A review that I posted elsewhere:
I brought a pillow in to work to sit on because they kicked my ass last night.
A storm rolled in mid morning and I thought I'd have to fight traffic *and* weather on the way down to Denver. Fortunately I didn't. The storm dragged itself off the mountains and screamed on out to the plains. The trip down felt like being a part of a red scaled snake while watching a white scaled snake going the other direction. A snake that "crawls" at 85 mph.
I got to the venue about a half hour before the doors opened so I went to the bar across the street to grab a beer and read a coupla local newspapers (The Onion for one). The bartender carded me.
I finished up my beer at about the right time to walk over and wait in line for a little bit. There's an adult book and video store next door to the venue and just as I got across the street a knit-capped man with a blond pony tail hanging out the back exited the store with what looked to be a decent sized purchase. Dunno if it was him or not but I kinda like to think it was.
After I got into the venue I checked the downstairs for a table and discovered they had removed all the furniture from downstairs and made it the all ages area. The booze area was now the balcony. I headed for the stairs and was stopped at the bottom and carded again. See, I just turned 40 two weeks ago and kinda had a bit of a problem with it. So getting carded twice in one night was pretty cool. Don't bother to tell me they card everyone. You can just go to hell before you even bother to type it up and post it. Let an old fart live a little bit of a dream, would ya?
The opener was Gemaria(?). I think that's their name. Anyways, I didn't care for them too much. Cookie Monster death band that left me wondering why they bothered to have two guitarists in the band.
Next up was The Mandrake. Not just any old Mandrake but *THE* Mandrake. Death band too. I ain't much into the all death all the time stuff but these guys (and gal bass player) had some music I could get into if it wasn't for the vox. They were a study in contrasts as well. The vocalist monotone deadpanned his between-song banter. Kinda funny when contrasted with the death vox. He was a big dude. And by big I don't mean just height-wise. The lead guitarist *might* have been over five feet tall and 100 pounds soaking wet. He was pretty damn good though.
Here's the setlist for NM:
Born
My Acid Words
Bittersweet Feast
Narcosynthesis
The River Dragon Has Come
Never Purify
This Sacrament
7 Tounges of God
Beyond Within
Inside 4 Walls
Final Product
Godless Endeavor
Enemies of Reality
That's the same as was posted for the Austin and Dallas shows. I honestly don't remember them playing 4 Walls though. I'm taking their word for it on a couple of the Politics and Enemies tracks.Warrel was a bit buried in the mix. At least from where I was standing. Holy crap was he ever dead nuts on. There were a few parts of a few songs that he toned it down a bit but for the most part he was balls out all night. I was amazed at how on he was. He did goof the first few lines of Final Product but got caught up before too long. Loomis is freaking amazing. What else can I say? He just flat out rips. He broke a string on Narco (I think) and caught a little ribbing from Warrel. Smyth ain't no slouch either. If they didn't tour with another guitarist before Smyth joined up then I'd think their live sound wasn't as full.
I got home about midnight and managed to drag my butt out of bed at about 4:15. Good thing it's Friday. Here's a few blurry pictures I took with my digital camera that they allowed me to bring in:
http://www.pbase.com/wieser537/nm_denver
I brought a pillow in to work to sit on because they kicked my ass last night.
A storm rolled in mid morning and I thought I'd have to fight traffic *and* weather on the way down to Denver. Fortunately I didn't. The storm dragged itself off the mountains and screamed on out to the plains. The trip down felt like being a part of a red scaled snake while watching a white scaled snake going the other direction. A snake that "crawls" at 85 mph.
I got to the venue about a half hour before the doors opened so I went to the bar across the street to grab a beer and read a coupla local newspapers (The Onion for one). The bartender carded me.
I finished up my beer at about the right time to walk over and wait in line for a little bit. There's an adult book and video store next door to the venue and just as I got across the street a knit-capped man with a blond pony tail hanging out the back exited the store with what looked to be a decent sized purchase. Dunno if it was him or not but I kinda like to think it was.
After I got into the venue I checked the downstairs for a table and discovered they had removed all the furniture from downstairs and made it the all ages area. The booze area was now the balcony. I headed for the stairs and was stopped at the bottom and carded again. See, I just turned 40 two weeks ago and kinda had a bit of a problem with it. So getting carded twice in one night was pretty cool. Don't bother to tell me they card everyone. You can just go to hell before you even bother to type it up and post it. Let an old fart live a little bit of a dream, would ya?
The opener was Gemaria(?). I think that's their name. Anyways, I didn't care for them too much. Cookie Monster death band that left me wondering why they bothered to have two guitarists in the band.
Next up was The Mandrake. Not just any old Mandrake but *THE* Mandrake. Death band too. I ain't much into the all death all the time stuff but these guys (and gal bass player) had some music I could get into if it wasn't for the vox. They were a study in contrasts as well. The vocalist monotone deadpanned his between-song banter. Kinda funny when contrasted with the death vox. He was a big dude. And by big I don't mean just height-wise. The lead guitarist *might* have been over five feet tall and 100 pounds soaking wet. He was pretty damn good though.
Here's the setlist for NM:
Born
My Acid Words
Bittersweet Feast
Narcosynthesis
The River Dragon Has Come
Never Purify
This Sacrament
7 Tounges of God
Beyond Within
Inside 4 Walls
Final Product
Godless Endeavor
Enemies of Reality
That's the same as was posted for the Austin and Dallas shows. I honestly don't remember them playing 4 Walls though. I'm taking their word for it on a couple of the Politics and Enemies tracks.Warrel was a bit buried in the mix. At least from where I was standing. Holy crap was he ever dead nuts on. There were a few parts of a few songs that he toned it down a bit but for the most part he was balls out all night. I was amazed at how on he was. He did goof the first few lines of Final Product but got caught up before too long. Loomis is freaking amazing. What else can I say? He just flat out rips. He broke a string on Narco (I think) and caught a little ribbing from Warrel. Smyth ain't no slouch either. If they didn't tour with another guitarist before Smyth joined up then I'd think their live sound wasn't as full.
I got home about midnight and managed to drag my butt out of bed at about 4:15. Good thing it's Friday. Here's a few blurry pictures I took with my digital camera that they allowed me to bring in:
http://www.pbase.com/wieser537/nm_denver
