In comparison to the previous gig, I managed to get a fair few pictures, which is good to be able to look back upon!
I went to it with a friend from my last school, the girl I (still) have feelings for and her younger sister.
The gig was not all that I expected it to be; both disappointing and brilliant! This is because there were some things that were amazing and some other things that made me really mad. This post is probably going to be even longer than the one about the last gig, as I have so much to say about it.
I should start the post off by describing the bands that played. There were five on the line up: Buried In Verona, Attila, Obey The Brave, Chelsea Grin and Emmure.
The first band on the line up, was Buried In Verona.
For me, they were one of the bands that I mainly came to see, and were also the band that I would say I knew their music most, despite the fact that I've seen seen Emmure live before. They are a metalcore band from Australia that have been together since 2007, however still have a fairly small fanbase in comparison to the other bands playing. They were the most technical band that played, as all the other bands played simpler music.
As the door opening time had been shifted forward by half an hour, they played early. We missed the first song they played because there was a queue for the lockers to store bags, but due to the size of the venue we could hear the song quite clearly down the corridor. We gave up with putting our bags away and instead dumped them down in a corner and headed towards the stage. We caught the four other the songs that they played and I sung along to every word. I think that occasionally their vocalist looked at me and recognised that I was singing along to all their songs which I was thrilled about!
I was a little disappointed by their set however, I wish they played more than five songs. I was also surprised by the fact they only played songs off their latest album, which is a shame as there are some great ones on their first album. Their set over all was brilliant. As most of the crowd didn't get into the band, most people were towards the back of the venue, so there weren't too many people up at the front which meant that I could get very close to the stage!
Unsurprisingly, there were no mosh pits for their set, as usually bands that open don't get a good crowd reaction, even at much larger venues. However, this was not the only reason; it was also because of hardcore dancers.
There are two types of hardcore dancers at shows such as this: ones out to have fun, and people out there to hurt people as much as possible and ruin the night for everyone. Hardcore dancing is fairly hard to describe, so I am going to include a link to a youtube link that explains it:
They were the only real problem I had with the gig, it was pretty good otherwise. For the entire gig, there was always an empty circle in front of the stage where nobody ventured into because the hardcore dancers used that as their space. I found myself so angry at them at some points, but by the time the 4th band were playing, things improved and people started to mosh more, despite the fact that the hardcore dancers were still there.
I loved the set they played, as I said earlier, it was only 5 songs and all ones off their new album, but still they played so well live and had such a great stage presence! I must admit that I did find myself fangirling over them after they performed..which was a bit of a shock for me. I enjoyed their music a lot before the gig, but I think that their performance just amazed me so much. It made me very happy to see their frontman, Brett Anderson coming down the corridor as I lined up to put my bag away. He was wondering where the toilets were so I pointed him in the right direction and congratulated him on the good set they played. I was absolutely ecstatic after this encounter!
We in fact saw him again after the gig, when they were packing their gear away into a transit van that was stacked high with all sorts of cases and boxes. We talked to him about them for a bit and before we went, I told him about my fangirling. Before you think anything, I feel no embarassment.
I think the best pictures I took during the gig are of Buried in Verona, probably because my phone's camera lens wasn't steamed up yet. I will include some of the best that I took on this post:
I will also include youtube links to some of the songs they played:
Attlia were the second band that played. They were pretty terrible for such a popular band. I had very low hopes for them before the gig and they performed my expectation. Their intro was appallingly cheesy but their first song was bearable. After that it was just utterly boring, so I went into the smoking area and waited for them to finish playing with my friends. I won't waste any more time writing about them and go straight on to writing about the next band on the line up instead.
The 3rd band that played were Obey the Brave. They are a hardcore band from Montreal in the USA. They are a fairly new band, mostly made of ex members of other fairly well known bands, some still active, some split. I didn't know the band as well as I did any of the other bands (excluding Attila), but I knew a fair few of the songs off their only album. They played a fairly good set, they started pretty well for the first couple of songs but about half way through something changed and the vocals were cut out mostly by the guitars, and the lead guitarist was overpowered by the rhythm guitarist. This was a shame as they sounded pretty good and from what I had heard on album, they aren't at all a bad band. From the lyrics of the songs that I know, I can see that they aren't the greatest band lyrically however they are still quite interesting to listen to.
