I was sick as hell but no way was I going to miss Testament & Vio-lence! My buddy flaked out on me, and my car stereo is busted, so the 2-plus hour drive to the show by myself with no tunes kinda sucked, but the show was well worth it!
I heard Vehemence cancelled cuz they got stuck in the snow. Not sure if Exhumed played.
The Boardwalk has some slow-ass people working the door. Tons of people were waiting outside for-fucking-ever in the rain. I heard the first two Vio-lence songs from outside as the line moved at snail's pace.
Finally I got in and made my way up to the front. The band was really pumped up and the crowd was way fucking into it as well. They slammed through all of Eternal Nightmare except "Serial Killer", and threw in "World in a World" and "Officer Nice". Troy's stage presence gets better with each show! Sean said that Portland had a 5-foot barrier so they were taking it out on us that night. And they did, as Sean jumped onto the crowd repeatedly, not missing a single lyric. Highlight for me was getting to shout "BODIES! ON BODIES! ON BODIES! ON BODIES!" into the mic as Sean interacted with the crowd like no one else can. One of my all-time favorite Vio-lence tunes.
By this time, I was feeling sicker than ever, and my energy was pretty much spent for the night. Testament sounded fucking incredible. Chuck was in full form again! Tempesta was fucking on it last night, you'd never know he'd been playing Zombie material the last 10 years, it sounded like he'd never stopped playing thrash. Smythe had a few technical problems, but tore it up on all your favorite Testament leads, the dude can most definitely shred and I'm looking forward to hearing him record some new Testament material! They kicked out some songs not played in a while like "Trial By Fire" and "Souls of Black", as well as all the mandatory Testament songs like "Disciples", "Into the Pit", "Raging Waters" (for which Jon Allen sat in on), "D.N.R." and tons more.
All I can say is, hopefully Testament & Vio-lence are able to play the remaining scheduled shows in spite of Halford's cancellation, cuz thrash metal bills don't get much better than this!
Big thanks to DeadlyEmbrace & Testament for the swag hookup... The longsleeve looks fucking killer!!!
I heard Vehemence cancelled cuz they got stuck in the snow. Not sure if Exhumed played.
The Boardwalk has some slow-ass people working the door. Tons of people were waiting outside for-fucking-ever in the rain. I heard the first two Vio-lence songs from outside as the line moved at snail's pace.
Finally I got in and made my way up to the front. The band was really pumped up and the crowd was way fucking into it as well. They slammed through all of Eternal Nightmare except "Serial Killer", and threw in "World in a World" and "Officer Nice". Troy's stage presence gets better with each show! Sean said that Portland had a 5-foot barrier so they were taking it out on us that night. And they did, as Sean jumped onto the crowd repeatedly, not missing a single lyric. Highlight for me was getting to shout "BODIES! ON BODIES! ON BODIES! ON BODIES!" into the mic as Sean interacted with the crowd like no one else can. One of my all-time favorite Vio-lence tunes.
By this time, I was feeling sicker than ever, and my energy was pretty much spent for the night. Testament sounded fucking incredible. Chuck was in full form again! Tempesta was fucking on it last night, you'd never know he'd been playing Zombie material the last 10 years, it sounded like he'd never stopped playing thrash. Smythe had a few technical problems, but tore it up on all your favorite Testament leads, the dude can most definitely shred and I'm looking forward to hearing him record some new Testament material! They kicked out some songs not played in a while like "Trial By Fire" and "Souls of Black", as well as all the mandatory Testament songs like "Disciples", "Into the Pit", "Raging Waters" (for which Jon Allen sat in on), "D.N.R." and tons more.
All I can say is, hopefully Testament & Vio-lence are able to play the remaining scheduled shows in spite of Halford's cancellation, cuz thrash metal bills don't get much better than this!
Big thanks to DeadlyEmbrace & Testament for the swag hookup... The longsleeve looks fucking killer!!!