I actually remember one of the support bands more than Turisas - a Taiwanese metal band called Chthonic, who had a brutal vocalist and a rather attractive bassist wearing leathr, whom I got a photo taken with:



(Apologies for the sight of my dissected-frog-like body; it was bloody warm in there after all the moshing.)

Oh you are so lucky man! Her name is Doris.
There are many guys who say "DORIS IS MY MUSE" in Asia area. They must be jealous of you...

And here I thought they were loving references (to Nirvana).

Haha, it's just the line where Jude describes "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" as something like "an inhuman noise that would drive the listener to suicide". :~P

Oh you are so lucky man! Her name is Doris.
There are many guys who say "DORIS IS MY MUSE" in Asia area. They must be jealous of you...

Yeah, Doris Yeh! She was awesome. I keep meaning to give the band a proper listen. My friends and co-workers certainly were jealous! Although my girlfriend wasn't happy about me being shirtless... ^_^;

Just saw Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Jay Munly, and Bob Wayne last night. I was coming to see Scott, as I love Neurosis and his solo acoustic stuff is quite good as well, but was really surprised by the support. I hate country but Bob Wayne wasn't half bad. Kinda leaning more towards Johnny Cash style country, he had pretty dumb, rednecky lyrics but was really good on the guitar and had a great voice too. Was mighty nice as well when I went and bought some merch from the table.

Then Jay Munly came up, and hol-ee shit, how have I never heard of this guy before? Blew me away. He played this sort of gothic folk and man his vocal range was impressive. A funky looking dude but man oh man... Awesome stuff. Picked up one of his albums and it's not straight acoustic like his performance was. It's a whole different animal but just as good. Guy just got a new fan here, I recommend everyone check him out.

Then Scott Kelly... I've always preferred Steve Von Till's solo acoustic stuff over Scott's, it's more dynamic. But live Scott's stuff just came alive. It was a spiritual experience, just closing my eyes and hearing his voice meld with the guitar. Simply put, incredible. And what a humble, soft spoken, nice guy too. He was so thankful all of about 20 of us were there and told us so. Shook his hand at the end of the show and just told him how great it was to finally see him live-- never even seen Neurosis. Le sigh.

All in all a great night. I couldn't get anyone to go with me so I just sat in the back at the bar and drank Monk's Ale, a local beer brewed at a Trappist monastery. It was nice, and I actually enjoyed being by myself, I could just listen to the music in my own way. Only negative of the show was these irritating drunk people behind me. They weren't there for the show and would not shut up. Bob Wayne came over to tell them to shut up during Scott's set and after that they started making fun of Scott playing under their breath. Really wanted to pop them in the nads, it's incredibly rude.

Thanks for the tips, bud. I'm ostensibly a country fan but it's hard to find decent stuff. I'll give those guys a listen.

[JuZ]

Oh sweet, thanks for the reminder. I recall stumbling across Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots a few years ago and just adoring it. If that's anything to go by I need to check out more of Jay Munly's work.

Besides Dev on Saturday night (which I've already raved extensively about in the reviews section), the last band I saw live was Evergrey back in September (geez was it that long ago? I sure haven't gone to many shows this year). Supporting was Sabaton, Powerglove, Blackguard and The Absence. I wanted to see the Absence but didn't get there early enough. Blackguard comes around about 4 times a year supporting somebody or other, so I missed them as well. Apparently Powerglove played a short set, I only caught 2 and a half songs of theirs, but I only missed two others. Saw them before headlining an off date, I do recommend them if anyone wants to just have fun watching silly cheeseball video game stuff on stage. Talented musicians also.

Sabaton was unusual, they kind of had a Swedish melodic metal meets early Judas Priest/80's hair metal thing going on. The singer was super amped up and kept pronouncing Regina "Regeeeeeena" haha. They were good musicians and happy to be playing there, but I don't know if I would see them again.

