Damn, I forgot to talk about the show itself.
So I got to Seattle at around 5:30 - an hour and a half before the doors opened. Not surprisingly, there were already people lined up. At least 70-80% of them were, of course, teenagers.
Once the doors opened, I got myself a decent spot near the front. At around 8:00, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 played on the PA system, which was promptly interrupted by an announcement by Herman:
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute! Hi, we're DragonForce, and we think any intro like the one you heard...
[Beethoven's Symphony No. 5]
...or this...
["Oh Fortuna" by Carl Orff]
...or this...
["The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone]
...is absolutely fucking extremely unoriginal and gay."
The announcement was followed by some drums and monkey noises, prompting the arrival of the band.
If there's one thing to be cautious about a DragonForce concert, it's the crowd. Within seconds of playing the opening number, a violent moshing ensued. Kids were shoving each other back and forth. After the first two songs, I left the pit area to get a Red Bull (as the bar doesn't sell Rockstar or Monster). Good thing I did, as the moshing got worse, with crowd surfing and lead vocalist ZP Theart splashing water at the crowd.
As far as the band itself, they weren't as bad as they were on YouTube videos. Many of the songs they played from their first three albums were very recognizable (Sorry, Jen - they didn't play "Starfire"). Unfortunately, they didn't play anything from their upcoming album
Ultra Beatdown. And in the case of their signature song "Through the Fire and Flames," what you see on the video I posted above is exactly what happened. Herman and Sam ruined the ending by surfing with the crowd. And after the show, the crowd left the venue very quickly.
Here's a picture of Dave's kit for the drum geeks:
Outside, posters of the show were handed to fans. I was with dozens of kids lined up outside the band's tour bus. Vadim was the first to exit the venue, but he got stuck, as he forgot the key code of the bus door. So he signed some posters and posed for cameras as he waited for help.
The members are surprisingly nice guys (except maybe for Sam, as he's drunk). Some kid had his Game Boy Color signed by everyone and said he'll think of the band whenever he plays a
Pokemon game. Herman stuck around to talk to the crowd.
Overall, DragonForce is not bad live, but I wouldn't watch them perform live again because of the crowd. Otherwise, they're pretty fun to hang out with.
The first time was at Donington last year. I was lying on the grass dozing when they were playing and felt like I was getting moved along the ground by the constant double bass. The second time was on The Black Crusade tour. They were better there tho one of the guitarists (Sam I think his name is) kept fucking up. I don't know the songs yet I could tell he was making an arse of it. They did play one song I really, really liked tho - a slow ballad called Starfire or something.
