This was the second time these Colombians have visited Chicago since November, and the second time they played well after midnight. And I don’t mean that there were a bunch of opening bands and lots of delays which caused Aterciopelados to start their set very late. It’s more like “doors @ midnight, show starts @ 1am”.

At first I thought this was a pretty crazy and annoying way to schedule concerts, but now after doing it twice, I almost wish more bands would do it like this. I can go to bed at 8pm, get four hours of sleep, wake up at midnight, get downtown in no time because there’s no traffic, park for free, see a show with no opening bands that starts right on time, and be back in bed before 4am to finish off the rest of my full night of sleep.

This was my sixth time seeing Aterciopelados, so I was a bit worried that I could start getting bored with their concerts, especially since it had only been four months since I’d last seen them. Also, their new album ‘Oye’, while very good, is probably a step down from their previous four (one of the best four-album streaks in music history), and I knew the setlist would once again draw heavily from it.

It turns out my worry was unfounded, because it was still a great show. They did play all but two of the songs from ‘Oye’, but this time around everyone in the audience knew the songs much better, so that made it a lot more fun. But what really makes them a band I can see over and over again is the way that they change up their songs. Tempos change, different rhythms convert songs into alternate styles, and new intros/outros keep you guessing.

Their song ‘Florecita Rockera’ is a great case study. As originally recorded on their 1995 Latin-rock-punk album ‘El Dorado’, it’s an energetic little number that alternates beteween clean, melodic verses, and an almost heavy-metal chorus. By the time I first saw them in concert in 2001, they had morphed into an electronic/chill-out band, so at that show, ‘Florecita Rockera’ was played as full-on dance-club party song with a thumping beat and a running time at least three times the original. Now, their new album ‘Oye’ returns them back towards the Latin-rock style of their earlier albums, but without the punk edge, so this time we got a rocking, but anger-free ‘Florecita Rockera’ that even inspired something I haven’t experienced seen since those earlier Aterciopelados shows: the Mexican Mosh Pit. Like its Norte-Americano cousin, the South American version involves people bouncing around and bumping into each other, but it’s actually done to the beat of the music, and with a joy and community spirit that you don’t get in the metal version.

Beyond the ‘Oye’ stuff (‘Panel’ and ‘Al Parque’ were the missing ones), we got two from ‘Gozo Poderoso (‘Luz Azul’ and ‘El Album’), ‘El Estuche’ from ‘Caribe Atomico’, the title track from ‘La Pipa De La Paz’ (introed perfectly with ‘Majestad’ from ‘Oye’), ‘Florecita Rockera’ and encore-closer ‘Candela’ from ‘El Dorado’, as well as one each from Andrea Echeverri and Hector Buitrago’s “solo” albums (‘A Eme O’ and ‘Altisimo’, respectively).

I think this was the first time I’d seem them where Andrea didn’t speak at least a little bit of English, but she’s so good at emoting and connecting with the audience that I had a pretty good idea what she was saying anyway. They have a tradition of throwing gifts out into the audience at the end of the show, which is an idea I’m surprised more bands haven’t picked up (used drumsticks and guitar picks don’t count!) Previously they’ve thrown out flowers and frisbees, but the last coupled times it’s been tiny wrapped bags of something. I haven’t been lucky enough to get one, so I can’t tell you what’s inside!

The Metro seemed pretty full, don’t know if it sold out or not. Lots of kiddies (it was an all-ages show).

Zozobra
They were about what I expected, stoner-post-metal. So you had some guitar leads and stuff, but I think most of the stoner-rock vibe comes from the bass riffs. Some screams, some clan vocals from all three guys. Heavy, reasonably groovy, and fairly entertaining to watch. They did something that lots of new, opening bands *should* do, which is connect all their songs with various forms of guitar feedback/e-bowing, so that it was never quiet and you could never hear the crowd being dead. Except that the crowd *wasn’t* dead, and was giving them a significant amount of applause between songs that they probably never even heard!

