Concerts

[namrobyob]

21-04-2009; Papa Roach

Two support acts, first being In This Moment.
Sound was shit. Their music was decent, but what made it better was their vocalist, Maria Brink. When you have a woman in a yellow ballet tutu, with one arm fully tattooed and several others over her body, scream her lungs out, I'm sold d: It was obvious she was the main selling point of the band though.

Next up was Filter. Listented to one and a half song before deciding they were boring, then went outside for a bit since it was friggin' hot inside the venue.

Papa Roach is mostly one of those nostalgic bands for me, since it was one of the first metal bands I listened to 8~9 years ago. Infest still stays one of my favorite albums to this day.
I am not too fond of their other albums though- most have a few good/catchy songs (with the exception of the latest Metamorphosis, which has nothing I really like), but none of them captures that same power that the first album had.
That in mind, I found their setlist kind of disappointing, since they only played Broken Home and Last Resort (of course) from their first album (and maybe Blood Brothers I think >_>). They played their singles and some other songs like "I Almost Told You That I Loved You". OVerall the setlist was kinda meh.
This is the second time that I've seen Papa live though, the previous two times being on the Field of Rock festivals in 2005 and 2007, and what surprised me both times was the massive amount of energy they have live, and had again here. When you release so much energy in a room, this really makes up for not having the perfect set list, and made this an awesome performence by them yet again.

[namrobyob]

23-04-2009; Candy Dulfer & Band

First of all, Candy is one of the hottest females around.
I am not sure how well known she is in other countries, but I'm guessing she is most known for most as being a saxophonist for Prince. Either way she's been more known as a solo artist here in The Netherlands and yadayadayada.

Sound was great from the beginning, band played tight, setlist was great.
I liked it that when the spotlight wasn't primarily on Candy, for example during a trompet or guitar solo, she would swing to the music and smile, obviously enjoying what was played (or at least acting very well d: ). And truthfully, while the rest of the band, save for the guitarist when he was soloing, wasn't as fun to watch, they were all great musicians and deserve as much credit as Candy.
I did the same thing as Candy for that matter though, moving to the music while having a huge smile on my face during the entire performence. I never quite 'felt it', but I really enjoyed this gig nevertheless and wasn't bored for a minute.

I could talk some more about for example, how they played Prince's Life of the Party where Candy jokingly said this song was about her, or how they had an incredible vocalist called Leona (who also had awesome hair (: ) and played one of her songs (and truely, she should be given a lot of credit since she was awesome), but I drank 3,5 liters of beer and just want to go to bed ;_;

[namrobyob]

25-04-2009; IQ

No support act.
Sound was great, band played very tight, and their setlist was aslo great. And they played for almost two and a half hours, which is pretty cool.

However.

The first 45 minutes of their performence were downright boring, there was just no energy at all. Only the bass played seemed to be enjoying himself, the rest of the band hardly even moved.
Over the next hour this would gradually improve a little, and the last 45 minutes were pretty good, but I nevertheless never quite felt it here either.

Solid performence by the band brought down by lack of energy.

[namrobyob]

09-05-2009; Cradle of Filth

First up was Turisas. Saw them a couple of months ago as support for DragonForce, and rememberd I thought they were awesome.
They were even better here. They didn't start to well, sound was bad and they were messing up a bit, but they straightened up after a song. I really like the whole folk metal thing they've got going on, and their performence is pretty energetic. At some point there was a kind of instrumental battle going on between the violist and accordionist, with the vocalist making half the crowd cheer for one of them, and the other half for the other instrumentalist, along with the tune tey were playing.
The accordionist is pretty hot as well (:

Second support act was Moonspell. Shamefully Anneke van Giersbergen didn't perform Scoprion Flower like last time, but overall the performence was much better then it was last year. Sound was pretty sucky in the begining as well, but leared up good during the first song, except for the vocals, which were way to soft for the first three or four songs. Solid performence otherwise though.

Cradle of Filth were also infinitely better then last year. Their setlist felt pretty much the same as well, but it was much more energetic.
Can't say much more since I put more energy into moshing then critically listening to the performence d:

[namrobyob]

12-05-2009; SaGa

First of all, this is the second time I've been in this venue, and the sound is always too loud ;_;

Guitarist and drummer were playing really tight. Bassist was very good as well.
Only thing I have complaints about is the keyboards- I am not sure whether the keyboardist was playing sloppy or if the sound was just of (I'm leaning towards the latter), but something didn't sound quite right here.

