The Metal: LIVE

[Ham701]

For sharing your concert experiences with the world.

So I went to the Judas Priest show Wednesday night, fucking epic as hell. I'm no concert veteran, but I went with my friend and his brother, who in this month alone have seen a different band each weekend. They said it was the loudest concert they'd ever been to. In fact, 22 hours after it ended my ears are still ringing.

The show opened up with Thin Lizzy. Even though Phil Lynott's been dead for over 20 years, they still are around somehow. I wasn't much looking forward to it, but they were actually pretty good with him. no

Next up was Black Label Society, Zakk Wylde's band. I didn't quite know what to expect as I haven't really listened to any of their stuff, but despite my hatred of the newer metal it was pretty awesome. Loud as fuck, especially the drums. The only complaint I had is that I couldn't understand a single word he sang and out of the whole time on stage I only caught "Judas Priest" and "God Bless". I also wasn't a fan of the 12 minute long solo, it got pretty boring after awhile, I'm not going to lie. Despite that, pretty good. I had some doubts whether Priest could match that.

Of course, they aren't the Metal Gods for nothing. With a staggering 21 song setlist, it was like nothing else. Not a single one was bad, even "Painkiller", notorious for being impossible live on vocals. At the age of 60, Rob Halford still has an impressive range, though nothing like his early days. The guitars were spot on, and I liked the variations on some of the older songs, especially the latest rendition of Diamonds and Rust. Favorite song of the night though had to be Breaking the Law, where my friend and I sang the chorus as "washing the dog" a la Beavis and Butthead.

Overall, it was a great concert. Very long too, 43 songs between 3 bands. Didn't get home til 2 because it was all an hour and a half away.

[Nitewatchman]

There's a local band in my town called Bloodworm. Their shows are also so awesome, especially when they had their old screamer Jeremy.

Several cool things have happened at their shows:

A friend of mine once slammed his head through a plywood box sitting on stage, passed out, woke up, and continued to headbang to the next song.

The mosh pits are always crazy, but the craziest one was at their final show(since then, they've returned with a new screamer). It's never a pussy mosh pit; it's always just really brutal people slamming each other around. None of that arm waving dancy crap. So, in the middle of one of these brutal, crazy mosh pits, there's one guy just standing there, staring straight forward, for a full song. He kept curling and uncurling his fists, like he was just about to lose his mind. Occasionally, for the FULL SONG he stood there preparing himself, someone would bump into him. He'd look at them and hold up a hand like, "Woah, bro...just wait....just wait" and then go back to staring straight forward like a maniac.

Now, at Bloodworm shows, there are always a ton of girls and regular scene doods right at the front. When Bloodworm started their next song, which begins with this crazy sick riff, this guy slams into that crowd of people and just THROWS THEM BACKWARDS INTO THE MOSH PIT. Suddenly, EVERYWHERE WAS THE MOSH PIT. It was chaos, and it was awesome.