Jesu
Justin Broadrick claimed that he was really ill, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that explained their boringness. Three guys in the band (drummer, bassist, guitarist/vocalist), none of which were terribly exciting to watch. The bass player looked like a roadie, though his big sloppy wet bass sound provided most of the musical entertainment. I really have no idea what the guitar/vocals were doing, since it seemed that at least 50% of the music (vocals too!) was being played by the computer. Conclusion: they need to figure out a better way to translate Jesu into a live setting, or not bother at all.

Isis
Not nearly as good as the last time I saw them, but probably as good as the first time. They’re quite a professional-looking and well-seasoned band by now, particularly in contrast to Jesu. It seemed like a lot of the songs they played were ones with odd rhythms, and only heavy at the end, so I could never quite find the headbanging groove that I reveled in at their last show. Perhaps they simply saved up all their 4/4 “metal” to unleash it in the encore, with “Celestial”, which was just awesome, and was probably worth the price of admission.

Ok, Day Two. Ready….Go!

Manetheren
Top-notch atmospheric hypnotic black metal. Sure, the style has been done before, but they executed it perfectly, had a perfect sense of melody, and since Drudkh wasn’t anywhere to be found, this was the next best thing. They deserved way better than the 1pm slot with 20 people watching them.

Withering Soul
I missed them opening for Enslaved earlier in the week in Chicago, and then only caught about half their set here. Competent if unspectacular melodic black metal. I’d have to listen to them closer to figure out if their one guitarist is actually as awesome as he makes himself look by the motions of his fingers.

Dark Forest
Some more competent if unspectacular black metal. Or, maybe they were spectacular, but c’mon, I saw 18 bands, so I can’t quite remember everything! (Really, it’s a credit to the festival that all the bands had as much individual identity as they did.) Actually given their name/logo/origin, the music was actually a lot more militant and ‘viking’ than I was expecting.

Gwynbleidd
I totally understand why these guys have a pretty good buzz going. They sound completely “pro”, and sounding like Opeth these days doesn’t hurt either. Perhaps a little too much like Opeth for my liking. That’s why it was nice when they brought out the acoustic fun in their last song, it gave a bit more connection to the earth, if you’re feelin’ me. Subtract two points for the guitarist with his hair tied back! If you’re onstage, performing in a *metal* band, and you still don’t let your hair loose, why the heck do you even have it? For your second job as a romance-novel model?

Earthen
Let’s see if I can remember the eight people onstage: singer (girl), violinist (girl), drummer (girl!), bass (12-year old boy with a wedding ring, seated), 2 acoustic guitars, electric guitar, and keyboards. It sounds like it was basically their first performance, and it kinda showed, but I really like the concept, so hopefully they can keep this orchestra together and develop it more. Ooh, and they played a “Tolkien” song! (Pippin’s depressing-as-fuck lament from “Return of the King”)

Shroud of Bereavement
Most memorable moment was the singer/guitarist chugging from a half-gallon of milk between songs. They probably would have been a lot more memorable if their sound was better. They had two keyboardists, but I could only hear about half of one. And their female vocalist sounded incredible during the soundcheck (especially compared to the Earthen singer), so it was unfortunate that I could hardly hear her either. It was definitely good to have a doom-ish band like this on the bill though. I left a bit early to grab some dinner.

Hordes of Yore
Another good band playing “Heathen Crusade metal”, but I was hoping for a bit more ethnic instrumentation.

Mael Mordha
Holy crap, these guys easily won the whole festival. They came storming on stage in their Irish war-paint and never let up. Every member of the band was great to watch, with the singer in his Jesus-robe being the obvious focal point. He was climbing all over the stage, roaming out in the crowd, playing some flute and a big-ol’ horn, and was fookin’ funny too. Oh, and their songs completely slayed. Stomping, melodic, headbanging folk metal. It’s simply a crime that the first time I heard about these guys was when the HC lineup was announced. With a performance like that, they could be headlining Wacken.