Now, I saw these guys in 2007 in what I, at the time, believed was their final gig. As it turns out, it was Michael Sadler, the lead vocalist's, Farewell Tour. So obviously, he has now been replaced by another singer, namely Rob Moratti. Michael has a pretty distinctive voice, so it's hard to fill his shoes. Luckely, Rob doesn't try to immitate him (rightfully so since their voices aren't nearly similiar) but he still has that same vibe that goes together with the instrumental part of SaGa.

Anyway, great setlist, great atmospheer, great concert.

[namrobyob]

25-05-2009; Zappa Plays Zappa

Not much to say, which is why I haven't said anything about it earlier d:
Lead guitar was too loud during the first song, other then that the sound was as near to perfect as you can expect from a live performence.
Good band, good setlist, good concert.


05-06-2009; Stream of Passion

Xenabia was the first support act. First song was pretty awesome, the last two were good, but what was inbetween was pretty boring.
They had a great drummer and vocalist, and a good guitarist.
Some mess ups during their performence, but overall they played pretty well.

Autumn was next. I'd seen them about five to six years ago as the support act for Within Temptation, and their music isn't what I remembered it to be (not that I was too impressed with them then either). It was still solid music, but it got pretty repetetive after about four songs. They played pretty good though.
Also, their new vocalist, Marjan Welman, who's voice I really like, just doesn't suit the music this band makes.

Then the main act, Stream of Passion. They put up a pretty good performence, and their setlist was great.

However, this whole night was pretty shitty because of equally shitty sound... again. Seriously, te first band could've just left the bassist out since you couldn't even hear him play untill the last song, and during SoP themselfs it was almost unidentifiable whenever a solo was played because the lead guitar just kind of disappeared in between the other instruments.
Seriously, is it that much trouble to hire a decent soundman these days?

[namrobyob]

25 to 29-06-2009; Graspop

Three day festival in Belgium dupped "Metal Meeting".

Though the bands started on friday, we arrived the day before to put up our tents and join the pre-party, which was basically a DJ playing music. It was pretty crazy though, with a pretty massive circle pit. I accidentally got headbutted against the eye there, and it's still black and swollen five days later d:

Anyway, after partying way too hard, and going to sleep a little too late, I had some difficulty waking up the next day, so I missed the first two bands. I would've had the choise between Lauren Harris or Buckcherry (probably would've gone with the latter, since I've seen the former twice already), and the second band would've been Firewind (which I'm kinda bumbed about not seeing, but you can't win 'em all.
My parents and neighbour would be here this day, so I totally ditched my friends and spend most of the day with them d: Mostly since they needed some guidence of which bands to see (they did get to see Firewind though, 'cause I had told them beforehand to watch this band, and they said it was a great performence).
Anyway, I met up with them during DragonForce, but nobody really liked it so we just wandered around the terrain for a bit, before watching Jon Oliva's Pain. They put up a pretty good performence, but while I think the music is good, it didn't really do anything for me.
Went to see Papa Roach after that, since my dad wanted to see them again. It was a good show, but they played on the main stage so you couldn't really get close to the stage, which is were the energy the release is normally going on.
Went to see some Exodus, but they played in one of the tents and it was pretty crowded, so we had to stand outside, which was pretty lame.
After that we went to see The Gathering. Their new vocalist did a pretty good job, and overall this was a nice performence.
Went to Blind Guardian after that, who obviously had a load of fans here, since pretty every song was sung along by the crowd, and the entire tent they played in was clapping and cheering after each song.
Heaven & Hell after that. Their music is good and they played tight, but overall it was a pretty dry performence.
Followed by Dream Theater, who were obviously awesome d: They had a pretty good setlist (they could've switched A Rite of Passage in for something else though), but I had expected them to play more of their metal-ish songs, like they did on Fields of Rock two years ago.
Then the day was wrapped up by headlined Mötley Crüe, which was a pretty fun performence.

