time after Abysmal's set to try and purchase it, but they still didn't have their merch desk manned. I did get a copy a little later on -- which bore out the impression I got, live, of technical parts that should have been there getting lost or buried -- but with the heat and attendant attrition, they may have missed out on some sales to people who wanted to support the band, but packed it in early for whatever reason.
Vital Remains [5.5/7]
The course of the last few years has not been kind to local perceptions of Vital Remains. This was the third time I've seen the band, and for the third time, an almost completely new lineup. Tony is still there, of course, and Scott's been retained on vocals, but with new members in the other three positions, seeing Vital again under these circumstances can approach seeing Vital again, for the first time. They got off to a very, very, rough start, though this was probably due to bad house sound, as they improved steadily through the course of the set to close with "Dechristianize" as completely expected. Vital are still a good band, and I still like "Dechristianize" and "Hammer Down The Nails", but the former song and how the band has developed since the album of the same name came out really emphasize the huge effect that one hit can have on a band's career. Vital is, catalog-wise, an extremely deep and varied band, but nowadays, practically all of their set is done to emulate "Dechristianize" in sound: tons of speed, a lot of blasts, thick riffing and relatively clean leads over the top. I still like what they do, but I continue to hope against hope that the next Vital show I go to -- hopefully the "fest" on the 23rd -- we'll finally get to hear "Forever Underground" again, or "Isolated Magick", period, as I don't remember them playing said song back in '06.
Origin [6/7]
Despite having them down in the notes from some Metalfest or another, I apparently haven't actually seen this band before, as Jason (Mucopus, ex-Skinless) claimed that they hadn't been to this building since 2002, and I'm not sure that I recognized the members from previous "Origin" sets. Regardless, good sound, great execution, and a wall of triggers so fast and pervasive that they might as well have connected the drums directly to a strobelight allowed Origin to completely pulverize the crowd, and comprehensively meet and surpass expectations. Jason's a good addition, solid on vocals and with tons of character and presence; most of the mad stagediving and crowdsurfing is down to the music, but some of it surely was amped up by his persistent insistence on the DIY ethic and removing the gulf of the raised stage and front fence. In a venue like this, it isn't really "our stage too"; the bodybuilders in white shirts and walkie-talkies will still eject people if certain lines are crossed. But the thought still counts.
This was a strong set, but those fuckin' triggers, man. Doin' ma nut in. I can understand that this is kind of what Origin does, and like and appreciate the other stuff they do regardless, but the conversion of the drumkit into, effectively, a wicked loud metronome is the chief reason why I don't own any Origin records past Echoes of Decimation. I should, abstractly, listen to more of their stuff and see if there's more variation lately, but the content of this set kind of argues against doing that. I can take Origin a set at a time, or in that specific 25-minute dose, but more, like the triggers themselves, seems like overkill to these old and crabbit ears.
In between Origin and Hate Eternal, I, like about 40% of the crowd, got the hell out of the main room, ending up in the much cooler foyer while others ducked outside for a smoke or some fresher air. People had been doing this earlier -- when I originally went forward for Sexcrement, the heat in the moshpit area was like there was an oven open at shin level -- but this is where it really started to reach critical mass. The venue had the fans/AC going, but the system couldn't move enough air fast enough to deal with the body heat of 300 or so furious thrashers packed in at close quarters and running around like madmen. This didn't affect the bands -- on stage, you're pretty much melting all the time just from the lights -- but would have an unfortunate effect on the audience for Hate Eternal.
Hate Eternal [6/7]
This was one of the better sets I've seen from Hate Eternal in this building, but the issues that've plagued them here in the past were still evident as they, like a lot of the bands on this bill, got jobbed by the soundboard, losing a significant amount of clarity. This, as the foregoing observations indicate, is kind of a bad thing for technical death metal where lines need at least occasionally to stand apart rather than get smashed together, but the debit wasn't uniform, and the band's material, even muddied, is still strong enough to get through. Unfortunately, people were continually slipping out from the half-hour mark on; this set didn't deserve it, but with the heat being what it was, eventual fatigue was probably inevitable. Count me among the weaklings; I made it to two songs from the announced end before slipping out. I saw most of a very good Hate Eternal set, but missed out on not only the closer but any encore, which sucks. More training definitely needed; the requirements are different, and I'll be benefiting from "festival mode", but you need to be able to handle the heat in order to be able to do open airs.