Obtest
These guys were the ‘Slough Feg’ of the night, though a slightly more intense version. Almost speed-metal with tons of guitar harmonies. The “singer” was a bit unfortunate, but a lively performer if nothing else. Lots of fun, and perhaps a hint of what it would be like if a real power metal band ended up playing.

Rudra
Damn, did these guys bring it. Powerful death metal that just sounded great. For some reason, I was thinking “eh, they’re from the other side of the world, I’ll understand if they don’t have their shit together. They probably don’t have ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ to encourage them to raise their game”. But they were one of the most pro-sounding bands of the whole fest. Their frontman has the skinniest fingers I’ve ever seen on a (male) bass player, but he played some awesome stuff. They also win the award for Most Genuinely Heartfelt ‘Thank You’ Speech.

Skyforger
Ok, so you’ve got a singer/guitarist fronting your band who may very well be Rasputin. Yeah, the mad fucking monk, still alive and kicking after all these years. Then, you’ve got a singer/bassist *also* fronting your band, and he just happens to be King Of All Vikings. With that, how the hell can you lose? So yeah, they pretty much slayed. And that doesn’t even include the third singer and all his wacky instruments (flutes, bagpipes, some sort of strap-on zither-type thing). Probably second-best band of the fest for me.

Bal-Sagoth
The narrations and between-song banter was awesome. Unfortunately they had to play some music too, and that didn’t do a whole lot for me. Beyond the masked singer, there wasn’t much to watch either. So after 12 hours of watching bands, I checked out about halfway through their set. Seemed like lots of big Bal Sagoth fans stuck it out ’til the end and were having a great time though.

For the festival, they actually were running 10 minutes ahead for much of the day, and the lights were doing stuff, so that was nice. Only other thing I could have asked for was for the place to not reek of Sloppy Fuckin’ Joes the whole day!

Ok, I really shouldn’t be the one here posting the first Heathen Crusade comments, but I’m a boring old man who wasn’t drinking last night, so I think the job probably falls to me by default. Here’s my comments from Day One:

Bronnson
I caught their last two songs. They were a local band brought in as a last-minute replacement, and that’s basically what they sounded like.

Will of the Ancients
Pretty damn good for the second band of the night. I’d say they basically play “Heathen Crusade metal”: blackish metal with lots of melody and headbanging groove. While they were almost exclusively growling, their song about pirates had their bass player doing some epic melodic yelling which was quite awesome.

Vesperian Sorrow
Wall-of-sound blackdeath metal. The parts where they’d just blast away could be a bit boring, but luckily they included enough kickass headbanging riffs to keep me interested. In what I think is a first for me, the normally-growling singer would exhort the crowd *during* the songs, using a normal clean voice. That just struck me as funny.

Slough Feg
Easily the best band of the night for me. I’m not even that much of a fan of them on record (it all seems pretty one-dimensional), but I’ll never miss a chance to see them live. They had their shit so together they started 10 minutes early, which gave Mike Scalzi time during the set to work his stand-up act: “So who here got a ride from Gary Gygax?” “How many women are here who aren’t somebody’s mother?” Even without the awesome jokes, the band had perfect sound, is tight as hell, and had the most impressive drummer of the night. Add in nearly constant dual-guitar harmonies played along to head-chunking rhythms, and what more could someone with good taste ask for?

Vreid
Well, the Windir song was the best thing that they played, but only by a small margin, so that’s pretty impressive. Somehow they find the perfect proportions for the mix of black, thrash, epic, and rock-n-roll groove to generate what was probably the most energized crowd of the night.

Månegarm
Finally, the first non-standard instruments of the night (violin and a bit of recorder)! Oddly, they were played not by a Viking, but by the guy who works in the A/V department of your college library. Some of their songs were total ass-kickers, but then they had some that were just kind of there. Still, they kept me interested for their whole set, which means I was kept interested for the entire day, which is pretty unbelievable.

