I keep being told I should do this more often.
So, here's another attempt at using it more often ^_~
The tickets were to see Dark Funeral with Enslaved. Now, Shannon's brother Alex had found out about the concert and was going to go, and Shannon liked the music as well so she wanted to go, and she asked me if I would go with her. Of course I said 'sure.'
Of course, I'd just found myself agreeing to go see some bands that I've never heard of, and hadn't heard anything by them. The style of music is apparently called "Death Metal." (See below for my description of the music.)
Saturday comes, and I head over to Shannon's place before we leave so we can just hang out a bit before heading off to the concert. Tickets said that the doors open at 8pm, and Alex wanted to leave around 5pm. Even though we do have to travel to Toronto for the concert, that still leaves a lot of waiting in line to be done. We get to the Opera House where the concert is, and there's about half a dozen other people there already, so we line up. Shannon and I want some food, so we leave Alex waiting in line (he's not hungry, and isn't feeling cold at all) and walk half a block to a pub and get ourselves some food and shelter from the cold for a bit.
It was a smallish bar/pub, but there were already some people there who seemed drunk already. It's amusing when someone walks past your table (and is walking along the only route from the back to the front) and says 'excuse me' each time he goes past. So we eat up, and head back to line, which has about doubled so far (so, maybe a dozen people).
Eventually (a bit after 8) the doors open and we go in. Alex and Shannon want 'front-row' positions so Alex goes in and stands right against the barriers between the crowd and the stage. Not too far off center either -- the benefit of being in line early. After a while the concert starts, and we find out there are a total of 4 bands playing that night. Eclipse Eternal, some band I don't remember the name of, Enslaved, and finally Dark Funeral.
As the bands were playing, I was generally more interested in the general performance and the performing of the instruments than the "vocals". I occasionally paid a bit of attention to the crowd -- watching them raise the horns as the vocalist or guitarist/bassist was near them on the stage (and generally leaning towards the crowd a bit).
There was a lot of people raising horns ... which reminds me: I realized a way to make your way forward in the crowd a bit at a time at concerts like these. ^_^ Now, it helps if you are a bit taller than the person you are trying to get in front of ... being the same height may work, not sure as I never tried it, let alone tested it for specific limitations. Anyways, the method involves standing behind, and off to the side of the person you are trying to get in front of. Then, as the music/performance dictates, raise the horns. Enjoy the concert, enjoy yourself, raise those horns high. And raise them so that your arm is over the shoulder of the person you want to be in front of. Then, lower your arm onto/over that person's shoulder. This should put your shoulder in front of theirs, thus giving you a definite edge in getting in front of them. Then slowly (or not so slowly, your choice) just slide sideways until you are in front of the person you wanted to be. Repeat this until you are far enough forward in the crowd.
Speaking of the crowd -- I think this was the first concert I'd been to where people were moshing and crowd-surfing. And to those people who stand around the side of the mosh pit and push the moshers back into the area where everyone is moshing -- I thank thee.
The first band (Eclipse Eternal) put on a good performance -- they had makeup on their faces ... most of them had white faces with various black lines coming out from their eyes. The bassist had what seemed to be watered down red paint/make-up on her face .. hard to tell as she was on the other side of the stage from me. The guitarist worked up enough of a sweat that his make-up started smearing over his face ... but none of the other 3 members with white make-up on (vocalist, drummer & pianist) got that worked up. The vocalist was good in that he moved around the stage, and would lean forward and interact with the crowd. It was also fun to see them play a song where there wasn't much of a beat until the bass player started .. and that the crowd didn't really start responding to the music until the bass came in.
The second band (I think they said they were from Phoenix, Arizona) then came out and played. There wasn't anything really notable about them, except that this vocalist's pitch was much higher than anyone else's of the night.
The third band (Enslaved -- from Norway IIRC) came out and they really put on a good show. The guitarists and the bass/vocalist were all moving around on stage from time to time so anyone near the stage could get close to them at some point. At another point where the keyboard player and one of the guitar player's weren't actively playing music, they both grabbed some drum sticks and stood in front of the drum set and hit cymbols for the drum player at the right(? it didn't seem out of time, or that they were doing it randomly or anything) time. And, while I may not appreciate that type of music, they did put on a good performance. So much that when I saw the vocalist/bassist later, I told him as much.