The upside of leaving early was that I didn't get killed on the way home, and I've bounced back and marginally trained up enough to realistically look at three shows in four days over the weekend, starting with Truckfighters tonight. The merchpack is getting closer to its limit as well.
Showing posts with label vital remains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vital remains. Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Friday, April 03, 2009
Every Shirt V: Vital Remains
shirt: Vital Remains Decades of Death
size: XXL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band
No, this was not acquired off the back of a truck recently (and if you spot those guitars, incidentally, let the band know); I got this one back in '06 at the Middle East on one of the more epic shows of that year. This wasn't the tour that the dates on the back are from (an earlier leg), but the one they did in the fall with Grave and Dismember.
Grave was awesome, Dismember was amazing, and Vital, in one of the last shows that they did with Anthony Geremia on vocals (much better than Glen Benton), simply tore the hell out of the place. I'd missed this tour when it started up, up at Mark's, but allegedly Vital just decided not to show for that one after picking up their guarantee; no substantiation on that one at all, but between one thing and another, with this show being what it was, I don't think I missed much.
This particular gig was incidentally, also where Rev. Aaron took the picture that I've cropped for my profile here; if you're exceedingly obsessed and have too much free time, you can go dig up the original there if you like.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Dismember with Vital Remains, Grave, and Withered (but not Execution Agenda or Demiricous) [Middle East, Cambridge, 10/13/2006]
OK. Seriously, these weekday shows have got to stop. I was stuck working late, so I went straight from work to the show...or more accurately, straight onto the highway. From the entrance of 128 to 93 took a whole hour -- to go a distance that normally takes about 20 minutes. This was part of the reason that Execution Agenda -- who were supposed to be doing local support -- didn't show; the backup on 128 was most likely driven by the even more titanic backup on 93, which was caused by a huge accident that basically closed down the southbound side just a few hundred yards north of the entrance from 128. From there the driving was easy....or at least as easy as driving in Boston ever gets. Nearly two hours to travel probably less than 45 road miles.
At least parking was cheap, and I could slump on the bar for half an hour waiting for the show to go on. This was in the restaurant, not the basement hall where the gig was, so I got to see Withered eating, and Dave Suzuki and Anthony Geremia from Vital Remains drinking some vodka-and-Red-Bulls. The Rev from RTTP was ofcourse im Effekt as well -- he had somehow fought his way down from Salem, New Hampshire, but didn't arrive much after I did. Two hefeweizen finished with apfelkorn -- no Malteser on hand, of course, but the somewhat neurotic Germany-emulation was able to proceed regardless.
Downstairs, I made up for the local support not showing up by dropping 60 bucks at the Pathos table before he got pushed out -- shades of a certain Ignite song, but while "I came to support these touring bands", I did that as well. Two shirts, two patches (both of which will be going on the primary jacket), and a hat, spread across all four bands. Withered's patch was of the "cheap printed" variety, while Dismember's was of the "real" species, but if it's what it takes to bring patches back to the US, I'll take it. There's going to be some difficult sewing to put it on my collar, but the results will be worth it.
And now, the bands:
Withered [6/7]
The sound in this show was much more of Mastodon Junior than it was at Metalfest, but still cool and still fully original. There was less fuzz in the sound, which may have cut away the weird overtones that I found so cool the first time, but it really allowed the sound of their actual playing to come out. I went down front after about half of the first song, and stayed in the second or third row all night, far forward enough that what I was hearing was mostly out of the amps rather than out of the PA. So it was a local show...with bands that came from Georgia and Sweden as well as Rhode Island, and a cumulative like 50 or 60 years of death metal experience. This was a good set made better by a great spot, but it would probably have been just as good from anywhere else in the hall... or, anywhere not obstructed by a supporting pole. The history of the Middle East is very evident in the downstairs.
