Review of Symphony X Detroit show

[BastrdDrmr]

Goddammit!!! Harpos fucking sucks!!! Due to low attendance (?) Symphony X's set was cut very short to slightly less than an hour because there was not enough revenue to pay all the employees to stay longer or something. I spoke to Michael Romeo after the show and he said something along those lines.

Our setlist was:
Inferno
Wicked
Evolution
Communion and the Oracle
King of Terrors
Awakenings
Smoke and Mirrors
Sea of Lies
Of Sins and Shadows

I must admit I am jealous of Chicago for getting to see Accolade and Accolade 2!!! dammit!!

Although the playing was excellent, the sound was quite subpar. Quite disappointing.

On the bright side, I got to speak with Mike Romeo, Mike Lepond, Jason Rullo, and Russell Allen afterwards. All of them are cool and down to earth, just like the last time around. They seemed disappointed that they couldn't play longer. Also got a picture taken with Jason. Oh well, hopefully their headline later on this year will fucking annihilate.

 

[Djm]

I didn't even know they were at Harpo's tonight.

 

[ProgMetalFan]

low attendance!?!?!? oh my god, that sucks!!!!! I hope that doesn't happen in Cleveland...

 

[Snowmaker]

Goddammit!!! Harpos fucking sucks!!! Due to low attendance (?) Symphony X's set was cut very short to slightly less than an hour because there was not enough revenue to pay all the employees to stay longer or something. I spoke to Michael Romeo after the show and he said something along those lines.

Did they come out from back stage afterwards?? I waited a little bit, but it didn't seem like they were going to.

We talked to their merchandise guy on the way out and he told us about the length of the show the night before. They had the beanies, but ran out of Divine Wings of Tragedy CDs, which I was finally going to buy.

I hope that sad attendence last night don't scare them off so that they never come back to Detroit. I would never even have known about the show if the guy I went with hadn't told me about it. I think that's why the attendence was so low.

AND WHAT THE HELL WAS WITH THAT SHIT BAND WITH ALL THE MAKE-UP!?!?

HARPOS DOES SUCK!!!

 

[BastrdDrmr]

Did they come out from back stage afterwards?? I waited a little bit, but it didn't seem like they were going to.

We talked to their merchandise guy on the way out and he told us about the length of the show the night before. They had the beanies, but ran out of Divine Wings of Tragedy CDs, which I was finally going to buy.

I hope that sad attendence last night don't scare them off so that they never come back to Detroit. I would never even have known about the show if the guy I went with hadn't told me about it. I think that's why the attendence was so low.

AND WHAT THE HELL WAS WITH THAT SHIT BAND WITH ALL THE MAKE-UP!?!?

HARPOS DOES SUCK!!!

Yeah, dude. Whenever you want to talk to a band at Harpos, you gotta do it in the alley behind it where the tour buses are. Me and my friends were having a great time talking to Mike Lepond for awhile even though some stupid ass kept butting in and changing the subject, asking him about scales and what kind of finger exercises he needed to do.

Yeah, the openers this time were absolutely horrendous. Haha.

Snowmaker, were you the guy with the Vanden Plas shirt? I pointed out someone wearing a Vanden Plas shirt under a flannel to my brother because my brother has recently gone nuts about that band.

 

[Snowmaker]

Snowmaker, were you the guy with the Vanden Plas shirt? I pointed out someone wearing a Vanden Plas shirt under a flannel to my brother because my brother has recently gone nuts about that band.

Yeah, that was me. You should have introduced yourself. Where were you guys?

Seven Witches was good. I'm listening to some of their stuff now. I wouldn't dare hang out outside of Harpos. At least I got one of those "stoop down" high fives from Russell while he was on stage. I was right under him the whole time. That's the one good thing about no crowd.

 

[BastrdDrmr]

I was a little bit to the left of you in front of the stage. We were directly in front of Romeo, whereas you were in front of Lepond I think. I have a goatee and was wearing an Odyssey T shirt and SX beanie. You may or may not have noticed me. My friend to my right and I were trying to make lots of noise because we noticed that the crowd wasn't that huge, and we wanted SX to maintain as much energy as possible.

 

[Snowmaker]

I was a little bit to the left of you in front of the stage. We were directly in front of Romeo, whereas you were in front of Lepond I think. I have a goatee and was wearing an Odyssey T shirt and SX beanie. You may or may not have noticed me. My friend to my right and I were trying to make lots of noise because we noticed that the crowd wasn't that huge, and we wanted SX to maintain as much energy as possible.

