I’ve had this album for years, and listened to it infrequently over that time. I always thought it had one or two really good songs, but the whole thing kinda bored me.

But damn, I just had a hell of a listening experience with it. What a powerful and epic sound, and that’s just the singer’s voice! Epic doom metal would be the word for it I guess, with a bit of death thrown in there. Some even reminded me a bit of Opeth, although not too much. And the closing title track….simply beautiful.

With this, November’s Doom, and While Heaven Wept, maybe I’m *finally* learning to appreciate doom after all these years. Although I just listened to Solitude Aeturnus’s “Through the Darkest Hour”, and that still bored the crap out of me…..

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.

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.

I went to see multi-national bill of Dimmu Borgir, Nevermore, Children of Bodom, and Hypocrisy on Sunday at the House of Blues. It must be difficult for some to see that four mighty Swedes have to play first, ahead of some Finnish children, some fat Americans, and worst of all, a gang of ugly Norwegians! But overall it was quite an evenly matched show.

My warmup for the show was going to see Ween play for nearly three hours the night before at a sold-out show being filmed for their DVD. Luckily Ween shows are pretty tame, so I didn’t get too worn out there.

I figured the Dimmu show would sell out too (it did), so I bought my ticket a couple days in advance, to be picked up at the will call window. Doors were set to open at 5:45, with the show beginning at 6:15, so I went inside the venue to pick up my ticket a little before 6:00. However, I still had to go back OUTside, to get in the entry line. And this was a LINE. It literally stretched around the building, south down Dearborn, and completely across the Chicago River. At least it’s a pretty cool place to stand in line, looking down the river from the bridge at portions of the lit-up skyline. At one point a couple of kayakers passed beneath us, quite an unexpected sight on a dark evening with temperatures in the 30s. Of course they received their fair share of cheers and jeers.

It seemed like the doors opened about on time, and the HoB staff was operating efficiently, but it simply takes more than half an hour to get 1000 people into the venue. So by the time I got in, the place was nearly full, and Hypocrisy was playing their second to last song. Which kinda sucked, but at least their last song was “Roswell 47”, which of course is the song to see if you’re just going to see one. The crowd was pretty tame, but a “Hypocrisy!” chant did go up when they finished, so maybe they weren’t too old-school for all the kiddies on hand as I thought they’d be.

While the curtain was closed when Children of Bodom was setting up, someone played a couple of keyboard sounds to make sure it was plugged in. And a huge cheer went up. What a sad state the metal world has fallen to, when everyone gets excited by gay-ass keyboards! And this is an “extreme” metal show too! Anyway, they got going in short order. Yep, Alexi does look like Avril Lavigne. The keyboard player did something I’m surprised I’ve never seen some prog-metal keyboard-wanker-showoff do: he had his whole keyboard tipped downwards, facing the audience, so we could all see what an ivory-tickling badass he was. Ooh! At first I thought he was a new keyboard player, since he wasn’t the little kid that was playing with them when I saw them at the Milwaukee Metalfest in 2000. But I guess he just grew up. I had been standing about in the middle of the floor, but as soon as CoB started, the crowd surged forward, and I was pretty much right in the middle of the crush, about six rows back, for the rest of the night. CoB played about half an hour (like Hypocrisy), and gay as they are, they’re a fun band. Excellent sound too.

When Nevermore started up, the crowd was fairly motionless for “Narcosynthesis”. But then as Warrel Dane always does, he encouraged the pit to start up again for “Seven Tongues of God”, and it basically didn’t stop after that for the rest of the night. I was pretty well-isolated from it though, since there were still a couple more rows of the crush squeezing me in from behind. Nevermore seemed to focus on mostly more brutal stuff; I dunno if they were trying to compete with the other bands there, but that was kinda unnecessary since they would have been the heaviest band no matter what they played. And a bit more melody would have satisfied the CoB-fanboys more anyway. Their churning-thrash sound was a lot more muddled than CoB, but about normal for Nevermore. I’d say the Warrel Drunk-o-Meter was only at about 3 or so, and while his vocals weren’t the greatest, at least they weren’t embarrassing either. Looking at him I was reminded that he ain’t no spring-chicken anymore. They played about 35 minutes.