This club started out as just a restaurant, but started bringing in bands as well as belly dancers in the late '60s and early '70s; eventually they redid the basement as a music hall, and later put in another one upstairs (slightly smaller, and where I saw Sigh back in 2002), and at some point it became perhaps the premier rock club in the metro Boston area. The main level is still a trendy restaurant, but almost every night there's underground music either upstairs or down.
Grave [6/7]
Grave had at some point, if I recall correctly, expanded in membership after reuniting, but for this show they were back to a three-piece, back to the essentials of the Grave sound and experience. The pounding and explosiveness were just as expected, though, truthfully, they were probably the least memorable band of the night. I know Grave's material less than any of the other bands on the bill (well, only because I had seen Withered live before), so this is understandable from a personal standpoint, but also, their fairly doctrinaire brutal death attack, even on a really good performance like this one, has to lose out a little next to the absolute musical and stage insanity that Vital Remains was about to present, and to the total thrashparty that Dismember would throw to end the night.
Vital Remains [7/7]
The session members -- three to the band's two full-timers -- were eminently good enough to join on a full basis, but the real stars were Tony Lazaro and Dave Suzuki, on some of the sickest-looking guitars ever built. While Withered's soundcheck rocked more than some bands' sets, Dave is the first guitarist I've seen to rip through something as complicated as Death's "Altering The Future" as a warmup. His right hand was moving so fast that it blurred, as was Tony's when I got a view of it (I was stage left, right in front of Dave, and Tony was stage right, so there was a ton of people's heads in the way). As sick as this was, it was nothing next to the insanity when they actually started playing. If you think "Dechristianize" sounds awesome or insane on record, you don't have any friggin idea. The place absolutely blew up when they started up, and didn't let up at all until the end of the set. We were charging the stage, and the frontman was just short of diving over the rails and running around through the crowd, respectively while singing and while the instrumentalists were annihilating on that or another solo or riff passage. There's nobody else doing this kind of insane combination of the intensely melodic and the ultrabrutal out there, probably because no one else can; as a result, if you're a metal fan who's looking for the absolute best, there's really no other choice than to catch Vital when and wherever you can. This is quite about as good as it gets in terms of combining technical ability with great songwriting and delivering both live; it's difficult to describe the experience to someone who wasn't also in the middle of it.
I have a souvenir Bible page from the one that they shredded during the third song; I'm currently debating what the hell to do with it, because like most thrown-off-the-stage stuff, there's no real immediate proof that it came from the band you say it came from.
Dismember [7/7]
Dismember has never made a record that got rated this high. So how do they reach a new high on live material with just the same material? A lot of it is the collection of their best material over fifteen years and a ton of records, but more of it is the fact that Dismember's style translates so well live. For moshing or banging, it seldom gets any better than those thick, meaty, low-end riffs, and this show delivered a full hour of them and more. They did do an encore, but it was kind of overshadowed by their closer, where everyone else from every other band on the bill charged over the stage, banging, putting weird hats on the band (Dismember had done this during Withered's set and also come out periodically to hang with every other band), spraying beer on the audience, and generally going nuts. The hot-pants-and-stockings merch girl was up shaking it as well -- though this was the equal-opportunity half of the show's fanservice component; the girls and 'non-traditional males' had already gotten an eyeful of Dave Suzuki ripped and shirtless during Vital's set. The eye candy was only an occasional bonus though, as the main focus was on the band -- whenever they were visible through the mass of bodies and the chaos of the front -- and on the crazed thrash party throwdown going on in front of us and all around us. In the underground, the line between performers and audience is exceedingly fine in all cases, but this was the first time since Nevermore's set at Metalfest '03 that both sides blended to this degree. Even though they didn't do "Collection In Blood", this was a great set that the experience made even better.
