Reverend Bizarre were pretty excellent, though I wasn't familiar with the material, there was some very very good classic, Saint Vitus-style doom going on.
Skepticism were fucking amazing, as expected. It's rather extraordinary to see how they pull off this absolutely huge, monumental fucking crushing sound with ONE guitarist, ONE organist, ONE drummer and the vocalist. That's right, only one guitar and no bass at all. The drummer was the first metal drummer (though Skepticism are only peripherally metal) I've seen to play with felt mallets as opposed to regular drum sticks. That explains their drum sound on the records, I guess. The organist fucked up a couple of times, which was the only detraction from the experience, but no biggie. The ending of "The March and the Stream" (knowing that their set was coming to an end, I silently begged to myself for the last song to PLEASE be TMatS... and when those first really low strings came out of the speakers, fucking hell. The ending, as expected, was absolutely fucking spirit-crushing. It was all very obscure, you could barely see the band members through all the smoke, noone said anything before, after or between songs... Basically... Testament might have to move over for the "best concert ever" award, only Skept's set should have been longer, ideally... I also got a Skepticism shirt which totally rules.
Skepticism setlist (I might have forgotten something here, but I think this is pretty much right):
1. Sign of a Storm
2. By Silent Wings
3. The Raven and the Backward Funeral
4. Nowhere
5. Untitled
6. The March and the Stream
Skepticism videos (my camera only takes 15 second clips, sorry):
Sign of a Storm
Nowhere
Untitled
Uh, so with that gone (and the first few seconds after TMatS were pretty overwhelming in their post-most-depressing-song-ever atmosphere, sadly ruined by the sound guys playing Type O Negative or whatever the fuck else through the PA), Esoteric was really fucking dwarfed by this experience... I gotta say, it's impressive how Esoteric pull off their studio sound 100% on stage, with THREE guitarists and a 6-string bassist + synth guy and drummer... But as with Esoteric on record, they do the same thing OVER and OVER and OVER again, draw things out to ungodly ends and frankly, while I spent the first couple of songs in the front row really enjoying the gig, I gradually moved back and eventually, towards the last few songs of the at least 2-hour set (felt like more of half an eternity,) sat down and basically wanted them to go the fuck away already. If Esoteric would have had Skepticism's one-hour slot instead of the headlining slot, this gig would have been better. As it is, Reverend Bizarre were totally satisfactory, Skepticism was amazing and Esoteric severely overstayed their welcome.
Esoteric video
I'm not going to bore you with travel details... Was it worth it? Well, for Skepticism, yes... But there was a fair bit of trouble and inconvenience with logistics and so forth -- a lot of money as well, but who fucking cares about money anyway...
Skepticism were fucking amazing, as expected. It's rather extraordinary to see how they pull off this absolutely huge, monumental fucking crushing sound with ONE guitarist, ONE organist, ONE drummer and the vocalist. That's right, only one guitar and no bass at all. The drummer was the first metal drummer (though Skepticism are only peripherally metal) I've seen to play with felt mallets as opposed to regular drum sticks. That explains their drum sound on the records, I guess. The organist fucked up a couple of times, which was the only detraction from the experience, but no biggie. The ending of "The March and the Stream" (knowing that their set was coming to an end, I silently begged to myself for the last song to PLEASE be TMatS... and when those first really low strings came out of the speakers, fucking hell. The ending, as expected, was absolutely fucking spirit-crushing. It was all very obscure, you could barely see the band members through all the smoke, noone said anything before, after or between songs... Basically... Testament might have to move over for the "best concert ever" award, only Skept's set should have been longer, ideally... I also got a Skepticism shirt which totally rules.
Skepticism setlist (I might have forgotten something here, but I think this is pretty much right):
1. Sign of a Storm
2. By Silent Wings
3. The Raven and the Backward Funeral
4. Nowhere
5. Untitled
6. The March and the Stream
Skepticism videos (my camera only takes 15 second clips, sorry):
Sign of a Storm
Nowhere
Untitled
Uh, so with that gone (and the first few seconds after TMatS were pretty overwhelming in their post-most-depressing-song-ever atmosphere, sadly ruined by the sound guys playing Type O Negative or whatever the fuck else through the PA), Esoteric was really fucking dwarfed by this experience... I gotta say, it's impressive how Esoteric pull off their studio sound 100% on stage, with THREE guitarists and a 6-string bassist + synth guy and drummer... But as with Esoteric on record, they do the same thing OVER and OVER and OVER again, draw things out to ungodly ends and frankly, while I spent the first couple of songs in the front row really enjoying the gig, I gradually moved back and eventually, towards the last few songs of the at least 2-hour set (felt like more of half an eternity,) sat down and basically wanted them to go the fuck away already. If Esoteric would have had Skepticism's one-hour slot instead of the headlining slot, this gig would have been better. As it is, Reverend Bizarre were totally satisfactory, Skepticism was amazing and Esoteric severely overstayed their welcome.
Esoteric video
I'm not going to bore you with travel details... Was it worth it? Well, for Skepticism, yes... But there was a fair bit of trouble and inconvenience with logistics and so forth -- a lot of money as well, but who fucking cares about money anyway...
x 1 billion dollars