The next day began with the announcement that Killswitch Engage was cancelled, which was one of the bands of that day that I wanted to see so that was pretty shitty.
Regardless, we started with the last half of Keep of Kalessin, followed by the first ten minutes of Negura Bunget (we left because it was pretty shitty d:), then sat through the remaining half and hour of Black Stone Cherry, which was decent enough.
After that we saw No Use for a Name, which was a fun punk band, but kind of misplaced at a metal festival (as several other bands would be, as you'll see... if you keep reading d;). Saw Delain after that, who put up a pretty good show (way better then a few months back as support for Kamelot anyway).
Watched a few minutes of Duff Mc Kagan's Loaded, but it wasn't as exciting as the programme booklet suggested so we swiftly left, and after that it was an our wait or so untill the next interesting band played, which was Journey (remember that one comment about misplaced bands I made earlier?). It was a good performence, but they started too late, and it felt kinda weird listening to their upbeat rock music inbetween all the gloom metal d:
Went to Monster Magnet at the suggestion of my friends, but swiftly decided I didn't like it, so I listened to some Death Angel, which I also didn't really like, so I just waited for the next act to start, Korn. They opened with Right Now followed by Freak on a Leash, did a short part of Queen's We Will Rock You somewhere in their set (I jizzed my pants at this point), the part of Metallica's One they seemingly always do, and also covered Another Brick in the Wall of Pink Floyd, which was also pretty sexy, so overall they had a pretty amusing setlist.
Wanted to see some Lacuna Coil after that (probably like three or four songs, since they generally get a little repetitive after that amount), but the tent they played in was so crowded that it was pretty useless to even try to listen.
Headliner Slipknot closed the day of. I actually left halfway through the performence though, since it didn't do anything for me. At least they played Wait and Bleed here, unlike when I saw them last year.

Third day started with UFO, which was a pretty awesome performence. It's appearantly a rock band from the 70s, and I highly enjoyed their music, even though I didn't know any of their songs d: Also misplaced, but it wasn't as bad since they opened the day and were a good warm up for something awesome that would come later...
Saw Lamb of God an hour later, but I was pretty disappointed by with what they did. I was expecting a crazy energetic show, but to me it felt pretty dry.
Watched some God Forbid after that, which was pretty nice. High point of that performence for me was when before they started one of their songs, the vocalist said "this one goes out to a person we should always remember... well, two actually. The first one is Dimebag Darrell, and the second one... Micheal Jackson" to which the guitarist played the riff of Beat It.
Saw the first half hour of Eths, which was pretty decent, then joined up with my friends again for the last fifteen minutes of Trivium, which I don't specifically like so I was glad when it was over d:
Watched the first alf hour of Candlemass after that, which I though was pretty enjoyable but none of my friends did d: So we left earlier so we could be in front of the stage for the next band...
Chickenfoot! MOTHERFUCKING CHICKENFOOT!!!! I seriously went crazy here, and was dancing all around the place, it was just awesome and energetic. It was the high point of the entire festival, and I have to see these fuckers again at the first chance I get (:
Night kinda went downhill from there. One of my friends wanted to see Devil Driver, but the tent they played in was so crowded that I thought it was gonna explode, so we left again.
Disturbed would play next, but it only took me two minutes to figure that this would be exactly the same when I saw them last year, so I left yet again, into the tent where Epica would play an hour later (this also has the added beneficial effect of getting out of the sun, since we were already pretty crispy). When they started playing the drums were way too loud, and I felt like my eardrums were about to give in, so I left the tent... didn't really care though, I've seen them a few times to many last year and they brought nothing new to keep me interested.
Nightwish then performed, and pretty much everything about it was crap, from the vocals to the guitar play to the sound. We could've gone to Children of Bodom after that, but we figured the tent would be too crowded and we'd seen them last year anyway, so we just left during the previous named band to our tent where we drank a few beers and had nerd conversations about videogames, music and movies.
We then went back to see the headliner of the day, Marilyn Manson. Though I am far from a fan, I did want to see his performence since I'd expected him to do some crazy stuff on stage. But it was overall pretty boring, and so we left for a night's rest.

Or not. It was fucking massacre on the last night, with people shouting, singing, grunting, and different music from pretty much every direction. It was bad every day before, but the last night was insane, and I was pretty much awake the entire night. I can say I'll be glad when it's bedtime today, 'cause I'll be sleeping like a baby d:

[namrobyob]

09-07-2009; Queensrÿche

Hmm... no support act, the sound was great, the badn played tight. I felt the first 45 minutes were amazing, and it went kinda downhill after that, but I can't quite put my finger on the why question.
Still a great show and night though.