The experience, of course, was made better by the fact that I was down front for the first time at a non-local show since I lost my last fully functioning knee. I didn't go into the actual pit, but did stand the pit wall and push a bunch of people fore and aft, without injury at all. This is probably a result of general strengthening since the last time I messed either joint up, and the natural recovery of prioproception -- a fancy word meaning the body's sense of itself in space that I got from Football Outsiders -- that comes after any serious joint injury as a function of time. It's probably also smart thinking about how and where to put my feet and how to take hits from various directions, when to set and push back, and when to just fall back and use crowd pressure rather than my own ligaments to catch myself. It was a great feeling to get back in the middle of things again, and also an encouraging sign for the show next month at the Palladium, where I kind of have to push up to the front row for Hypocrisy, but may, as often, get pushed back, or just not get to the venue early enough, though it's on a Saturday and ought to suffer from less of the road congestion that made getting in today such a headache.
Although, it's nowhere near as mental as 93 North was when I went up to Mark's the last time; they let people drive in the breakdown lane almost all the way to Lawrence, and the result is the most pure traffic zoo that I've ever seen outside China, almost as bad as the Ring Roads in Beijing. Just widen the damn highway already! And I'm going up that way next Saturday again for Moonspell and Daylight Dies....
At least parking was cheap, and I could slump on the bar for half an hour waiting for the show to go on. This was in the restaurant, not the basement hall where the gig was, so I got to see Withered eating, and Dave Suzuki and Anthony Geremia from Vital Remains drinking some vodka-and-Red-Bulls. The Rev from RTTP was ofcourse im Effekt as well -- he had somehow fought his way down from Salem, New Hampshire, but didn't arrive much after I did. Two hefeweizen finished with apfelkorn -- no Malteser on hand, of course, but the somewhat neurotic Germany-emulation was able to proceed regardless.
Downstairs, I made up for the local support not showing up by dropping 60 bucks at the Pathos table before he got pushed out -- shades of a certain Ignite song, but while "I came to support these touring bands", I did that as well. Two shirts, two patches (both of which will be going on the primary jacket), and a hat, spread across all four bands. Withered's patch was of the "cheap printed" variety, while Dismember's was of the "real" species, but if it's what it takes to bring patches back to the US, I'll take it. There's going to be some difficult sewing to put it on my collar, but the results will be worth it.
And now, the bands:
Withered [6/7]
The sound in this show was much more of Mastodon Junior than it was at Metalfest, but still cool and still fully original. There was less fuzz in the sound, which may have cut away the weird overtones that I found so cool the first time, but it really allowed the sound of their actual playing to come out. I went down front after about half of the first song, and stayed in the second or third row all night, far forward enough that what I was hearing was mostly out of the amps rather than out of the PA. So it was a local show...with bands that came from Georgia and Sweden as well as Rhode Island, and a cumulative like 50 or 60 years of death metal experience. This was a good set made better by a great spot, but it would probably have been just as good from anywhere else in the hall... or, anywhere not obstructed by a supporting pole. The history of the Middle East is very evident in the downstairs.
This club started out as just a restaurant, but started bringing in bands as well as belly dancers in the late '60s and early '70s; eventually they redid the basement as a music hall, and later put in another one upstairs (slightly smaller, and where I saw Sigh back in 2002), and at some point it became perhaps the premier rock club in the metro Boston area. The main level is still a trendy restaurant, but almost every night there's underground music either upstairs or down.
Grave [6/7]
Grave had at some point, if I recall correctly, expanded in membership after reuniting, but for this show they were back to a three-piece, back to the essentials of the Grave sound and experience. The pounding and explosiveness were just as expected, though, truthfully, they were probably the least memorable band of the night. I know Grave's material less than any of the other bands on the bill (well, only because I had seen Withered live before), so this is understandable from a personal standpoint, but also, their fairly doctrinaire brutal death attack, even on a really good performance like this one, has to lose out a little next to the absolute musical and stage insanity that Vital Remains was about to present, and to the total thrashparty that Dismember would throw to end the night.