Oh, and reminds me of another thing from the concert that I thought was very cool -- the vocalist from the first and third bands came out onto the floor afterwards to listed to the band(s) after them and enjoy the show. Made it seem much more casual and friendly than any other concert I've been to.
The last band (Dark Funeral -- from Sweden I believe) finally came out. There performance mostly consisted of them coming out and mostly just standing in one spot (evenly spaced along the front of the stage) while playing/screaming. There wasn't much interesting going on with the performance at all. Enslaved definitely gave the best performance of the night.
Notice I didn't say that *anyone* was singing ... this leads me to my description of this style of music:
My description of Death Metal:
Okay, so if we were going to make a death metal band, here's how we'd do it. I know guitar, so I'll play guitar. You can play drums ... be sure to hit the bass drum hard. And do it a lot. Actually, lets make things easier -- get a second bass drum so you can use your other foot to hit it as well. Now be sure to hit that base drum a lot. I don't want to hear a beat go by without at least one bass drum making noise. For the vocalist, we just need to find someone who can scream/yell at a low pitch without his (or her) voice giving out. Being comprehensible isn't a requirement, as I was able to understand about 5 or 6 words per ... ummm, evening. That's 5 or 6 words (not including the talking between songs) total. And it would have been lower, but the last band had a chorus which included the phrase "My Dark Desire" and was actually fairly clear. But anyways, back to the band. Now, we need a bass player. Should be a good base player ... can keep a beat, and can change notes well. Using your fingers, or using a pick -- doesn't matter, I saw both used. As for the guitars well... really, it doesn't matter. The vocalist should be screaming, and the drummer should be hitting the bass drum a lot ... makes it hard to hear anything else. I saw the fingers of the guitarists moving while they were playing, but I'll be damned if I could hear any change in pitch while the vocalist was screaming and the drums were being hit.
Once we've got that, we've got ourselves a death metal band. Something cool to wear would help (make up, or bracers, or even what seemed to be leather armor) but we can leave that for later.
I did enjoy the time out though. I just had my ears ringing when I was trying to sleep that night ^_^ (nothing I wasn't expecting)
The tickets were to see Dark Funeral with Enslaved. Now, Shannon's brother Alex had found out about the concert and was going to go, and Shannon liked the music as well so she wanted to go, and she asked me if I would go with her. Of course I said 'sure.'
Of course, I'd just found myself agreeing to go see some bands that I've never heard of, and hadn't heard anything by them. The style of music is apparently called "Death Metal." (See below for my description of the music.)
Saturday comes, and I head over to Shannon's place before we leave so we can just hang out a bit before heading off to the concert. Tickets said that the doors open at 8pm, and Alex wanted to leave around 5pm. Even though we do have to travel to Toronto for the concert, that still leaves a lot of waiting in line to be done. We get to the Opera House where the concert is, and there's about half a dozen other people there already, so we line up. Shannon and I want some food, so we leave Alex waiting in line (he's not hungry, and isn't feeling cold at all) and walk half a block to a pub and get ourselves some food and shelter from the cold for a bit.
It was a smallish bar/pub, but there were already some people there who seemed drunk already. It's amusing when someone walks past your table (and is walking along the only route from the back to the front) and says 'excuse me' each time he goes past. So we eat up, and head back to line, which has about doubled so far (so, maybe a dozen people).
Eventually (a bit after 8) the doors open and we go in. Alex and Shannon want 'front-row' positions so Alex goes in and stands right against the barriers between the crowd and the stage. Not too far off center either -- the benefit of being in line early. After a while the concert starts, and we find out there are a total of 4 bands playing that night. Eclipse Eternal, some band I don't remember the name of, Enslaved, and finally Dark Funeral.
As the bands were playing, I was generally more interested in the general performance and the performing of the instruments than the "vocals". I occasionally paid a bit of attention to the crowd -- watching them raise the horns as the vocalist or guitarist/bassist was near them on the stage (and generally leaning towards the crowd a bit).