As for the festival, scheduled times were hit dead on the nose for the entire night. Sound was generally good, lighting was about the worst ever, and I cannot comment on the beer!

No, not *that* kind of black metal, silly! Although actually the holiday was rather helpful; due to the light traffic, it meant that my hour-long drive down to Mokena through light snow wasn’t a complete nightmare like it could have been.

I strategically arrived just before Enslaved began, missing Abigail Williams, as well as two local openers, Liche and Withering Soul (who I can see this weekend at Heathen Crusade).

The last (and only) time I’d seen Enslaved was when they played the Milwaukee Metalfest several years back and played about four songs. So it was nice to see a mostly-full set from them, although it was heavily skewed towards new stuff. Beyond one song from ‘Monumension’ and one from ‘Frost’ (which Grutle oddly referred to as their first album), everything else was from ‘Ruun’ and ‘Isa’. They had a projector going the whole time with (kinda amateur) trippy visuals, which contrasted heavily with their quite “metal” appearance, but perfectly matched the psychadelic/metal mix within their music. Some creative promoter really needs to get these guys and Isis on a tour together. It was funny to see that on their ‘Isis’ song (‘Ruun’), the keyboardist/backup-clean-singer strapped on a 3rd guitar, just like Isis.

I’d never even heard any Dark Funeral before I checked out a few songs when I heard about this tour. They sounded a fair bit less shitty than I expected, and since I paid $30 to get in, I figured I’d stick around to see at least some of their set. Their full-on Black Metal getup strongly reinforced the “Enslaved needs to tour with a band like Isis” idea. The guys in the band were all wearing leather armor and full makeup, which made them look just like Peter Jackson’s orcs. The singer was Lurtz, Saruman’s Uruk-hai captain, while the long-faced guitarists were Mordor orcs. Haha, I realize just now that black metal personalities like Shagrath and Count Grishnakh originally took their names from Tolkien’s orcs, so I guess the whole thing has come full-circle!

Musically they weren’t too bad. They easily had the best sound I’ve ever heard out of a traditional black metal band; everything was very treble-y and cold and grim just like I’m sure their albums sound, but also clear and not buzzy. Given their look, it was quite shocking when the singer spoke between songs in a normal (and quite smooth) voice, especially considering how raw his ‘singing’ voice is. At one point he said something like “I’ve been ripping my throat for 20 years, and the reason I keep doing it is for you guys!” I thought I detected an undercurrent in their that said “I’m getting too fucking old for this clown shit and really wish I didn’t have to do it anymore, but I gotta make a living!” Anyway, despite their surprising goodness, I was coming down with a cold so I checked out after 6 or 7 songs.

Saw this menagerie last night at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago. The $12 price balanced the 9PM Sunday night start time, and then the bands really made it worth my while. It happened to be a benefit show for Lymphedema/Breast Cancer awareness, though there was less social commentary from the stage than the average Queensryche show. Reportedly more than $6000 was raised. On to the bands:

Cougars: Eight guys on stage, including the usual five of a standard 2-guitar band, plus trumpet, trombone, and keyboards. So what do they play, some kind of hardcore-jazz-funk-ambient-death-metal? Nope. Just regular old kickass rock-n-roll. Played nice and loud with perhaps just the slightest punk edge. I don’t know why brass instruments don’t appear more often in rock bands. They’re “loud”, distorted, and can really add an extra melodic punch. When the two guitars, horns, and keyboards would all get going, there was sometimes an epic level of layered harmony that was really cool.

Sweet Cobra: A bit like Mastodon, if Mastodon wasn’t as good. Heavy riffs and screamed vocals, that got a lot more repetitive than Mastodon. But they had some cool breakdowns in the middle of some of their songs, and I actually got a bit of an early 90s doom-death (like Paradise Lost) vibe in their last song, which was a nice surprise.

