No, they are not new Microsoft code names for new and exciting technology which wont be released for years, but instead they are the names of the bands which I saw live last night at the Commodore last night.

We actually arrived late and were only able to catch last few songs of DevilDriver's set, unfortunately they were my driving force for going to watch the show.  You might recognize front man Farfara from Coal Chamber, from what I hear he felt that Coal Chamber didnt go down the path that he had wanted (heavy fucking metal) so he decided to leave and start up DevilDriver.  Either way, the last few songs we did get to see they really kicked ass.  Damn good too see he seperated from Coal Chamber and went his own way.  This bad has a future, IMHO.

Next up was Moonspell [official site] (from Portugal).  They had the best set of the night (yes even better than Opeth, Ill explain why in a bit).  Their dynamic set from long drawn out -slow- melodies, to extreme beats and ear drum shattering screaming was really exciting to watch.  I will definetly be digging into their music more, hopefully some of the local music stores have the balls to actually keep their stuff in stock.

Last up was Opeth (iirc from Sweden).  Now from these guys you would expect some serious metal., this was not the case tonight though.  They gave us the excuse that their drummer was sick, and even went so far as to say he head back home.  It appears that he will be back with the band tonight for their performance in Seattle.  Maybe he just didnt feel like playing in Canada?   So with no drummer what options did they have?  Well they offered us a full refund, or a rebate of $5 at the door.  We took the $5, hell we were not there just for Opeth either way.

So their solution was to have their drum tech play with them for the first part of their set, about 5 songs, all really slow, and from previous year's album releases.  It felt like the crowd was going to explode.  They came for metal and moshing, they got a mixture of Nirvana, and acoustic 80's rock.  Not a very good impression.  Half way through their set they annouced that they wanted to get into more of their heavy shit, so they enlisted the drummer form Strapping Young Lads (cant find a url), a great local band. This guy had only a few hours to learn a couple of their songs and he did it well.  Amazing drums.  Finally the crowd got what they wanted and they enjoyed the hell out of it.  Two, maybe three tracks later (by then I had enough whiskey in my system to blur the lines) they wrapped up their set.  How shitty, but I guess we were warned.

If your in Seattle tonight, or in the path of this band for this tour, get up off your ass, stop coding and check them out.

Now go back to your regular reading.

4 Comments

• Frans Bouma said Saturday, January 24, 2004 2:09:00 PM

  Too bad, Opeth is really good (not as good as Symphony X, but hey.. :)).

• Jason Salas said Saturday, January 24, 2004 3:56:00 PM

  Hey Rob,
  
  Sounds like Norweigan black metal was the theme of the night! I got a copy of the Rockabilia catalog the other day and ordered a bunhc of band long-sleeve shirts, most notably among them the "RIP Randy Rhoads" one that's popped uo from different people.
  
  I was bummed to learn that Megadeth's "Rust in Piece" t-shirt is no longer in production, although most catalogs carry it. That's a major bummer...that's one of the best metal albums ever, IMHO - a must-have. That and Queensryche's "Operation Mindcrime".

• Jason Salas said Saturday, January 24, 2004 4:13:00 PM

  BTW, have you ever checked out Iced Earth? They put out some solid tunes.

• Daniel O'Connell said Sunday, January 25, 2004 12:48:00 AM

  Heh, can't say I would have expected much from Opeth after those last two albums(delieverance and damnation?), they were just way to slow and boring. Was Steve Wilson still working with them on those two? His work on Still Life was ok, but those last two...man.