'Further into the vast. Limits do not exist'. I'm talking about Agora
parking here, it cost $10 and they even had a good reason why: 'Your car
is gonna be here all day long!'. Well, maybe they should arrange a 10-day
festival and charge you $100 for parking - it would make enough profit to
cover all the expenses they have because of us (poor babies!). Anyway, I
thought I made a wise decision when I came to Agora at 5.00 PM even
though the show was scheduled to start at 2. You know, it always turns
out that majority of lesser known bands are lesser known not because they
Babylon Whores
Taken from http://www.necropolisrecords.com
are very innovative and original, but because they simply suck. So I
decided to skip some bands playing in the beginning in order to save some
energy for those who do deserve it. Not so fast, wise guy! I checked the
schedule and you can not imagine my astonishment when I discovered that
the headliner (it was (un)godly King Diamond) was supposed to play from
1.00 to 2.15 in the morning!!! And there I was, sentenced to stay at
Agora for more than 9 hours, alone, thirsty and hungry and with no heaven
(I mean good bands) in sight. Checking out the one and only (bands' stuff
not counting) merchandise stand did not help much either - almost nothing
but brutal death metal, with In Flames and Immortal being the only
highlights. No Andreas from The End Records that time either. First two
or three hours that I spent there were no less than utter hell. No
people, no good bands, no nothing really. I think it was quite
embarrassing for the opening bands to play in front of five not caring
people too. The things that kept me alive: 1. Some guy walking to the
merchandise booth: 'OOOO, Skinless! Are they good?', haha! I hope you got
this one right. 2. One of the bands performing the song 'Fred Durst has a
small dick' (not the exact name of the song, but you get the idea). Very
cheap shot considering they did not look like Immortal either, but
nevertheless quite funny. 3. A little chat between rapper from Groundwar
and the guy painted (pretty unsuccessfully like King Diamond): King's
guy: 'You suck!' - Rapper: 'We suck?! And you painted your face like
KISS, what's wrong with that?! You know, actually Ace Freihley gave me a
head last week, and, boy, was it good! OK, this next song is dedicated to
the painted asshole out there'. Apparently, he did not know who King
Diamond was. 4. Dreams of Dancing with The Angel (Oh, it's some personal
stuff :-)). Finally it was 7.30 PM, and it was time for the first band I
was interested to see, Pissing Razors, to get on stage. Too bad they
sucked. Big time. They play the same kind of music Skinlab do, but much,
much worse. Everything from indistinguishable screaming vocals, to
inexpressive, forced riffs and shitty sound was bad. It's really
embarrassing to realize that while this annoying band is actually signed
to Noise records, deserving collectives like Crypt Kicker (we'll talk
about them in detail later) have to release self-financed CDs. During the
set their screamer used word 'fuck' more than once - must be some kind of
southwestern virus. MSOD (Metal Symphony of Darkness, hehe), who must be
some local cult favorites, sucked too. Imagewise, imagine Iron Maiden at
their worst. Musicwise, imagine...ahm, you guessed it right! No wonder a
lot of older people showed up in the auditorium just before their
performance. Another disappointment was Sentinel Steel recording artists
Antithesis. Singer could not sing (and all of you know how important this
detail is in the power/progressive scene), music was boring and cliche.
Oh, to hell with them! OK, now let's talk about some more pleasant
things, and why don't I start with Somnus. Believe it or not, they only
get better! If you remember, the last time that I saw them they did not
look all that well due to some objective reasons. However, they quickly
rebounded from their last unimpressive performance, and played the set
that they should be proud of. Somnus were fortunate enough to play
Theatre rather than Ballroom, which resulted in a better overall sound.
Second guitar was present that time, and it, certainly, made a
difference. Really great set, even though it only consisted of 5
|
songs, but - special treat - two of them were brand new: 'Dawn of Conspiracy"
(if I got it right), which I liked more than anything else they played
that night, and 'The Deceiver'! Good job, guys! I was only able to listen
to 3 songs performed by Babylon Whores in the Ballroom, because I wanted
to be in the front row for Crypt Kicker set, who played right across the
hall, so I had to leave Ballroom early. Finns were OK, especially
compared to what the majority of bands before them had to offer. Good,
almost rock'n'roll, energy on the part of all musicians and especially
Ike. By the way, on all promo shots he looks kinda evil, so it was a bit
of surprise to discover that he looks quite different in person. More of
a sad, confused and lost person than anything else. So I quickly crossed
the hall, got into the first row, just as I wanted to, and beheld how
mighty Crypt Kicker taught everybody another lesson in violence and good
music (Exodus should learn too, but especially bands like Pissing Razors
ought to realize what it is all about). It was a while since I had seen
Crypt Kicker live, and the first thing I noticed was that Rob (frontman)
drastically changed his haircut. Well, it did not affect his voice or
stage presence a single bit. He had a great interaction with a crowd,
especially when they performed one of their better known songs
'Everything Suffering'. They also played a new song 'The Bomb', and I
think all of their personal fans (and there were a plenty of them) felt
very satisfied after their tight, energetic show. Nice banners too (by
the way, Somnus also had one, which I saw for the first time and liked it
a lot). I completely missed Shadows Fall, because I did not want to lose
my place in the spotlight, and was patiently awaiting for King to show
up. And patience I longed for, my friends. After almost eight hours in
King Diamond
Taken from here
the Agora building it was not easy to wait even extra five minutes,
especially when everything was seemingly set, but the band still did not
hit the stage. Finally, something appeared! I exerted my eyes :-) and saw
something I will never forget :-) OK, just kidding. King Diamond, the man
and the band were really good that night. It was for the first time ever
that I can say that what I saw was a show, not just a mere musical
performance. Everything from the numerous decorations such as broken
mirror, (electric) candles on the candelabras, pseudo organ etc. to an
exotic dancer who took part in quite a few songs, was something new for
me to see. As for the dancer, she first appeared in the first two songs
as an evil Grandma getting on stage in a wheelchair, then she represented
everyone from Sarah Lafayette from 'Voodoo' album to Wolf from the newest
'House of God', and did it with a lot of talent and passion. King also
had a huge backdrop depicting a cover of his new album. As for the songs
played, I think Diamond satisfied everybody's tastes but mine :-) The
reason? He did not play anything off either 'Spider's Lullaby' or 'The
Graveyard'. Well, unfortunately, I understand that these two albums are
not considered classic (actually, some people consider them to be pretty
bad and un-King like, which is totally wrong), and thus it would be
strange to expect them to play that material. But it's only a very, very
small letdown in the otherwise cool show, because almost every song that
they played was of a very high quality, so I did not have time to regret
them not playing 'Moonlight' and instead tirelessly (almost) banged my
head back and forth. I can not give you King's whole setlist simply
because I don't know King's back catalog all that well, but I can inform
you that they played a lot of songs off 'House of God', which is a
logical choice, including the title track, 'Follow the Wolf', 'Black
Devil', 'Help!!!' and maybe some others. Also presented were: couple cuts
off 'Voodoo', something off 'Conspiracy', 'The Eye' and some others. I
did not stay for the encore (shame on me!), but instead took a final
photo and rushed to the parking lot, thus avoiding a mini traffic jam and
drove back home - very tired, but happy and satisfied (psychologically
:-))). HAIL THE KING!!!
Andy.
|