While waiting for Dimmu, the crowd was still surging around all over the place; I even heard a girl near me mention that she was getting seasick. Finally, Dimmu’s light show intro began, with a bunch of swirling backlights that were actually pretty cool, mostly because they managed to keep from blinding the crowd as such lights usually do. With the drums and keyboards being set up on opposite sides of the stage, there was a sort of pyramid of lights in the middle. Sometimes they’d light up Galder’s bald head, and the light would shine through his ears, making them bright red while the rest of his head kept the white-corpsepaint look. Quite stylish! Costco must have had a deal on knee-high spiked boots, because all four guys up front were wearing identical pairs. And perhaps they had a “Buy four, get a free codpiece!” promotion too, and Shagrath got to wear that. About halfway through he stripped off his leather jacket, and then for the encore he was bare-chested, presumably so he could show off the tattoo across his stomach, much like Tupac’s “Thug Life” tattoo. Except Shagrath’s said “Shagrath”. Ha! I guess it’s so he never forgets. Oh, and the music? It was excellent as usual. Dimmu Borgir really has to be one of the best “metal” bands out there, they’re heavy, intense, melodic, complex, rocking, epic, and fun to watch. Pretty much the whole package. They played about 90 minutes. Though if they didn’t have to hurry to come back and finish up their encore before curfew, I’m not sure if they would have come back, since the crowd was really pretty quiet (as it had been the whole night). Everyone was certainly into it, and there were plenty of people, so maybe it’s just part of the extreme-metal ethic or something to not make too much noise. Anyway, it was still a great show all around.

Went to see Tabla Beat Science at the Vic Theater last night. For those who don’t know, the tabla is a pair of tuned percussion instruments, played with the hands. Sorta like an Indian version of the bongos, but with a greater potential for playing a leading role. TBS is mainly a collaboration between Zakir Hussain (apparently considered the greatest tabla maestro in the world) and Bill Laswell, and mixes classical Indian music with modern electronics and Laswell’s bass playing.

I enjoy their album (“Tala Matrix”) well enough, but not quite enough to immediately justify a $40 ticket price. But then my Indian friend heard that Zakir Hussain was part of this thing, and she wasn’t about to pass up a chance to see him, so I figured I might as well go along too. And wow, I’m sure glad I did, because the performance blew away everything that’s on the CD.

The musicians on this 4-date tour are Hussain on tabla, Laswell on electric bass, Ganesh Iyer on violin/vocals, Karsh Kale on a standard drumkit, Sultan32 on keyboards/effects, DJ Disc on the turntable, and Ethiopian singer Gigi does vocals on some songs.

I had just been to the Vic a few weeks before to see the Nile/Napalm Death show, so it was quite a change to see the stage covered in greenery and flowers, four video screens, and no security fence. As expected at a fusion event like this, the crowd was quite an interesting mix. There were hippies (both neo- and paleo-), Indians (both ABCD and FOB), pretentious art-music posers (like myself), an abonormal number of lesbians (both real and wannabe), and even a few Gigi fans (presumably Ethiopian?)

The show began with only Hussain and Ganesh onstage, improv-ing off each other for fifteen minutes. This was a chance for Hussain to show off his mad skillz, with his fingers literally becoming a blur for extended periods. The mood was pretty playful, as he inserted some well-known bass licks from time to time, which seems to be a pretty impressive thing to do with one hand on a single drum. I’ve only seen one tabla player before in my life, so I probably don’t even have the experience to judge his greatness, but I did get the same feeling watching him as I’ve had when watching Hellhammer or Gene Hoglan.

Eventually, the rest of the band showed up, and they started laying down some serious groove. One of my problems with the record is that it’s pretty one-dimensional. It’s very rhythmic, repetitive, and there aren’t a lot of parts that stand out. Live, each non-tabla instrument became much more prominent, although I never got a sense that anyone was trying to outdo or overpower anyone else; they all gelled perfectly. Compared to the album, there was far more violin being played, Kale’s drums were omnipresent (sometimes jazzy, sometimes very intense and “electronic”), and Laswell’s bass was all over the place; he had a whole set of switches and pedals that changed his sound to everything from standard rock bass, to funkified chirping, to rolling fuzzballs of distortion.

Most of the 2-hour performance had the improv feel of a jazz combo, and although not many “solos” went around, the tabla did some pretty cool back-and-forth exchanges with the violin, drums, and most notably, the DJ scratching records on the turntable. Things would ebb and flow and build and fade; I’d often close my eyes for a few minutes at a time, and upon opening them, I wouldn’t be sure if three minutes had passed, or a hundred years. And that was without any drugs.

