Switchblade were on first and they were very energetic and were well received by most of the crowd. I even noticed Adam Duce upstairs nodding in approval.
Contrive were the main support, and while they have a cool sound they weren't that well received.Andy Haug is a decent drummer, but their bass player copped loads of heckling.They weren't awful, but I've seen em' play better as well.
After a huge wait, Machine Head owned the crowd from the second "Imperium" kicked in.Hell,there were even circle pits starting before they even hit the stage!!!!!! "Seasons Of Wither" was next and ruled as well, and Robb said it would be available here in a few weeks. Whether it is part of a re-release of TTAOE or as a <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=single&v=56">single</a> I'm not certain,but it's a damn good new track that they put on the US edition of the album.
They played stuff from each of their albums- "Bulldozer","The Blood,The Sweat,The Tears","Take My Scars" (f#*!ing OWNED), and loads of others.
"Descend The Shades Of Night" started the encore,and sounded pretty damn good,followed by "Davidian", and the place erupted.After that,I figured it couldn't get any better, but then Robb gave us a choice. He read out three album titles, and whichever got the loudest reaction, they would play a song from. First was Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" (huge reaction), then Metallica's "Ride The Lightning" (even louder) and Sepultura's "Chaos A.D." (about the same as RTL). So they ripped into an awesome <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=cover&v=56">cover</a> of Seps' "Territory", which f#*!ing ruled, and then played some of Pantera's "Another Level" and "Walk", which had the mosh in a frenzy, Slayer's "Raining Blood" and last of all some of Motley Crue's "Live Wire", which Robb thought was pretty damn funny. BTW,I was in the distinct minority who actually knew the last song). They then closed with "Block", which was also f#*!ing awesome.
I was most impressed with the stage presence Phil Demmel has brought to the band anyway.They were tight as a drum and then some I've gotta say.
Overall, easily one of the best gigs I've seen and the band certainly earned the numerous "MACHINE f#*!ing HEAD" chants that went on throughout their set anyway.