Pelican: Four guys, four songs, one hour, no singer, and totally captivating. I was repeatedly reminded of early Opeth. Not because they were at all similar sonically, but the songs are long musical journeys, starting at one point, continually shifting from phase to phase, and ending up somewhere different. They also work repetition to perfection; like Opeth, at the very second you think “hmm, this is cool, but I might start to get bored with this riff soon”, they’ve already moved on to something else. I figure any band who can keep me and the rest of the crowd interested for an hour while playing music I’ve never heard before, without a singer, and without any hummable guitar lines, must have some pretty unique songwriting skills.

Mastodon: After being really wowed by Pelican, I wasn’t sure if Mastodon would be able to top them. But they did, oh yes, they did. They started off by playing some really melodic stuff that was much less intense for me than it seemed to be for the Mastodon guys, who were thrashing about more than the previous two times I’d seen them. So I thought maybe I just wouldn’t be able to latch on to their vibe. But then they hit some heavier, familiar stuff and that’s when things started rockin’ and didn’t stop. I think they played a whole lot of new songs, and it sounds like it’s easily better than “Remission”. More melodic, but still with some really intense sections as well. My favorite line: “This is ‘Workhorse’. It’s a song about work. Work sucks!” And I still think the bass player is the son of Peavy Wagner.

I’d say “Catch this package in a town near you!”, but it’s not coming to a town near you. Suckers!

Went to see Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and others on Saturday at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago.

Hometown act Cheer-Accident, who played last (although SGM seemed to be the “headliner”) was ok, they were plenty “prog”, in an indie/math rock sort of way, but somehow their aesthetic was just a bit too “bar band” for me, especially after seeing all the weirdness that came before.

SGM was great, and truly a weird bunch. I could listen to the singer read the phone book, he just has the coolest voice. They certainly aren’t an easy-listening experience, especially when the guy who plays the percussion instruments made of salvaged junk is going nuts, but they keep your attention.

Faun Fables, which is a duo consisting of the main SGM guy and his girlfriend, played some sort of folk music mixed with some SGM-like insanity. Good, but not quite mind-blowing.

And then there was the opening band, The Dresden Dolls, who were actually my favorites of the night. Again, it’s a duo, with a girl on piano and vocals, and a guy on drums. Both of them are pretty heavy-hitters, though I was surprised how “musical” the whole thing was with only two melodic sources. The songs were just really good, where I was not only able to connect immediately with the music, but also with the lyrics, which is pretty rare in a live situation especially when it’s your introduction to the band. Ok, I wasn’t really able to “connect” to the lyrics, since they come from an angsty twenty-something female, but I did appreciate the creativity, delivery, and dark humor in them. If I was going to give an Alzn-like review, I would say “The Dresden Dolls: this sounds like music Alzn would like.”

I thought of buying their CD at the show, but decided I didn’t care that much, especially since I’m thinking of making an effort to wean myself off physical CDs. But then the next day, when I still had one of their songs running through my head (“Coin-Operated Boy”, which I think any woman would love), I figured maybe I should get the album after all. I checked iTunes, but unsurprisingly the album wasn’t on there. However, when I checked the band’s website (dresdendolls.com) to see where I could order it from, I did find a place where I could pay to download it. It wasn’t as quick and easy as iTunes because it was set up as a “micropayment” thing, so I had to install another little software app, and download and extract each song individually, but it was still a lot faster than mail-ordering it from somewhere. And at $0.75 a song, it was cheaper too. If the digital download option wasn’t available, I might have lost interest and thus not spent any more money on the band, so I really hope that more and more bands start to offer their music online for a price (or free, if they really want to). Because physical CDs are for dorks! 🙂

I was listening to Gotan Project’s ‘La Revancha Del Tango’, and it made me reflect on last year’s concerts; in 2003, I was wowed by Zakir Hussain and friends, nearly headbanged my head right off seeing Amon Amarth, finally got to see my favorite band Rage, saw a three-hour marathon from Ween that was filmed for their DVD, and had my socks knocked off by Estradasphere for the third time in a row. But I actually think the most memorable show might have been Gotan Project.