[namrobyob]

19-07-2009; Big River Festical

Just like last year with Ten Years After, we only went to this festical for one act, this year that being Spencer Davis and The Animals.
The Animals performed first, playing songs like Don't Let me Be Minsunderstood and I Put a Spell on You. I wouldn't be able to tell you who took part in this band though... I tried looking it up on Wikipedia, but that didn't help much either. I can tell you that Eric Burdon wasn't here d:
Spencer Davis joined them after 45 minutes of the first band, and there they played his songs for anoter 45 minutes. Can't say I knew Spencer by name before, but they did play a lot of songs I recognised, though I wouldn't be able to name them now.
After that, they performed an encore consisting of House of the Rising Sun and a Davis song I guess...

Yeah, even though I hardly knew anything they played, it was still a great performence. Good sound as well.

[namrobyob]

My god, I haven't had a concert in like, a month. Longest four weeks of my life ;_;

12-09-2009; Uriah Heep

Can't say I'm too familiar their music... I wouldn't even be able to name song of theirs. However, I had seen them once before on the Arrow Rock Festival in 2006, and remembered it was a really fun performence, so decided to go to this as well. My mum and dad, and a friend and his father also tagged along, thought that we made a pretty funny group d:
Anyway, sound started of a little bad, 'specially the vocals had to be put louder, and the bass was out of tune at first, but after everything was fixed it was as good as you would expect from a live performence.
The setlist was great, with some awesome songs that really made me dance around to the music here and there, but sometimes the progression from song to song was a little off.
Also, they played for 'only' an hour and a half... I wouldn't have minded if they played a little longer.
Either way an awesome concert.


15-09-2009; Mr. Big

After having seen Paul Gilbert live last year, I've wanted to see Mr. Big. And look and behold, here they are with an reunion tour (:
Thought this was a great performence. They started half an hour late, so that was pretty shitty, but the sound was good, and they had a great setlist. Each instrumentalist also had a solo, which were pretty entertaining, but nothing spectacular.
I especially loved Eric Martin on stage, he was pretty energetic.

Also bought a tour poster, it's been ages since I last did that (30-11-2007 to be precise), though the fact that three euros is about ten times cheaper then the average price also helped in making that decision d:

[namrobyob]

07-10-2009; Progressive Nation Tour

Four bands in total, starting with Unexpect. My dad bought their album In a Flesh Aquarium, which I thought was pretty neat. However, the sound was so bad that everything just turned into one big mess where the music became unidentifiable.
The band itself was rather stiff, with the expection of the singer and violist.

Second band up was Bigelf. Same as with the previous band, I had only heard one of their albums, Cheat the Gallows, which I also liked. Also the same as before, the sound was crap, but a bit better then before. Other then that, their setlist was composed of heavier music then what they had on te before mentioned album, so at least that was somewhat surprising.

Opeth next. Though their music is good, I'm not really a fan. Thought their setlist was a bit boring, up untill the final two songs. Sound was a bit better then before, but still pretty shitty.

Last one was, of course, Dream Theater. Sound was magically a lot better all of a sudden, adn of course the band played really tight.
However, I felt that the setlist they played was the worst I've heard up to this point, with basically no song played that I really wanted to hear, so that was a bit disappointing. Otherwise, it's exactly what I have come to expect from DT.

[namrobyob]

08-10-2009; ZZ Top

Mamilla opened for them. Never heard them before, but they've apperently been around for 15 years, and are supposedly pretty big in one of the provinces here (Zeeland).
Anyway, their music was kinda Iron Maiden-ish. The first two, and final song they played were pretty decent, but the ballads were extremely boring. I didn't really like the singers voice either, and everyone was pretty dry on stage.
I also laughed at the fact that lead guitar couldn't be heared during the first song... 'specially noticable when he was soloing and you couldn't even hear it.

ZZ Top themselfs were pretty fun to watch on stage, even though they ardly did anything exciting. It's just that dryness that was fun in itself.
Sound of the bass was pretty annoyinh, a bit too loud and overwhelming and it was echoing. Took almost ther entire gig before that was fixed.
First half of the show was good, mostly their bluesy songs that I didn't really know. They played 'em tight though, and these were some pretty decent songs.
Final 45 minutes were crazy, starting it off with Gimme all your Loving, then follwed by Sharp Dressed Man, Legs and La Grange, then coming back for an encore comprised of Tush and covering Jailhouse Rock. Was pretty much dancing around the entire time here (:

[namrobyob]

09-10-2009; Damian Wilson Band

Damian Wilson is one of my top three favorite vocalists, and this gig was him playing songs from pretty much every band he has been in, including Ayreon, Threshold and Rick Wakeman's Out There.
He's asembled a band comprised of Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation) on guitar, Kristoffer Gildenlöw (Pain of Salvation) on bass and Dirk Bruinenberg (Elergy/Adagio) on drums. After Forever's Joost van den Broek was supposed to play keyboard, but from my understanding he was too busy with other things so he had to be replaced... no idea who the guy was though.