Vital Remains [7/7]
The session members -- three to the band's two full-timers -- were eminently good enough to join on a full basis, but the real stars were Tony Lazaro and Dave Suzuki, on some of the sickest-looking guitars ever built. While Withered's soundcheck rocked more than some bands' sets, Dave is the first guitarist I've seen to rip through something as complicated as Death's "Altering The Future" as a warmup. His right hand was moving so fast that it blurred, as was Tony's when I got a view of it (I was stage left, right in front of Dave, and Tony was stage right, so there was a ton of people's heads in the way). As sick as this was, it was nothing next to the insanity when they actually started playing. If you think "Dechristianize" sounds awesome or insane on record, you don't have any friggin idea. The place absolutely blew up when they started up, and didn't let up at all until the end of the set. We were charging the stage, and the frontman was just short of diving over the rails and running around through the crowd, respectively while singing and while the instrumentalists were annihilating on that or another solo or riff passage. There's nobody else doing this kind of insane combination of the intensely melodic and the ultrabrutal out there, probably because no one else can; as a result, if you're a metal fan who's looking for the absolute best, there's really no other choice than to catch Vital when and wherever you can. This is quite about as good as it gets in terms of combining technical ability with great songwriting and delivering both live; it's difficult to describe the experience to someone who wasn't also in the middle of it.
I have a souvenir Bible page from the one that they shredded during the third song; I'm currently debating what the hell to do with it, because like most thrown-off-the-stage stuff, there's no real immediate proof that it came from the band you say it came from.
Dismember [7/7]
Dismember has never made a record that got rated this high. So how do they reach a new high on live material with just the same material? A lot of it is the collection of their best material over fifteen years and a ton of records, but more of it is the fact that Dismember's style translates so well live. For moshing or banging, it seldom gets any better than those thick, meaty, low-end riffs, and this show delivered a full hour of them and more. They did do an encore, but it was kind of overshadowed by their closer, where everyone else from every other band on the bill charged over the stage, banging, putting weird hats on the band (Dismember had done this during Withered's set and also come out periodically to hang with every other band), spraying beer on the audience, and generally going nuts. The hot-pants-and-stockings merch girl was up shaking it as well -- though this was the equal-opportunity half of the show's fanservice component; the girls and 'non-traditional males' had already gotten an eyeful of Dave Suzuki ripped and shirtless during Vital's set. The eye candy was only an occasional bonus though, as the main focus was on the band -- whenever they were visible through the mass of bodies and the chaos of the front -- and on the crazed thrash party throwdown going on in front of us and all around us. In the underground, the line between performers and audience is exceedingly fine in all cases, but this was the first time since Nevermore's set at Metalfest '03 that both sides blended to this degree. Even though they didn't do "Collection In Blood", this was a great set that the experience made even better.
The experience, of course, was made better by the fact that I was down front for the first time at a non-local show since I lost my last fully functioning knee. I didn't go into the actual pit, but did stand the pit wall and push a bunch of people fore and aft, without injury at all. This is probably a result of general strengthening since the last time I messed either joint up, and the natural recovery of prioproception -- a fancy word meaning the body's sense of itself in space that I got from Football Outsiders -- that comes after any serious joint injury as a function of time. It's probably also smart thinking about how and where to put my feet and how to take hits from various directions, when to set and push back, and when to just fall back and use crowd pressure rather than my own ligaments to catch myself. It was a great feeling to get back in the middle of things again, and also an encouraging sign for the show next month at the Palladium, where I kind of have to push up to the front row for Hypocrisy, but may, as often, get pushed back, or just not get to the venue early enough, though it's on a Saturday and ought to suffer from less of the road congestion that made getting in today such a headache.
Although, it's nowhere near as mental as 93 North was when I went up to Mark's the last time; they let people drive in the breakdown lane almost all the way to Lawrence, and the result is the most pure traffic zoo that I've ever seen outside China, almost as bad as the Ring Roads in Beijing. Just widen the damn highway already! And I'm going up that way next Saturday again for Moonspell and Daylight Dies....
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