So me and 3 of my bandmates arrive around 5:45 after a huge 2 hour drive. The Garden State Parkway is horseshit. Upon arrival I call Will's cellphone as we were supposed to meet up, but the bastard had it off the whole night. :Smug:
So then we make our way into the big hall, not expecting it to be quite that size, and Hypocrisy comes on. They were good, but I wasn't able to get into it much since I'm not all too familiar with their material.
So at this point I start looking around for Will once again, since I figure its impossible to miss someone wearing a read suit, but no luck. Then Children of Bodom comes on and kicks total ass. Alexi is a godly guitarist and an amazing performer. The keyboards weren't too shabby either.
So then of course the highlight of my night, NEVERMORE. It was my first time ever seeing them and I was beyond impressed. Amazing energy, spot on performance from all the members. Jeff's soloing had me going
the whole time. I was a bit disappointed in the setlist, a song from PoE or DNB wouldn't have been bad, and "In Memory" would've been amazing too.
After that Dimmu Borgir took about 4 years to set up, so I decided to wander around again with the bandmates and went to the second stage. Some crappy hardcore band was playing, so once again I went on a search for Will or anyone in his Distorted Mind posse, with once again no luck.
Finally Dimmu Borgir came on, my second time seeing them and my second time being impressed. Their performance was outstanding if a bit unenergetic compared to previous bands, but they did play my favorite song of theirs "Kings of the Carnival Creation" so I'm not complaining. I can't help but think they're a bit silly sometimes though.
After Dimmu I went to the second stage and caught of some of the Devin Townsend Band's set, good shit in preparation for Morbid Angel.
Morbid Angel was awesome despite a muddy mix throughout, even though they lost a bit of their steam towards the end at least for me. The people I came with were not impressed at all for some reason despite being fans, which I didn't really understand but you can't win them all. They also played "God of Emptiness" which is never a bad song to witness live.
Not interested in seeing Superjoint Ritual or Danzig, we decided to hang out by the second stage until Symphony X was to come on. We saw Beyond the Embrace for about 3 songs, my second time seeing them and they were pretty good despite lack of originality. As they ended, Alex said to me and pointed "is THAT the guy in the red suit?". I turn and sure enough it was Will, so I ran and screamed "WIIIIIIIIILL" in the most obnoxious tone of voice I could manage. Now I realized I should've screamed "SAAAAAATAAAAAAAN" instead. Oh well. :Smug:
So there we chat for a while and when I bring up Symphony X, I am told that they had already played earlier in the night due to schedule problems. Upon telling the rest of my band this I nearly get murdered by all of them, so we decide that we would leave soon. But then of course Will says "Would you like to meet Jeff Loomis??", and thus we walk towards the entrance of the main stage, and sure enough there he is. It was cool meeting him and talking to him for a minute, one of my biggest guitar inspirations ever.
So we see a bit of Strapping Young Lad and Superjoint, but then we just left.
All in all it was a great show, it was cool talking to Will again and meeting Wolftribe.
So then we make our way into the big hall, not expecting it to be quite that size, and Hypocrisy comes on. They were good, but I wasn't able to get into it much since I'm not all too familiar with their material.
So at this point I start looking around for Will once again, since I figure its impossible to miss someone wearing a read suit, but no luck. Then Children of Bodom comes on and kicks total ass. Alexi is a godly guitarist and an amazing performer. The keyboards weren't too shabby either.
So then of course the highlight of my night, NEVERMORE. It was my first time ever seeing them and I was beyond impressed. Amazing energy, spot on performance from all the members. Jeff's soloing had me going
the whole time. I was a bit disappointed in the setlist, a song from PoE or DNB wouldn't have been bad, and "In Memory" would've been amazing too. After that Dimmu Borgir took about 4 years to set up, so I decided to wander around again with the bandmates and went to the second stage. Some crappy hardcore band was playing, so once again I went on a search for Will or anyone in his Distorted Mind posse, with once again no luck.
Finally Dimmu Borgir came on, my second time seeing them and my second time being impressed. Their performance was outstanding if a bit unenergetic compared to previous bands, but they did play my favorite song of theirs "Kings of the Carnival Creation" so I'm not complaining. I can't help but think they're a bit silly sometimes though.
After Dimmu I went to the second stage and caught of some of the Devin Townsend Band's set, good shit in preparation for Morbid Angel.
Morbid Angel was awesome despite a muddy mix throughout, even though they lost a bit of their steam towards the end at least for me. The people I came with were not impressed at all for some reason despite being fans, which I didn't really understand but you can't win them all. They also played "God of Emptiness" which is never a bad song to witness live.
Not interested in seeing Superjoint Ritual or Danzig, we decided to hang out by the second stage until Symphony X was to come on. We saw Beyond the Embrace for about 3 songs, my second time seeing them and they were pretty good despite lack of originality. As they ended, Alex said to me and pointed "is THAT the guy in the red suit?". I turn and sure enough it was Will, so I ran and screamed "WIIIIIIIIILL" in the most obnoxious tone of voice I could manage. Now I realized I should've screamed "SAAAAAATAAAAAAAN" instead. Oh well. :Smug:
So there we chat for a while and when I bring up Symphony X, I am told that they had already played earlier in the night due to schedule problems. Upon telling the rest of my band this I nearly get murdered by all of them, so we decide that we would leave soon. But then of course Will says "Would you like to meet Jeff Loomis??", and thus we walk towards the entrance of the main stage, and sure enough there he is. It was cool meeting him and talking to him for a minute, one of my biggest guitar inspirations ever.
So we see a bit of Strapping Young Lad and Superjoint, but then we just left.
All in all it was a great show, it was cool talking to Will again and meeting Wolftribe.
Very cool.