So all in all, quite a memorable event that far exceeded my expectations.

Oh, ok, maybe not.

But I went to see one of my favorite bands, Aterciopelados, last night at the House of Blues in Chicago, and damn, what a fun time it was. They aren’t related to metal at all; the best succinct description I’ve seen is a combination of alt-rock, electronica, and Colombian folk music. Not a word was spoken in English at the show (even their cover of Queen’s “Play the Game” was in Spanish), but to use a hackneyed cliche, music crosses all boundaries.

During their groovier songs, most of the crowd would be bouncing around, with the floor going up and down right along with everyone. The middle area often formed into a curious mix of half-mosh pit / half-dance party. And let me tell you, that combination is a hell of a lot better than either of those things on their own. I’m not much of a dancer, or much of a mosher, but here I really ended up gittin’ my groove on. I can definitely recall getting that dance-y feeling at an Amorphis show, and perhaps at a Gathering show too, but there was never enough crowd density at those places to share in my groovy mood.

It was also cool being at a show with such a variety in songs, from rocking things, to atmospheric acoustic stuff, to phat beats.

The crowd size seemed about the same as it was at the Opeth show (meaning it was pretty much full). That’s interesting because Aterciopelados is a major-label band with 5 albums, albums that have sold over 500,000 copies, and playing in a city with a huge Latino community. Not quite sure if that means anything, but there it is.

Next up on the world music tour: Tabla Beat Science on March 5th

Oh yeah, and just so I don’t sound too pretentious or gay (too late?), I’m sure I’ll be banging my head off at the Amon Amarth show coming up.

I think this was a landmark event for the Chicago/U.S. metal scene, for a few reasons:

First, the show was sold out. The Metro has a listed capacity of 1100, so that’s quite a turnout, especially for a German band playing their first-ever show here. It was quite a pleasant surprise when Iced Earth/In Flames sold out the same venue in April, but Blind Guardian/Symphony X repeating that feat is an even more amazing accomplishment. The day before, there was actually a pretty long article/interview with Hansi published in the Chicago Sun-Times (circulation: 500,000).

Also, Jon Schaffer came out and introduced Blind Guardian (and he said a bit more this time than he did at ProgPower). His appearance may seem like a small thing, but Jon was never introduced by name, and still most people knew exactly who he was. He’s also really good at doing the introduction, and got the crowd wound up in a matter of seconds. To me, that just shows a level of scene awareness and and genre popularity that would have been unheard of a few years ago. Maybe in the future this will become annoying, but for now it’s just kinda cool that things have gotten big enough to produce “celebrities”.

Finally, at the very close of the show, the band came back out on stage, and we were told that we were going to be the cover of an upcoming issue of Metal Maniacs. The band lined up facing the drum riser, and the crowd formed a big ol’ backdrop of devil horns behind them while we did a few takes.

So overall, everything came together last night to highlight just how far things have come since August 1997, when Iced Earth did their first U.S. tour, which was the thing that basically got this whole ball rolling. If there was such a thing as Heavy Metal stock, and if I had invested in it back in ’97, I think I’d be doing pretty well right now.

Oh yeah, and then there were the bands too…

Only saw one song of Twelfth Gate, sounded pretty good, kinda like Solitude Aeturnus to me.

I was rather surprised at the response to Symphony X, I didn’t realize that that many people were into them that strongly.

But then of course everyone was REALLY into Blind Guardian. I don’t think the singing was quite as loud as it was at ProgPower (not really surprising since ProgPower geeks are a lot more likely to sing than badass Chicago metalheads), but I think the overall level of excitement and appreciation was just as high. It’s cool that they’re mixing up the setlist, because this time I got to hear three songs they didn’t play at ProgPower: “Under the Ice” (one of my favorites off ANATO), “Harvest of Sorrow” (which I’d never heard in English before), and “Born in a Mourning Hall” (one of my favorite BG songs ever). Although if they would have just played “Lost in the Twilight Hall”, “Valhalla”, and “Lord of the Rings” again, I wouldn’t have complained about that either.

So yeah, it was a great night.

Next up, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, Yakuza, and Tub Ring, same place, same time, on Tuesday.