I think the bands were :
Bow Messiah (don't actually know who they were because they never spoke to the crowd, acknowledged the crowd or said their name)
Amidst Haze
Dissolution
In Dread Response
If there was a band before Bow Messiah - I didn't hear them as I only got there in the middle of their set and scoped out JB.
I am not a real metal fan, but I really dig harmony guitars and lots of 'wheedle dee dee' on the guitars - and the last two bands did not dissappoint in this regard. Dissolution were particularly good and their bass player was a mean as player/singer. Lotsa of finger tapping on the bass ... which I am getting my bass out to have a fiddle with.
Because I decided at the last minute to go (I think it was about 8:45pm) and I live outta town - I only had my white pants ready to go. I thought I'd get raped but I didn't. Actually, since I was hanging with JB all night, we probably looked like a gay couple which might have stopped that. I hid under my Rockshop jacket so I hopefully looked like someone from the RS checking out a band. Metal chicks are usually ugly but there were a couple there last night that JB and I thought were okay.
The energy levels of the band just went up with each band.
Bow Messiah, the first band sort of just stood there, hand in pocket, and played. They were tight but nothing left a lasting impact and I think it was the lack of crowd interaction.
Amidst Haze had a violin player jump up and down in some songs which, while interesting, didn't really spin my wheels that much. Good on them for trying it but the violin is too close to the guitar and cymbals and vocals to really cut through. Perhaps it was just the mix or where we were standing. Nik (the drummer) had a drum problem at the end of the last song where random kick triggers were going off and they had to stop. They restarted part the way through the song and the ending was utterly epic. Funniest thing was the singer/guitarist looked like he would be at home in a quiet jazz gig as well. The others in the band looked pretty metal.
Dissolution were pretty cool and energetic from the get go - JB said they were sorta of old school Slayer but I've never listened to Slayer so I wouldn't know. They were like a raunchy edgey screamo tech metallica - so I guess so. The singer was pretty awesome playing and singing. Bpth gutiarists were realitively shredtastic although the first song had literally single notes and single note bends - so I thought he was shit. He wasn't. Great energy too. They had some dude get up and do 'Into the Pit' by Judas Priest. Great harmony guitars and solo trading and riffing and stop/starts.
In Dread Response were the headline act and perhaps it was their awesomeness but it felt like they only played for 20mins. It seemed like 4 songs later and the singer was saying 'this is our last song'. Ross said they did 6 but ran from one into the other so it might have sounded like the same song (metal songs frequently sound like the start of a new riff or breakdown to the un-informed
). Ross was sporting his green gunslinger but due to the lighting, it was yellow. Licks were mean and fast and there was epic floyd rose action too - so I was happy.All in all, not a bad nights entertainment for $10 and a good job by MetalSOC who organised it. There wasn't a shit band as I usually find in metal nights.
Would have been better if my 1yr old hadn't woken at 2:50am and stayed awake til goodness knows when as I went out to the lounge to sleep.
