The Metalliance Tour 2011 Show Review!
Usually I’m not a big fan of tons of bands on one bill unless it’s an arena setting. But honestly I have been looking forward to this show ever since I heard about it; way back when, when Pentagram was still rumored to be the headliner.
A big “hell yeah” to Steve Seabury to envision such a great package and to make it happen; wouldn’t surprise me if this will become an annual or semi-annual event.
From the top it went; Helmet, Saint Vitus, Crowbar, Kylesa, Red Fang, Howl, and The Atlas Moth. While this line-up had something for everyone, doom and stoner metal clearly was the main focus of the evening.
As usual, my buddy (Rude-T) and I arrived way ahead of doors being open to the public in part because we are friends with most of the western hemisphere when it comes to touring bands and their crew. I also had two interviews scheduled (The Atlas Moth and Crowbar) and was not gonna set myself short on time because I knew there was no wiggle room on when the bands would hit the stage.
The Summit Music Hall in downtown Denver, CO (which was just crowned Best New Venue by Denver’s Westword) was the host for the tour and thankfully Baseball season had not started yet and parking was cheap and plentiful.
Speaking with promoter Mike Barsch from Soda Jerk Presents beforehand he wished the pre-sale would have been better but in all fairness, he was competing with another gig; Volbeat and The Damned Things were playing in town as well. Sadly in today’s economic crisis the metal community has to choose where to spend their money.
But those maniacs that came to the Summit Music Hall, they chose wisely.
Meet and greet at 5:30pm, general doors at 6:00pm and promptly at 6:30pm the first band started their set. The Atlas Moth out of Chicago, IL had the daunting task of warming up the audience with their 20 minute set. And let me tell you this, the band gave its all playing in front of maybe 50 people. With their complex song structure playing doom or stoner metal and the sometimes down tuned guitars gave the whole set a psychedelic undertone. Think Cream and Deep Purple meets Led Zeppelin and you know what I mean. A lot of people said they would have enjoyed the band more if the singer (Steve) would refrain from screaming and screeching, but I think this just gives the songs that little extra that others in their genre don’t embrace.
Next up was Howl, which totally fucking blew me away! They should have been way higher on the line-up but instead only played a 20 minute set.
It was very easy to get lost in yourself during their set, holy shit! Head banging, moving your whole body slowly back and forth while enjoying the dark, doom, epic sound that came from the stage. They are dubbed sludge metal, but are much more complex then that; down tempo and much deeper with heavy distortions and chug, chug riffing. Shit, don’t know how to describe, but OMG I really dug them a lot right away, which doesn’t happen that often with new bands. Even though they are fairly new with only one album (“Full of Hell”) under their belt I assure you they will make an immense impact on the music scene. Listen to their stuff, you won’t be disappointed.
By the time Red Fang was scheduled to play (30 min. set) the room had filled up quite nicely. While Red Fang in it self is a very cool band, playing more traditional rock, they somehow did not fit with the heavier bands on that bill. Nevertheless they put on a great show, music your whole body moves too and you feel the urge to just dance in place. Well, me at least that is. What really surprised me was their drummer; outstanding job with only one tom, one bass drum, and 4 cymbals.
Kylesa, a female fronted metal band out of Savannah, GA was next and to be honest was my least favorite of the night. Not that they were bad, it’s just that I couldn’t get into their music. A bit too complex and all over the place for my taste, but the audience sure got into them. They are as heavy as any other band on the bill and maybe it was the set list that they chose, who knows. Very, very cool was that they use 2 (two) drummers on one kit, now that I liked.
Then it was finally time for one of the heavy hitters to take the stage and co-incidentally the stench of “illegal substances” was ever so evident throughout the venue. Crowbar, a NOLA sludge metal icon for over 20 years finally delighted us with their presence.
The words groovy, sludge, dirty, and flat out fun come to mind while describing their set.
Starting off with an oldie but goodie, “Conquering”, Kirk Windstein and the gang made sure we all knew what to expect that night. Hard, deep and heavy riffing accompanied with relentless beating of the drums and low tempo breaks. “Lasting Dose” was up next which was pretty sweet since it’s from their 2001 album “Sonic Excess”, the name of a zine I write for.
When the opening riffs of “All I Had, I Gave” came over the speakers, the crowd went literally apeshit and the mosh pit got insane. Crowbar did a pretty good job on mixing it up with their set list, but only 2 song from the current album were played live; “Sever the Wicked Hand” and “Cemetery Angels”. “New Dawn”, “I Have Failed” and “Planets Collide” rounded out their 40 minute set. (There might have been another one) Can’t remember during which song it was, but Kirk gave a shout out to my buddy Rude-T (who toured with them before) which was pretty cool. Crowbar did almost rip the roof off the place with their spot on performance and I can’t wait for them to come back.
Saint Vitus was second to last and this was the other band I was stoked to see live, in part because it doesn’t happen that often that I watch a band whose members are older then I. (HaHaHa). The guys around Wino had by far the best lighting of the evening; hence my pictures came out really good. Unfortunately they also only had a 40 minute set but somehow it felt way, way longer then that. Saint Vitus started the evening off with their 1989 classic “Living Backwards” and didn’t look back from there on out. It was such a delight to watch Dave Chandler on lead guitar! After all those years and a plenty full life of excess, dude can shred like no other; same goes for Wino the man himself. It was very apparent that they had a fantastic time on stage and Wino even mentioned that Denver so far was the best audience. The ‘youngling’ in the band, drummer Henry Vasquez did an outstanding job and I am pretty sure Acosta (R.I.P.) would be proud of him.
The Summit Music Hall resembled a sauna at this point and I was wondering if they had the heaters on. Holy crap it was hot in there. Quick “great job done” to the security guys for the evening. As usual they did an awesome job and I am pretty sure other then some underage drinking idiots, there was no major incident.
By the time the headliner Helmet took the stage around 11pm the crowd had thinned out immensely. Could be because they had just played in Denver this past October; or maybe because at this point the audience was exhausted and probably half way deaf.
Yes, sir, the decimal levels for each band that had played just got louder and louder.
Anyway, Helmet played a really good set and I actually went up stairs to watch their performance on the comfort of a bar stool. In my opinion Helmet is not really a band that requires a mosh pit, but nevertheless folks were moshing; and to my surprise extremely civil. One mosher on the ground and at least 5 others there to pick him back up. Nice!
Well, with pretty much a brand new line up, Page Hamilton on guitar and vocal showed the crowd that Helmet is not dead yet and far from it. They played their 1992 acclaimed album “Meantime” in its entire and to change things around, the Denver gig got the backwards version. This was pretty cool, and after two encores the night was over.
All in all, it was a very good performance by all bands playing. The highlights for me was definitely (in order of appearance) Howl, followed by Crowbar and the mighty Saint Vitus.