There was a lot of people raising horns ... which reminds me: I realized a way to make your way forward in the crowd a bit at a time at concerts like these. ^_^ Now, it helps if you are a bit taller than the person you are trying to get in front of ... being the same height may work, not sure as I never tried it, let alone tested it for specific limitations. Anyways, the method involves standing behind, and off to the side of the person you are trying to get in front of. Then, as the music/performance dictates, raise the horns. Enjoy the concert, enjoy yourself, raise those horns high. And raise them so that your arm is over the shoulder of the person you want to be in front of. Then, lower your arm onto/over that person's shoulder. This should put your shoulder in front of theirs, thus giving you a definite edge in getting in front of them. Then slowly (or not so slowly, your choice) just slide sideways until you are in front of the person you wanted to be. Repeat this until you are far enough forward in the crowd.
Speaking of the crowd -- I think this was the first concert I'd been to where people were moshing and crowd-surfing. And to those people who stand around the side of the mosh pit and push the moshers back into the area where everyone is moshing -- I thank thee.
The first band (Eclipse Eternal) put on a good performance -- they had makeup on their faces ... most of them had white faces with various black lines coming out from their eyes. The bassist had what seemed to be watered down red paint/make-up on her face .. hard to tell as she was on the other side of the stage from me. The guitarist worked up enough of a sweat that his make-up started smearing over his face ... but none of the other 3 members with white make-up on (vocalist, drummer & pianist) got that worked up. The vocalist was good in that he moved around the stage, and would lean forward and interact with the crowd. It was also fun to see them play a song where there wasn't much of a beat until the bass player started .. and that the crowd didn't really start responding to the music until the bass came in.
The second band (I think they said they were from Phoenix, Arizona) then came out and played. There wasn't anything really notable about them, except that this vocalist's pitch was much higher than anyone else's of the night.
The third band (Enslaved -- from Norway IIRC) came out and they really put on a good show. The guitarists and the bass/vocalist were all moving around on stage from time to time so anyone near the stage could get close to them at some point. At another point where the keyboard player and one of the guitar player's weren't actively playing music, they both grabbed some drum sticks and stood in front of the drum set and hit cymbols for the drum player at the right(? it didn't seem out of time, or that they were doing it randomly or anything) time. And, while I may not appreciate that type of music, they did put on a good performance. So much that when I saw the vocalist/bassist later, I told him as much.
Oh, and reminds me of another thing from the concert that I thought was very cool -- the vocalist from the first and third bands came out onto the floor afterwards to listed to the band(s) after them and enjoy the show. Made it seem much more casual and friendly than any other concert I've been to.
The last band (Dark Funeral -- from Sweden I believe) finally came out. There performance mostly consisted of them coming out and mostly just standing in one spot (evenly spaced along the front of the stage) while playing/screaming. There wasn't much interesting going on with the performance at all. Enslaved definitely gave the best performance of the night.
Notice I didn't say that *anyone* was singing ... this leads me to my description of this style of music:
My description of Death Metal:
Okay, so if we were going to make a death metal band, here's how we'd do it. I know guitar, so I'll play guitar. You can play drums ... be sure to hit the bass drum hard. And do it a lot. Actually, lets make things easier -- get a second bass drum so you can use your other foot to hit it as well. Now be sure to hit that base drum a lot. I don't want to hear a beat go by without at least one bass drum making noise. For the vocalist, we just need to find someone who can scream/yell at a low pitch without his (or her) voice giving out. Being comprehensible isn't a requirement, as I was able to understand about 5 or 6 words per ... ummm, evening. That's 5 or 6 words (not including the talking between songs) total. And it would have been lower, but the last band had a chorus which included the phrase "My Dark Desire" and was actually fairly clear. But anyways, back to the band. Now, we need a bass player. Should be a good base player ... can keep a beat, and can change notes well. Using your fingers, or using a pick -- doesn't matter, I saw both used. As for the guitars well... really, it doesn't matter. The vocalist should be screaming, and the drummer should be hitting the bass drum a lot ... makes it hard to hear anything else. I saw the fingers of the guitarists moving while they were playing, but I'll be damned if I could hear any change in pitch while the vocalist was screaming and the drums were being hit.
Once we've got that, we've got ourselves a death metal band. Something cool to wear would help (make up, or bracers, or even what seemed to be leather armor) but we can leave that for later.
I did enjoy the time out though. I just had my ears ringing when I was trying to sleep that night ^_^ (nothing I wasn't expecting)