Blog — Page 277 of 282

Let me start off by saying that I love all three of these bands, and I have been looking forward to this show since I got confirmed to photograph it. I had always wanted to see what Dethklok - a made up band based around a cartoon show - sounded like live. And ever since Axe To Fall came out (even before, when I saw teasers of their new stuff up on their myspace) I've been wanting to see Converge (for the fourth or fifth time - I forget). And I’ve never seen Mastodon.

Now, I got there right as Converge took the stage and, as most people could have predicted, Kurt (the guitarist) had taken center stage and was jamming out to Plagues. Every time I’ve seen Converge, they’ve opened with Plagues, and it never fails to get a crowd riled up. Within seconds of the opening riff, there was already a circle pit in the middle of Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC. As soon as Jacob Bannon starts his signature barking, the crowd erupts, as fans chant along.

Moving on to perform pieces from their latest album, Axe To Fall, a giant screen behind them lights up with the album artwork as they play the title track, 'Dark Horse', and 'Reap What You Sow'.

Moving on, Converge goes on to churn out more crowd favorites such as 'Last Light', and 'The Broken Vow'. The stage presence is immense, as Jacob runs back and forth along the stage, Nate swings his bass like he’s the only one on stage, while Kurt scales away on his guitar. Lets not forget about Ben, who’s slamming away in a fury behind everyone else.

Needless to say, when you go to see Converge, you can expect an amazing show. As they leave the stage, I wonder how anyone could follow an act like that.

As Mastodon takes the stage, I immediately notice that the setting will be totally different. The ballroom is filled with ambient lighting and synths bounce off the walls. They come out in flashy space pants (note picture) and start playing some of their new wave metal. Its easy to just sit back with no energy and let your legions of fans do all the hyping.

..And that’s pretty much what they do. I enjoy Mastodon’s music, but their live performance is nothing extravagant. At least, not for me. They stand around, and play their instruments. Don’t get me wrong, they play them well, but its just not... exhilarating. Its not personal with the fans. Its hard to make photos look exciting... when they’re really not. Who knows, maybe they had an off night? I’ve heard good things about Mastodon’s live performance.

After the hour and a half (or so) that was boredom during Mastodon’s set (at least for me), a giant Nathan Explosion from Metalocalypse came on the screen and a short mini scene for the popular Cartoon Network Adult Swim series came on.

After the little movie, the people known as Dethklok took the stage. Now this isn’t really a live show either. Its just to play songs from some peoples favorite cartoon series. All the microphones are distorted to give the impression of the TV show, and everything is tightly preformed. They sound good! They play everything right, but, once again, where’s the movement? Then again, it felt to me as if more people were watching the big screen playing the animation behind the performers, so maybe it did work? Maybe Dethklok was a success for those who went to see them. Didn't strike a match with me, though.

I guess I’m just a sucker for stage performance. I’m a sucker for bands that move around, bands that engage with the fans, and I’d rather have that than a fancy light show.

Portugal. the Man is a Portland, Oregon based experimental indie-rock band, fronted by native Alaskan John Gourley. If you haven’t heard the story about this up and coming group, Gourley’s unorthodox upbringing has shaped his musical, and artistic (he designs all of the artwork for the band) talents. Growing up in Wasilla, Alaska, Gourley was raised in a cabin with no telephone, and with the electricity powered by a generator. 

Now, I was fortunate to catch Portugal. the Man twice on October 23rd. The first one was at the SoHo Apple Store in lower Manhattan where they played a string of songs that were filmed and recorded for an exclusive iTunes EP (which you will soon be able to buy) to a small audience. Then, a few hours later, I caught them again at the Bowery Ballroom. Since you will be able to hear the first performance soon enough (and let me be the first to say it was stellar), I will focus more on the Bowery performance.

The insanely frustrating thing about trying to photograph Portugal. the Man is that they control their own lighting. Their mixture of strobes and neon colored lights flash and light up the stage in an almost unreal way. Its almost as if they’re trying to recreate Alaska’s natural phenomena - the Northern Lights - right in front of the audience.

With just a backlit stage, the band enters, and the crowd starts cheering. Some have come to expect, and are used to, Portugal the Man’s unique live performance, and others are about to experience it. The bands setup is quite unique - Gourley (keeping his side to the crowd) faces the keyboardist. The only member of the band that faces the crowd is the bassist, Zach, who seems to be in his own world. In fact, they all seem to be in their own world, jamming, and it shows by how immersed in the music they are.

For a relatively recent band (only formed in 2004) they already have an extensive catalog of songs to choose from. From the first song, the band doesn’t stop until the middle of the set, playing jams in between songs, linking them into one massive song.

Halfway through the set, they pause to say that this their last show of their US tour. As they play fan favorites from their albums such as “M80 the Wolf”, “Church Mouth”, and recent hits from their latest album The Satanic Satanist, “People Say”, “The Home”, “Do You” and more, devoted fans sing along to every word. When the song ends and the band dives straight into their jam, the crowd goes into their own world, moving, screaming, dancing, anticipating what song could be next.

As they announce their final song, they immediately rock into their first single, making it last, throwing two different jams into the midst of the song.
They exit the stage, but before they do, they pull a camera out on stage and take a picture of the crowd (a tradition, later added to their facebook page with the date and a caption - “Tag yourself!”).

The crowd starts chanting for one more song, and after a few minutes, they come back on stage to greet the audience once more. Crowd cheering, John proclaims: “This one is an old one.”

The familiar riff of their song Chicago is played and the crowd goes wild. During a break in the song, the crowd belts out “Please, please, speak up. I can’t hear with these clouds in my ears.”
Finishing Chicago, they jump into 1989, and has the crowd sing. Everyone gives it their heart, and upon finishing, everyone exits into the cold, rainy, New York City streets, to wrap up a long night.

Check out Portugal. the Man here and on myspace.

I don't know how many of you have heard of Moving Mountains. A band from Westchester, NY, they are fresh off a tour with Thursday, about to embark on a tour with Say Anything.

Moving Mountains has come back to their home ground for a day between tours, playing at SUNY Purchase, where they have gathered an insanely unreal amount of followers.

The bands set up is unusual. First, all the lights go out. Pitch black, the band opens up with a single off their newest release, Forward EP. The quiet guitars from Armslength penetrate the pitch black of the stage, and throughout the song, everyones eyes adjust to the darkness and eventually, you can barely make out the silhouettes of the four members. Suddenly, as the chorus errupts, lights behind the drums flare on as fans scream along... "Because you are my own!".

The air is filled with emotions as the band churns out song after song, and the croud sings along to every word. The members flail around stage, all without missing a note, a beat, a lyric. It seems as if Moving Mountains has been doing this for years.

As their set closes, the fans flee to the merch table to scrape up whatever they can to support this band. I suggest you do the same. Check them out at their website and go to their shows. Its an experiance.

I hit the 500 review mark last week with my Narrows review. That's a lot of reviews. Sometimes I get burnt out with all the stuff coming through, especially when it seems that as soon as one sound gets hot, then that's all we seem to get sent in the mail.  And yet I keep going, churning out review after review.  Here's to 500 more to come, which should take another four or five years I'm guessing. That's if the Internet or even humanity is still around by then...

So I just got done watching the season finale of Scrubs. It was Zach Braff's final episode. His character is saying goodbye, but I think they gave it a nice "here's what is probably going to happen." Though I think we all kind of figured it out by now.  Not sure how the show is going to hold up without him though...