I was lucky(?) enough to see three good shows in the last four days, so here are my reviews. First, for the fun of it, I’ll rank all the sets, with my favorites first:

1. Estradasphere
2. The Devin Townsend Band
3. Moonspell
4. Type O Negative
5. Symphony X
6. Soulvasq
7. Cradle of Filth

o Estradasphere/Soulvasq @ The Note, 11/21, $8
Soulvasq was the local opener, although they said Estradasphere (from California) actually got them the gig. They fit in well with E-sphere, playing a fairly eclectic mix of styles with an overall funk/Faith No More-ish backing. The lead singer wore tails and a top hat and carried a cane, and they passed bubble-making toys around. That just about tells you all you need to know. For me, their best stuff was when they went heavy, or when they played a Santana-inspired Latin number, complete with a guy on the bongo/conga.

Estradasphere was amazing, as usual. This was my third time seeing them, and every show has been totally different, yet equally incredible In a day when I look up setlists beforehand for all these other bands on the Internet, it’s so refreshing to see a band that crafts a completely different set every single night. They played for approximately forever, but that was only apparent after finding out that it was 2:30am once we got outside. We got the usual mix of gypsy jazz, death metal, bluegrass, some nu-metal, Walk Like and Egyptian, a Stairway to Heaven/Every Rose Has its Thorn/Money for Nothing medley, the Super Mario Bros. theme (played right along with video projection of Level 1-1), and a shitload more. All played with some great chops, although they didn’t quite reach the level of mind-blowing tightness that I saw from them last time. However, it was still plenty good enough to keep them right at the top with the best live bands I’ve ever seen.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2003 at 10:11 am and is filed under concert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.