Archive for the ‘2011’ Category
Loudness – Concert Review – San Antonio, TX – May 28, 2011
I love Loudness. That is to say that I love classic era Loudness. Everything between Birthday Eve(1981) and the Jealousy EP (1988) and a few songs from Solder of Fortune (1989) and On the Prowl (1991). After Minoru left and after his replacement (Mike Vescera) left, I was done. I didn’t care for EZO and having their singer in the band just didn’t work for me. Even after Minoru’s return to the band in 2001 for the Spiritual Canoe album, I was rather disinterested in their modern sound. No matter, when they did their small USA tour in 2006, I was there.
When I found out that they were coming to Texas this year, I was pretty excited and got my tickets immediately when they went on sale. It wasn’t until the day of the show that I found out that there would be 8 opening bands. You read that correctly. EIGHT OPENING BANDS (see show poster). The doors opened at 7 and the first band was to start at 8. With so many bands opening, it was pretty obvious that Loudness would go on late. OK, no big deal. Doug and I pretty much sat in the back of the venue. We got there around 9PM or so and didn’t know how many of the bands had played. Apparently not many since it seemed like we sat through 50 bands. I was told that the openers had to pay to play and it really felt like amateur hour of a
Minoru
battle of the bands competition. Really, it was brutal. One band from Sweden, Dirty Passion, was apparently on tour with Loudness (wait, that makes NINE opening bands!). While they were about 25 years too late for their Bullet Boys/Warrant-ish type of rock, they were at least solid albeit not even remotely my type of rock. The other bands? PASS. I just couldn’t get into it. There was one group of kids that played who did some 80s metal covers and they were alright. I just wanted to see Loudness.
Each moment that a band finished in the later hours of the night, we would move up into the crowd only to be disappointed that another band was coming on. It was getting later and later. Before I get into Loudness’ actual set, I should describe the venue a bit. Originally this show was scheduled to be held at Backstage Live, a newer San Antonio venue that has been getting some bigger shows and gathering a terrible reputation with every one. I had only been there once 2 years ago for Lizzy Borden. Apparently people had been boycotting shows there. Destruction/Heathen played there last week to around 100 people…in San Antonio. I believe had that been anywhere else down there it would have been a lot more. It was also a Tuesday night but in SA, that generally doesn’t seem to matter. They love metal there like no other city. Last night’s show was moved to Randy’s Ballroom on SA’s west side. The place was huge. It was an old venue, seemingly built in the 70s. Apparently the Sex Pistols player there in 1978. It’s primarily used as a bingo hall now and could easily double as a skating rink. I did like that it had a large area to sit down in. We needed it to get through all the opening acts.
Loudness finally hits the stage around 1AM, maybe 12:45AM. Having seen their recent setlists, it had been about
Akira
13 songs long and getting all those songs in an hour was going to be difficult. They hit the stage and opened with Fire of Spirit from their 2008 album Metal Mad. I wasn’t familiar with it but it sounded fine. The band was tight and the new drummer, while he was no Munetaka Higuchi (RIP), he was solid and very competent. One would expect no less from Loudness. They followed up with Hit the Rails, Crazy Nights and Heavy Chains. Some recent stops on the tour got We Could Be Together instead of Heavy Chains (personally I would have preferred to hear We Could Be Together). Of course during Crazy Nights the crowd of maybe 350 people went “crazy”. There were more folks there earlier but it continued to thin out as the night progressed. Minoru’s voice sounded great. We were one person back from the barricade until the end of Heavy Chains and I wanted to move back to hear a better mix. The sound for all of the openers was awful but it sounded great for Loudness.
They had gotten to a couple more songs like In the Mirror, Never Change Your Mind and Shadows of War (Ashes to the Sky) and then something odd happened. It was 1:45AM and the house lights came on. The band looked stunned for a moment and were conversing with each other on stage. The crowd looked perplexed too. After a
Yoshi
few minutes they started playing again and went into Black Star Oblivion (!!!!!!). It was totally odd seeing them playing with the lights on. They discussed a little further and went into a new song, King of Pain and then Crazy Doctor (!!!!!!) and then the shit hit the fan…the club shut down the PA and the band kept playing with just their stage amps. Then…AND THEN…the club yanked their stage power…MID SONG. Granted it was a few minutes after 2PM but c’mon. The band ended up just stopping, never got to play their full set and took it in stride. They stood at the front of the stage and just smiled to the crowd and shook hands and such.
I was blown away by it. After wading through hours of sub-par bands to finally get to the headliner whose set got cut because of a piss poor booking job, it really was a disappointment. The crowd was getting pretty riled up over it all. I heard several drunkards saying, “There’s only 5 cops and a couple hundred of us, let’s tear this place up!” Umm, pass. The show promoter should be bitchslapped over this though. From my account, Loudness got shorted 3 songs. It was disappointing to say the least.
I was very happy to see Loudness again and would surely go if they ever tour the USA again. For a bunch of dudes in their 50s, they were great. They were equally as good as the 2006 show and I enjoyed the setlist even more this time around. Akira’s playing is top notch. He’s one of the best players I have ever seen. Minoru’s voice was really strong and I don’t think they tuned down any of the old songs to help him sing them more easily. Yoshi’s bass playing was solid as always. I love seeing them as they hit the stage looking like tourists…sweat suits, track pants, shorts and sneakers. Very comfortable and they were all smiles all night. A very professional band to say the least and so glad I got to see them again.
