Not going to Vienna since I was mistaken about the public holiday (it's just a bank holiday). Instead I'll see them in Munich tomorrow, which is only a slightly longer drive than Vienna but it beats spending a vacation day on it since I'm kind of short on them and need them for other stuff. Still, concert should be nice.
I also learned that the Dropkick Murphys will play in Vienna and Munich in January.
It is very likely I will be the only person on earth to see both of those.
That kind of statement is very often true. Outside of the top 100 movies everyone see we can all mostly be uniquely identified by the movies we watch. Repeat for everything. (I'm reading Data and Goliath, it's on the mind)
First, I had never been to Terminal 5 before. It's a grungy place, as most music venues are. Even so, it was still cleaner than many. But despite that, it was huge and luxurious. Two levels of balconies. Seating everywhere if you need to take a break. Bars on every level, plus water coolers. They even have a rooftop lounge area where all the smokers have to go. But when I found it by accident, the air was surprisingly breathable. You can see pics of what it looks like online.
The shows was packed, way more than I expected. I would have gone down in the pit with my Netrunner friends, but it was Sunday night with work tomorrow. Not to mention I was already tired from baking bread, making a video, and watching football all day. I opted to hang on the rail on the third level.
The opening band was, IMHO, tastelessly named "Car Bomb". Might as well name your band "IED." I'm willing to bet that a band named IED already exists, but fuck them if they do. Other than their name, they seemed like a nice band. Their music was good, but not memorable.
The second band was Tesseract. I knew who they were, and had listened to them a few times in the past. Their live show was, as expected, better than their record. They really rocked hard. What was really amazing was their light show. After seeing that I was so glad to have been on the third level. I don't think I've ever seen a light show that good outside of a major arena. I also noticed from my elevated position they had someone manually controlling the whole thing. Most bands tend to have pre-recorded mostly automatic light shows, but this guy was controlling everything by hand. It was sick.
So then they unwrap Gojira's equipment. It was maybe the most elegant and frightening stage I have ever seen. Like if Apple computer made a metal band. Pretty standard drum platform in the middle of the stage. Three wireless guitars. Wireless mic on a stand. Three sets of pedals on the floor. Very minimalistic.
Now, I don't know too much about music equipment, but when they took the sheets off of the amps my eyes opened WIDE. Imagine a Tetris long piece, the 4x1, laid on its side. Now imagine instead of squares, it's amps. BIG ones. All identical. Now imagine one of those on each side of the drums. 8 amps. But wait. Look closer. Each amp has another identical amp behind it. Double stacked. There are 16 amps up there. Are they trying to recreate the opening of Back to the Future? You don't need to turn it up to 11 with that rig, because you'll kill all humans at 5 or 6.
Even when the roadies were just testing the instruments, it felt like the actual Tokyo stomping Gojira was on his way. Keep in mind I was wearing my Etymotic ER-20 earplugs which reduce sound at all frequencies evenly by 20 decibels. I was afraid to take them out. I didn't take them out.
From the time they took the stage until the house lights went on, everyone completely lost their shit. I saw multiple cups of beer soaring across the crowd as the first note was played, and was again glad to be on the third floor.
Unbeknownst to me, this was actually the last stop on their North American tour. The record company and their families were at the show. Even their cute little kids were there wearing hearing protection. They played tons of extra songs from the newest and even the oldest albums in a set that I'm pretty sure was at least two hours long.
10/10 Would stand upstairs and avoid the pit again.
Comments
I also learned that the Dropkick Murphys will play in Vienna and Munich in January.
The Saturday after that - CL
It is very likely I will be the only person on earth to see both of those.
First, I had never been to Terminal 5 before. It's a grungy place, as most music venues are. Even so, it was still cleaner than many. But despite that, it was huge and luxurious. Two levels of balconies. Seating everywhere if you need to take a break. Bars on every level, plus water coolers. They even have a rooftop lounge area where all the smokers have to go. But when I found it by accident, the air was surprisingly breathable. You can see pics of what it looks like online.
The shows was packed, way more than I expected. I would have gone down in the pit with my Netrunner friends, but it was Sunday night with work tomorrow. Not to mention I was already tired from baking bread, making a video, and watching football all day. I opted to hang on the rail on the third level.
The opening band was, IMHO, tastelessly named "Car Bomb". Might as well name your band "IED." I'm willing to bet that a band named IED already exists, but fuck them if they do. Other than their name, they seemed like a nice band. Their music was good, but not memorable.
The second band was Tesseract. I knew who they were, and had listened to them a few times in the past. Their live show was, as expected, better than their record. They really rocked hard. What was really amazing was their light show. After seeing that I was so glad to have been on the third level. I don't think I've ever seen a light show that good outside of a major arena. I also noticed from my elevated position they had someone manually controlling the whole thing. Most bands tend to have pre-recorded mostly automatic light shows, but this guy was controlling everything by hand. It was sick.
So then they unwrap Gojira's equipment. It was maybe the most elegant and frightening stage I have ever seen. Like if Apple computer made a metal band. Pretty standard drum platform in the middle of the stage. Three wireless guitars. Wireless mic on a stand. Three sets of pedals on the floor. Very minimalistic.
Now, I don't know too much about music equipment, but when they took the sheets off of the amps my eyes opened WIDE. Imagine a Tetris long piece, the 4x1, laid on its side. Now imagine instead of squares, it's amps. BIG ones. All identical. Now imagine one of those on each side of the drums. 8 amps. But wait. Look closer. Each amp has another identical amp behind it. Double stacked. There are 16 amps up there. Are they trying to recreate the opening of Back to the Future? You don't need to turn it up to 11 with that rig, because you'll kill all humans at 5 or 6.
Even when the roadies were just testing the instruments, it felt like the actual Tokyo stomping Gojira was on his way. Keep in mind I was wearing my Etymotic ER-20 earplugs which reduce sound at all frequencies evenly by 20 decibels. I was afraid to take them out. I didn't take them out.
From the time they took the stage until the house lights went on, everyone completely lost their shit. I saw multiple cups of beer soaring across the crowd as the first note was played, and was again glad to be on the third floor.
Unbeknownst to me, this was actually the last stop on their North American tour. The record company and their families were at the show. Even their cute little kids were there wearing hearing protection. They played tons of extra songs from the newest and even the oldest albums in a set that I'm pretty sure was at least two hours long.
10/10 Would stand upstairs and avoid the pit again.
BTW that Weird Al show at Radio City was fucking great.