The album (their only one) is tango music backed by modern electronics and beats. It’s one of the best albums I’ve gotten in the last three or four years, and while I was really excited to see they were visiting the Metro in Chicago (on October 23rd), I wasn’t really sure what to expect, or how their music would translate in a live environment.

Way past the scheduled starting time of the show, they still hadn’t let anyone inside. Then once we got in and stood around for a while, we were informed that the piano needed to be tuned. I never would have even guessed the Metro HAD a piano! Finally the show began.

At the front of the stage was an enormous translucent screen that stretched from floor to ceiling and all the way to the edges. Behind it, the band members were lit by yellow-white footlights, and they’d fade in and out like hazy apparitions as they played. Simultaneously, a projector was showing video clips on the screen. Somewhat similar to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but a bit less obscure, we saw loops of giant tango dancers, galloping horses from an old Western, and a variety of other things. Depending on where you focused your eyes, you could either watch the screen or what was behind it, and it really created quite an atmosphere.

But there was still an appreciative cheer when after four or five songs, the screen suddenly dropped to the floor. Across the front of the stage, there was a pianist hammering away at the baby grand, the beautiful Cristina Villalonga on vocals, a bandoneon player (the accordion of the tango), an acoustic guitarist, and a violinist. Behind, on a riser, were two of the main guys behind the project, Philippe Cohen Solal and Christoph H. M?ller. One was mostly flipping switches and twiddling knobs, while the other spent his time swapping and spinning records. All (except Cristina, of course) were dressed in finely-tailored suits that could have been straight from the ’30s.

PopMatters says “The Gotan guys blend the sexy syncopations of tango with the dark, echoing textures of dub and the beats of house and nu jazz to create a sound that is at once timeless and extremely modern, familiar and completely original, and basically just so darn all-around hip that it’ll infuse your squalid little urban apartment with all the allure of a smoke-filled Parisian jazz club.” That same transformation that occurs inside squalid apartments was even more powerful at the Metro, and although I’ve never been in a smoke-filled Parisian jazz club, I have to imagine they nailed it just right.

One of the things that makes the disc so great is how the music is so laid-back and cool, yet it maintains a driving, pulsing fire smoldering deep within. In the live situation, the fire was even more noticable when the instrumentalists would take flight. And then there were the smoldering, smoky vocals of Cristina. She didn’t contribute to every song, but when she was singing, she had such a presence that it was hard to focus attention anywhere else. When she wasn’t singing, she’d stand and stare in perfect stillness, almost like a mannequin. There were many times throughout the night when I felt like I was in the ‘Silencio’ scene from David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”. (and yes, that’s a good thing).

The basically played the whole album along with a couple of other songs, and in the end I got much more from the show than I had hoped for. The combination of creative and engaging music with an equally creative and engaging presentation made for quite a night.

o Symphony X/The Devin Townsend Band @ Metro, 11/24, $15
I walked into the venue just as Twelfth Gate was playing their last notes, so that was the second time I’d missed a chance to seem them (both at the Metro). Bummer.

Didn’t miss Devin though, and he was great. The last couple times I’d seen him it had been with SYL, so it was nice to hear his other stuff agin. I think I liked this set even more than ProgPower, although that could be just because I knew the songs more. The sound was perfect, and the whole band just does an amazing job of recreating the sonics of the CDs in a live situation. I love the drummer, and he really lends some hard-hitting, crisp tightness to the band. Devin is known these days for his unique songwriting style and guitar sounds, and as a producer, but I was reminded that his first claim to fame was as a vocalist for Steve Vai. Because he’s really great singer, and that almost gets forgotten. This may be sacrilege, but I think his vocal performance was much better than Russell Allen’s, especially when it comes to reproducing what’s on record. The crowd, although clearly there for Symphony X, was generally polite and appreciative, probably even a little more than Devin was giving them credit for. He did play the instrumental “Away” to show off his wanking skills to the crowd. Oh, and I finally figured out that the bass player reminds me of Reese from “Malcolm in the Middle”. I think the setlist was