I don’t go to SA for shows that often and this experience surely doesn’t drive me to go out of my way to see more down there, although I’m sure I will. Go see them if you get the chance.
Setlist (as I remember it):
- Fire of Spirit
- Hit the Rails
- Crazy Nights
- Heavy Chains
- In the Mirror
- Never Change Your Mind
- Shadows of War (Ashes to the Sky)
- Black Star Oblivion
- King of Pain
- 1/2 of Crazy Doctor
Songs missing from the set: Get Away, Let It Go, SDI.
Loudness
Minoru's shirt...I wish they were selling these!
Tour shirt (front)
Tour shirt (back)
Upcoming shows…
Lots of great shows coming to the area. So many that I have to pick and choose a little more carefully to be able to afford the ones that I really want to see.
Tomorrow night I am heading to San Antonio to see Loudness. Saw them back in 2006 and they were great. RIP Munetaka Higuchi.
Next Friday is Orange Goblin and Naam(!!!). I’m not a huge OG fan but I’ve never seen them. Naam, however, has become one of my favorite bands. This is part of the Chaos in Tejas music festival.
There’s also the M.O.D. reunion show in late June that I am fortunate enough to be a part of as Milano asked my Motorhead tribute band to open up.
I just bought tickets earlier this week to see Armored Saint and Hirax at the Key Club in Hollywood. Should be a fun show. I’ve never seen Armored Saint and saw Hirax for the first time 2 years ago. I’m really excited to see Saint.
Odin is doing a reunion show in August at The Whisky and I’ll be heading out there for that one as well. I love Odin. Always have. Do a search for them on this blog site, you’ll see my inner fanboy. haha
September sees Return To Forever coming back to Austin. I got to see the first of their reunion shows a few years ago and it was quite mind-numbing. Unfortunately Al Di Meola isn’t on the tour, but Frank Gambale is a competent enough player to handle the duties. We get Jean Luc-Ponty this time as well!
Ancient VVisdom – A Godlike Inferno
It’s not very often that I hear an album that grabs me by the throat with one hand and slaps me around with the other. The forthcoming release by Austin, TX’s Ancient VVisdom (yes, that is with 2 Vs) does just that. I was fortunate enough to get a promo copy of the CD from the band and have been listening to it a lot in the last couple of days.
I first heard the record a week ago riding around with their bassist and I just sat in his van tripping out a bit. Trying to describe this band’s sound is not so easy. It’s metal, but not what most would typify as metal. My first thought when hearing them was mid-era Bathory with much better vocals and a lot less drum work. Bathory’s “One Rode To Asa Bay” was the first thing that popped to mind. That’s not a bad thing as I liked some of the more melodic Bathory stuff. This album is very mellow…but heavy.
But this is still a bit different. Nice clean vocals, acoustic guitar backed by electric more in the background for enhancement. Drums are minimal, more used for percussive effect and not necessarily for just “playing the beat”. All of the songs are catchy and very memorable. Nathan Opposition’s (f. of Integrity) vocals fit perfectly. The album conjures a little early Pink Floyd as well and to a lesser extent and surely unintentionally I hear some of the atmospheric tones used on Tiamat’s Wildhoney album, which was hugely influenced by early Pink Floyd as well.
The one rub for a lot of people may be the overtly satanic content of the lyrics. You won’t miss it when listening to it as it’s right there. For me personally, I’m indifferent to lyrics by most bands. If it sounds good it sounds good…and this sounds good.
I’m attaching a song that they posted on YouTube but it will not be on the June 7, 2011 release on Shine Box Recordings. It will at least give you an idea of what’s in store. Highlights for me are the songs Alter Reality, Necessary Evil, Lost Civilization and World of Flesh, especially the 2nd half of that song. The riff is just wonderful!
All I can say from here is buy it when it comes out. It gets a 10/10 from me.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes Trailer (2011)
Make no mistake, I’m a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes (PotA) franchise. HUGE. OK, I admit that the Marky Mark remake that came out in 
2001 was enjoyable when I saw it in the theater, but when I tried to watch it again, I hated it. Really, it’s awful. But the original 5 movies, the TV series and the animated series are all great for what they were.
So now apparently there is a new movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Seems to be a new direction and not a continuation of any of the previously released films. An Alzheimer’s study in apes goes terribly wrong and one special ape, Caesar, gets things going. The uprising!
I will go see this, just to satisfy curiously. I’ll go in with low expectations and will hopefully leave at least mildly satisfied and entertained. The trailer is below and looks alright. Of course, like most movies these days, it’s primarily cgi, which I really wish movies would use less of, but that’s just the way it is nowadays.
The film is set to release August 5, 2011. Let’s hope that it doesn’t suck…and that there are no sequels, no matter how good it may be.
Jeff Loomis and Van Williams Leave Nevermore…d’oh
In a statement released somewhere today:
“In a mutual decision Jeff Loomis and Van Williams have decided to leave Nevermore. The time has come to pursue our own paths from the group. Due to internal struggles and ongoing issues within the band, we feel it is our time to move on. We would like to thank all of our fans around the world for their years of love, support and enthusiasm. This was not an easy decision but a very necessary one at this point, may we all meet again someday, somewhere in time.”
Not too shocking after all of the shenanigans on the last tour. Hope the best for all of them. Jeff and Van are certainly two very talented dudes.
The Metal Files 
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