By this time, the circle was still there, but people started to get more into the music and went into the circle a bit to mosh. I went in for a while as I was just so fed up with the hardcore dancers so I thought I would get my own back on them. I squared up to one of them and as I approached them they smacked me properly hard so I lost my temper and swung a punch at their head, which was at a perfect height because they were looking down at the floor while flailing their arms about like a maniac. I missed the punch sadly, which is a shame as I expect it would have connected perfectly. While we were at the front during their set, one of the hardcore dancers in the circle roundhouse kicked two of my friends (girls) in the back and one of them went to the side, out of the way; This just added to my rage. I stood in front of the sister after this event, as I was certainly was not letting this happen to them again. I didn't feel any kicks to the back, but if I had, I would most certainly have gone straight after them into the circle and got some revenge.
I got a fair few pictures from their set, not as good as the ones of Buried in Verona but not as good quality ones:
Here are a couple of links to some of the songs they played:
Chelsea Grin were the 4th band to play. They are a Deathcore band from Utah in the USA, and have been together as a band since 2007. I wouldn't say i'm a massive fan of them, but I enjoy listening to their music and I would see them again live, but not as headliners.
Like Attila, they were also a band I didn't have too high hopes for, but they surpassed this expectation by far! My main concern was that their vocals would be worse live than they are in recording and i'm not a particular fan of their vocals on their albums. I mostly listen to them for their instrumental parts rather than their vocals.
They sounded over all pretty good live, the vocals were in fact better than they are in recording, with the minor detail that they used pre-recorded cleans, and the music was brilliant. Their albums sound quite heavy as it is, when played at a decent volume, but they sounded even heavier live, and retained their cleaner high gain guitar tones during parts of songs that incorporated things such as sweep picking. I found that I enjoyed them most when I knew the song that they were playing.
Their stage presence was also pretty good, getting the crowd moving a fair bit and encouraging the crowd to sing along, without taking too many breaks from singing to allow the crowd to fill the gaps. It seemed that people also went into the circle a little bit more, so from here on, the pit wasn't so dominated by the hardcore dancers. I joined in for a bit and had fun, I took a fairly hefty knock to the nose at one point and expected to get a nosebleed but surprisingly I didn't. One of the people at the edge of the circle held me back after a little while and said 'dude stop'. This is probably because I was stepping out of my league as there were still a lot of hardcore dancers around and I was doing my upmost to sort them out within reason. This probably would have ended badly for me which is why he stopped me, so instead I moved towards the stage to watch them play. Even without the moshing, it was still good to listen to them play live, which was a little surprising, as one of the main things I was looking forward to about their set was the mosh pit that would occur.
When I wandered down the corridor towards the lockers to deposit something before they began playing, I saw their vocalist! I was a surprised by this, but I decided not to say anything to him, just in case they turned out to be crap live.
I didn't manage to take very many good photos of them as by now my phone's camera lens was fairly fugged up and blurring was also a major problem considering how their music contains so many breakdowns.
Here are a couple of youtube links to some of the songs they played and a live video from the night:
The headliners were Emmure. They are also a Deathcore band from New York. They have been going considerably longer than any of the other bands that played, as they first started in 2003.
They are fairly disliked by many people, partially because of the genre of music they play, their lyrical themes and their lack of musicality in comparison to other metal bands. While I agree with these points that people make, I still enjoy the band. They are not overly serious in the themes they have, but they don't have a bad stage presence and aren't cringe worthy. They do however have serious songs and played one particular song at the gig. It is called 'MDMA' and is I would say this is one of my favorite songs by them and I was shocked to hear them playing it, as they never play it live! This made me very happy due to the meaning it has to me, the lyrics really touch me, as I find they link into my feelings for my friend, as for a long while I have been trying to get over them.
Despite the fact i've known them for a fair while now, and have seen them live before, I didn't know so many of the songs they played, this however did not deduct from my enjoyment of their set.
Their set got a little crazier as you would expect of the headlining act. There was still that circle, which irritated the hell out of me, but it's one of those things you just have to deal with. People around us started a few very small mosh pits at points, but mainly everyone was just always jumping and singing along.