Yeah, I was like right between Lepond and Russell. I don't remember if I saw you or not. I had one too many Harpos beers. I haven't been there in like 8 years, but I'll never forget those Harpos headaches the next morning.

 

[BastrdDrmr]

Yeah, I was like right between Lepond and Russell. I don't remember if I saw you or not. I had one too many Harpos beers. I haven't been there in like 8 years, but I'll never forget those Harpos headaches the next morning.

 

[Snowmaker]

Its NOT funny. I don't know what they do to their beer there.

 

[Platinum Maze]

I've never been to Harpo's but I know a few guys out there (Troy, Royal Oak, Ster. Heights) who have and say that's it's not the best place to see a band. The sound as well as the area of town are not the greatest. I have been out there at least a half dozen times. Like it a lot. I live about 50 miles north of NYC (Orange County, NY) and will be in Brooklyn on Friday.

Just curious, how many people would you say actually were there last night? 50? 100? What does Harpo's consider low attendance?

You think they would have wanted them to play longer to keep the bar open! That's where they make all their money. Even if there's 50 people there, they're going to sell a good amount of liquor!

 

[BastrdDrmr]

I really am a bad judge of the amount of people, but I'd say like 100? The thing is... the venue is really large and the entire back 2/3 of the place was completely empty while the front 1/3 was just a bunch of people scattered all over.

 

[ProgMetalFan]

I really am a bad judge of the amount of people, but I'd say like 100? The thing is... the venue is really large and the entire back 2/3 of the place was completely empty while the front 1/3 was just a bunch of people scattered all over.

 

[ElvenShadow]

Wow that really sucks guys... im sorry to hear you missed out on so many songs and that the venue sucked... I hope they play someplace better next time they go to Detroit, but you should be greatful that they at least played an extra show in Detroit at all seeing as how only a few select locations got lucky enough.

 

[Snowmaker]

Wow that really sucks guys... im sorry to hear you missed out on so many songs and that the venue sucked... I hope they play someplace better next time they go to Detroit, but you should be greatful that they at least played an extra show in Detroit at all seeing as how only a few select locations got lucky enough.

I was chatting with Stephan Lill (guitarist of Vanden Plas) this morning and I told him about the show and I said whenever they finally get over here to the U.S. to tour and come to Detroit, DO NOT play Harpo's!

I'd say there was about 100-150 people there. I felt so bad for Symphony X. I was actually yelling apologies to them from in front of the stage.

 

[BastrdDrmr]

Well, not all was lost. Some Symphony X is better than no Symphony X at all! They still were awesome to talk to. Lepond was hilarious dude. My friends and I were talking to him about how he came to be in Symphony X. He was saying that his friend played him some Symphony X for him because they were looking for a bass player and his initial response to the music was "What the hell is this shit?" He said he had never played time changes before either (!!!) and the regular use of phrygian major threw him off. It was really cool conversation.

 

[Snowmaker]

Here is a pic right before we left for the show. The guy with the kid didn't go:

 

[metalathiest]

Ahh thats too bad about the show, but Symphony X does not seem to mad since they were joking around with fans after the show.

My question is, how much were T-Shirts? and what do they look like?

 

[BastrdDrmr]

Hey Snowmaker, were you guys sitting at a table drinking beer during the first couple bands in the middle section opposite from the bar that was serving? We were the guys at the table right behind you if you were.

 

[Wyldeyng]

I would venture a guess that the area that Harpos is in is the most dangerous place to see a concert in America. Complete and absolute getto. I shit you not, when I pulled up and into the alley to park, two giant rats strolled right in front of me on my way in. I have seen some great shows there over the years, but last night was the smallest amount of people I've ever seen in that place. 100 people tops and some of them left when Symphony X went on, apparently they were there for the local bands. I laughed at the irony of the WRIF banner flying above over Russell's head. I thought that was kinda strange though when I heard they were playing Harpos, being that it holds 2200 people and they last played St. Andrews with BG and that place only holds 500 people or so. I don't think they have many options when it comes to the venue selection. I thought they would play the Sheltor or the Irock(another shit hole).

I really enjoyed the show though, Russell's voice just floors me.