Anyway, at the programmed start of the show Damian came up on stage and told the crowd he wasn't ready yet, and would send his brother up to entertain us. I have a feeling this was totally planned though.
Either way, his brother covered three of Damian's solo songs, and I have to say that his voice is very good as well.

After that the band started to actually play. Sound was great, and the band played pretty tight, though there were a few hick ups here and there. Keyboardists was pretty sloppy though, but I think that might be because he was a last minute replacement, and didn't have enough time to properly rehearse... I guess.
After about half an hour I think, the band left the stage and Damian did a few of his acoustic solo songs, after which another keyboard was built on stage which was manned by another guy I don't know, who would play along with Damian's songs. Damian's brother also joined at some point, for additional vocals.
A few accoustic songs later and the band returned, and they all did a few songs together.
At the end of the evening, they were also joined by Robert Soeterboek, singing The Castle Hall from Ayreon's Into the Electric Castle together with with Damian, with him singing the Barbarian's parts, and after that they covered some other songs, amongst which was Can't get no Satisfaction from The Rolling Stones and Let there be Blood from AC/DC (:

Bleh, I'd talk some more about the setlist, but there was filming going on for a DVD, so you can just buy that if you want to know more (:
Overall it was a very amusing night, and Damian proved he deserves to be one of my favorite singers :D

[namrobyob]

I don't have a whole lot to say about the following two, but here it goes anyway:

10-10-2009; Alquin

After seeing them last year we decided to go again. And again, the first song went pretty sloppy on all parts possible, but they put up a fun show afterwards. Not as great as the previous time, but still good.

11-10-2009; Our Hate Will Destroy You Tour

Daath, followed by Throwdown, then Unearth, with Chimaira ending the night.
I can honestly say that this didn't do anything for me. Lead guitar's sound was bad during all bands except for the last (as one of my friends put it: "It sounds like the lead guitarist is using Star Power" (: ), but there wasn't any energy either. Good crowd though.

[namrobyob]

28-10-2009; Steve Hackett

No support act. Steve was one of the first guitarist for Genesis (the second if I'm not mistaking), for seven years from the last five years of Gabriel era to the first two of Collins era, untill he ventured off to start a solo carreer.
The cool part about this gig was the variety in songs, since Hackett has recorded so many different styles over the year, going from progressive rock to contemporary classical, and fuzion jazz to blues, so the setlist itself never became boring.
The band played pretty tight for the most part, but due to the sound not being optimal it sounded a bit messy here and there. It was the worst for the flutist, who would often times not be hearable over the other instruments.
The thing that brought this concert down is the fact that there wasn't really any energy other then with a few songs.

Overal a nice performence. I believe this was their first stop for this tour, so I assume future performences will be more energetic as well.
Their bass played deserves a special note though, for his awesome outfit (:

[namrobyob]

06-11-2009; Kayak

They had For Absent Friends as a support act, whom I had never heard of, but the badn being named after a Genesis song made me fear for the worst d:
Their music was pretty cool though, they had a great vocalist and the guitarist knew his way around his strings as well. The songs weren't anything new or refreshing, but sounded pretty good, some even getting me a bit excited, though that was mostly during the guitar solo's. A band to keep in mind for sure.

I saw Kayak themself in januari last year, where they were doing a theater show, and they were aweful. However, they are one of the first homegrown symphonic rock bands, so I had to give them another try.
Two songs were absolutely horrible again, both of which were during parts where everything was going on at the same time, (i.e. two guitars, two keyboards, bass, drums, some other percussion and four vocal lines) and everything just turned into a mess a stayed that way for quite a bit. Dunno what happened here, might've been the sound man who started panicking when it happened and started pulling adn pressing random buttons or something.
Other then that, they weren't playing tight at all. Rhythem section is alright, but it's the intersection between keyboard and guitart where shit gets messed up, 'specially with the keyboard. At some points it just feels like they were all doing their own things with a "hopefully the others can keep up" kind of metality, which is not the way to make the music go in sync d:
Other then that, both vocalists sang very good again (me 'specially being a fan of Edward Reeker's voice), and the sloppy playing was kind of made up by a good amount of energy they released.

Overall a nice enough night.