Evergrey happens to be one of my favourite bands (especially up to and including The Inner Circle), and was one of those shows that I've wanted to see for years (drove 14 hours to see them in Spokane 5 years ago, only to get to the venue late and miss their set, forever dubbed the "Nevergrey" trip). Unfortunately I missed out on my chance to see them supporting The Inner Circle or Recreation Day, and albums since then have been sub-par. On the up though, they played a TON of old material, including most of the songs I really wanted to hear. The musicianship was great, they played a long set, they were very energetic on stage and interacted well with the crowd. The highlight of the night though was the vocal performance. Tom Englund is not necessarily the most technically perfect vocalist out there, but very few can match the emotion he brings to the mic. Combine that with the fact that Evergrey's lyrics (particularly from Rec. Day and Inner Circle) are some of my favourite lyrics out there, to hear them done live was just an absolute treat. I was concerned that by the end of the main set no tunes from Inner Circle had been played yet, but the encore featured A Touch of Blessing and When The Walls Go Down, which are my two favourite Evergrey tunes. Having seen the Night To Remember DVD a number of times, I definitely had high expectations for this show, and I came away completely satisfied.

So yeah, verdict for this show, GREAT! Anyone gets a chance to see Evergrey in the future, do it!

Kind of mind boggling that I've seen When the Walls Go Down AND Deadhead performed live in the last few months.

This is funny: Dev was here just a few days ago... and I didn't find out until the day after. How did this escape me? I checked out his tour page a few times last month! Oh well, next time?

Thanks for the tips, bud. I'm ostensibly a country fan but it's hard to find decent stuff. I'll give those guys a listen.

Well, I think my exposure to country might be bad... I just can't stand twangy stuff. And most country lyrics/singing style. I do like Johnny Cash-like stuff, though.

Oh sweet, thanks for the reminder. I recall stumbling across Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots a few years ago and just adoring it. If that's anything to go by I need to check out more of Jay Munly's work.

I got is most recent album with the Lepercalians, Petr and the Wulf. So, so good. Will have to pick up some of his other stuff.

I saw live of Japanese prog band, EARLY CROSS. That live was pretty good

Hiroaki Kato (guitars, keyboards and songwriting) is my friend since he was teenager. He has really grown up while about 10 years, and formed EARLY CROSS. This band is raw youth yet, but I'm going to support him as a not only friend but also one of music fan.

Looking forward to release new album next year! If my memory serves me correctly, new album will be released by Lion music.



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Thrice, and they absolutely killed it.

Wow this thread is neglected a bit.

Finally saw Textures. Tucked in mini-festival with bunch of deathcore/metalcore bands, so their set was sadly a bit short. Sounds wasn't that great too, quite bassy and poor keyboard guy was competely drowned out by that low rumble. Aside of that, nice show. New singer is genuinely great and their trademark confusing rhythms were doing funny things to the crowd - picture bunch of headbangers suddenly losing their synch or people trying to clap to some polywhatever. Setlist (in assorted order) included: Surreal State of Enlightement (as an intro), Regenesis, Sanguine Draws The Oath, Stream of Conciousness, Transgression, Awake, Swandive, Old Days Born Anew and Laments of An Icarus (on encore).

Some crappy youtubes:

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Also saw Frontside right before them. Frontside is pretty much Polish clone of Killswitch Engage. I was planning to be all meh and just wait them out, but they're actually mighty impressive live. Very tight and huge sounding, with charismatic frontman.

Just saw Five Finger Death Punch here in Kuwait. They did a good job and the singer had good stage presence, but I'm not really a fan.

February saw

22 again....blew me away again, nothing makes me happier than this band

Pain of Salvation - I've been waiting 10 years to see them having missed out several times and I was not disappointed. Sisters was one of the greatest live music moments of my life, just stunning!

Just saw Textures as well. They were great, as always (I've seen them a whole bunch of times ). Keyboard guy took a dive into the crowd and had a go in the pit, singer guy told some people off because they were fighting. Great show altogether

Nightwish yesterday. It seems that my days as fan are pretty much over, most of the time I was yawning and looking for clock... I didn't like new album so new songs really didn't do nothing and old ones are just old, also they are adapted to Anette's voice wich just doesn't work. Also it seems that Marco isn't giving 100% these days, and this isn't only gig I felt this way. It seems that now that diva is gone, he's slacking too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for old Nightwish or reunion here, I'm just grown tired. Lights and pyro were pretty though.