Seventh Wave
Storm
Earth Day
Life
Truth
Regulator
Away / Deep Peace(?)
Bad devil

Symphony X was good as usual, although for some reason they’re a band that never blows me away like they seem to for so many other people. I did stay for the whole set this time though, and it seemed like they played a lot of my favorites, so that was cool. It was my first time hearing “The Odyssey”, and while it seemed like a cool song, it really didn’t make me feel at all like I was in ancient Greece! My favorite part of the show was when I walked up and saw two people right at the front rail wearing corpsepaint. I thought “Is there a black metal band playing at this show?” But then I looked closer, and realized they were wearing makeup in the form of the Symphony X masks, and even had the appropriate hooded capes. Ha!

o Cradle of Filth/Type O Negative/Moonspell @ Riviera Theater, 11/22, $28
Moonspell is my favorite out of the three bands, so it’s unfortunate they were first, but they still kicked ass. Luckily right when they started, a small group of Moonspell fanatics came up behind me, so I wasn’t the only one making noise in a sea of Cradle kiddies. Most people seemed totally unfamiliar with the band, but they got the crowd a little more involved as the set went on (which is good, since I think if you crossed CoF and TON, you’d get Moonspell). I always forget how good the drummer and guitarist are, since Moonspell isn’t a band that makes you think of instrumental prowess, but they’re great to see live. The bands aesthetic was much more “metal” than the last time I saw them. They played:

In and Above Men
From Lowering Skies
Vampiria
Opium
The Southern Deathstyle
Full Moon Madness

o Type O Negative was a full co-headliner, so they had a complete stage set-up, which was actually pretty cool. Drums and keyboards were split on either side of the stage, both on 5-foot high risers with chain-link fence and barbed wire in front of them. The backdrop was an old stone prison watchtower, and then they had big red spinning police lights and strobes. The intro music was “Bad Boys” (think “Cops”), and I half expected to see NWA come out to play a quick set. But no, it was the Type O guys, all dressed in orange prison jumpsuits. Peter’s bass strap was a steel chain and with his fu manchu and hair tied back with a bandana, he really fit the part and looked quite a bit like Lemmy. The unfortunate thing about all this was that they seemed to play music to fit the image, focusing a lot on their punk/speed metal songs rather than their more epic gothic side. That stuff is fun and all, but this was my first time seeing Type O, so I wouldn’t have minded some more of the wussy stuff. They still played “Love You to Death”, “Christian Woman”, and “Black #1” though, so that was enough to satisfy me.

o They had to totally tear down Type O’s stage, and then totally rebuild Cradle of Filth’s stage, so of course it took forever for CoF to get going. CoF had ramps and platforms and stuff, which was quite a bit to set up. The lights went down, and when they came back up, the band appeared with two gargoyles sitting on the platforms. After the first song, the gargoyles started to move, eek! They did that for a few songs, trying to frighten Dani, and then left. After another song, a guy with stilts on his arms and legs came walking giraffe-like onto the stage, with a scantily-clad woman riding on his back. They did some demonic sexual stuff with each other, and then the woman climbed up off his back onto a hanging curtain/rope. The band came back onstage and played a song with her twirling and twisting in the curtain 20 feet above the stage. Quite impressive, and the level of acrobatic professionalism was far above the writhing metal skanks they usually have on stage. Unfortunately, none of that could hide the fact that the music was boring as hell. Since I had just seen Dimmu Borgir, I was comparing the two in my head, and thinking that Dimmu has four or five guys in the band RIGHT NOW that can write great riffs, while it seems like in the million band members Cradle has been through, they haven’t been able to find even one guy who can write one. So I left after 6 or 7 songs.