Joining in with this caused my phone to fall out of my pocket, not to my knowledge..my friend held up my phone and looked at me as if to say "is this yours?" I took it from her and checked it. It was thankfully still in full working order; it seems I got lucky. Talking to some other people after the gig, I found them saying that a couple of them had lost their phone, most likely stolen though. This will make me think twice about bringing a phone to a gig again, as I thought it would be fine considering it was a small venue. But if such a thing were to happen at a larger gig, my phone would be lost forever, along with the photos I took with it.
We met Franki Palmeri, their vocalist after the gig which was cool, my friends got his autograph signed on their arms and I took a picture of them with him. He actually seems to be a really nice guy in comparison to the way he acts on stage presence, which with this genre of music, isn't particularly to be expected.
I took some images of their set, in between the jumping and moshing. Some photos were pretty blurred due to the amount they moved about on stage.
Here are a couple of the songs they played during their set that night:
In fact, this video was shot very close to where we were standing, right by the closest pillar to the camera.
Over all, this was brilliant gig. I found at first I was thinking it was the worst gig I will be the worst gig i've been to, but my perceptions changed as it went on, due to the way that all the bands performed. This was still the worst gig i've been to yet in terms of the atmosphere however, but that is only a minor thing; gigs are about music.
During the gig, when I looked at the merch stall I found that none of the shirts appealed to, so I thought i'd leave getting merch till another gig, but then I saw a poster. It was a signed one of Buried in Verona. When I saw the price tag I thought that I must get it; it was only £5, cheaper than most posters brought off the internet!
I looked up some of their t-shirts on the internet and found one that I like a lot so I decided to buy that too. Hopefully it should arrive in the next couple of days!
The journey wasn't too bad, as we took a train down there and then later on my dad picked us up and drove us home, as trains only run till 11 usually. The train journey was fine, we just chilled out and listened to music in preparation for the gig, but the price of it was far from alright. As we left at a peak time (16.40) it cost me £20 for a single, when it would have cost half that price an hour earlier or after.
My friend from my last school lives in bristol so he did not have a massive journey to get home, but he left the gig early anyway, as he had an exam the next day. It was sad, as he missed most of Emmure's set, but he at least heard a couple of their songs and he has also seen them live, at the same gig that I saw them at. Luckily, the exam he had the next day was not a knowledge based exam; it was a practical photography exam so being tired wouldn't be too much of a problem!
During the car journey back, we didn't sleep at all which was unsurprising, we were all too hyper. So I decided to put on some post-gig music, including some of the tracks that some bands did not play that night. Luckily my dad has a similar music taste to me, and enjoys a lot of the metal that I listen to quite a bit, so playing this music was not a problem at all for him.
After we dropped my friends off at their house, we drove home. I stayed up for a while as I just wasn't feeling tired at all. By the time I woke up the next day, I found my ears were still ringing quite a lot and this didn't fade till that evening, which shows how loud the gig was.
When comparing the previous gig to this one, I find it quite an odd fact how I ached and felt quite worn out by this one yet after the Enter Shikari gig, I felt absolutely fine the next day, where as most people I knew were talking about hurting in one or place or another. It makes no sense, as in terms of the mosh pits the Enter Shikari gig was much more action packed compared to the one in Bristol...odd eh?
Buried in Verona setlist:
Maybe Next Time/The Descent/Forget What You Know/Perceptions/Four Years
Obey the Brave setlist:
Lifestyle/It Starts Today/Self Made/Garde la Tete Froide/Grim/Get Real/Early Graves/Live and Learn
Chelsea Grin setlist:
The Foolish One/Cheyne Stokes/Lilith/My Damnation/Confession/Crewcabanger/Don't Ask Don't Tell/Recrant
Emmure setlist:
4 Poisons 3 Words/Solar Flare Homicide/Protoman/Sound Wave Superior/Sunday Bacon/I thought You Met Telly and Turned Me Into Casper/Demons with Ryu/Cross Over Attack/Drug Dealer Friend/Dogs Get Put Down/R2Deepthroat/Children of Cybertron/10 Signs You Should Leave/MDMA/When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong/Chicago's Finest
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