Here is a set of photos I shot of The Sword and Black Cobra, live at the Bowery Ballroom last night. The Sword was awesome from start to finish. I had a great time, although I got far more drunk that I should have or had intended to. At one point, while in the crowd, two guys came crashing to the ground in front of me and I reflexively started to control the guy on top, like I used to do in Aikido, with one hand on his neck and the other displacing his hips, thinking there was about to be a big fight. Two seconds later, it dawns on me that these guys were moshing, lost their balance, fell and if I don’t let go now, I’m probably going to get my drunk and delusional ass deservedly gang-beat. Luckily, the guy I was manhandling seemed a bit drunk as well and more focused on whether he hurt the guy he fell on top of, likely thinking I had been trying to help him up, if he even noticed me at all. Oops.

Here’s about fifty photos I took of Swedish Melodic Viking Death Metal band, Amon Amarth as they played Irving Plaza last night. I can only recall one or two other concerts in my life where the crowd was as frenzied and pumped as last evening. The band seemed pretty amused and appreciative of the sheer amount of enthusiasm jammed into the club and they certainly know how to work a crowd. They are fucking hilarious, kick-ass metal dudes and their sound is just killer. They even drank booze from animal horns. I’m psyched to see them again someday.

Lately, I’ve been going apeshit-overkill with concerts. I blame the internet—it makes buying tickets a little too easy and before you know it, you’ve booked yourself for three shows in one week, which is where I’m at. As I wrote in my previous post, earlier this week, I had a horrible night seeing Kataklysm live at the Blender Theater at Gramercy, a club that I will likely never return to unless it’s something I have to go to. That place fucking blows.

However, the next evening I was at the Knitting Factory, seeing post-Sleep, Stoner Doom miracles, OM with Grails opening and it entirely redeemed the condition of my week. Grails was totally psychedelic good shit. I liked them enough that I bought two of their albums off of eMusic the next morning. OM was magnificent. It was the first time I’ve ever seen them and I had no idea that a man could wring such a thunderingly full sound out of a bass guitar. I was highly impressed and inspired. I tried to buy one of everything at their merchandise table, to the point that I had two guys scrambling through boxes looking for shirts my size. I loved it. I had passed up an earlier concert of theirs in Brooklyn, a couple days ago, figuring I’d rather just see them in Manhattan where it’s easier for me to navigate home, but in hindsight, I should have gone to both shows. It was that good.

I also really liked the Knitting Factory. the sound was great, the alcohol was comparatively reasonable in price and the place is fucking HUGE. I’d never been there before and it was a good experience for a first time. Here’s a bunch of photos of the evening, if you’d like to check them out.

Tonight, it’s Behemoth at Irving Plaza. I’m tempted to bail on it, as I’m not an especially big fan, but I did already buy tickets. I’m old though. I think two concerts, at least two days apart is looking like my limit is these geriatric times that I find myself in.

Last night I went to the Blender Theater at Gramercy for a concert that ended up being a fucking joke. I got there as Divine Heresy was playing and I liked their sound and energy. But, when Terror came on…fuck that shit. Lame, immature, self-absorbed bullshit. They had some good moments, but the whole mentality of their music and personality is like being at an all-ages hardcore show when I was fifteen. I’ve moved on from that lame “Oh I’m so downtrodden, such an underdog. Everything’s a struggle” shit, why can’t they? They’re just as old as I am.

Mainly, I came for Kataklysm. I’d really liked their album, “In the Arms of Devastation“. I figured it would be some super crazy shit, but I have to say I was disappointed. In one sense, they played pretty much all the songs I wanted to hear and played them well, but the sound was flat. It kind of seemed liked they were air-guitaring over their music being piped through speakers - which they totally weren’t, but that’s what I mean by flat sounding. The other thing was their presence, or lack of. They’re kind of boring. Their albums have some really killer riffs and I’d hoped they’d really put some fucking intensity into them, since they were playing live, but they didn’t. They just kinda did their thing. They’re a great band, but I think I’ll pass on seeing them live again.

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I caught Norwegian Black/Viking/Progressive Metal band, Enslaved at BB Kings last night. The night was a total fucking wash until the they came on. One of the opening acts, The Agonist, has to one of the most depressingly shitty, pretentious, weak-ass bands I’ve ever seen live. Fucking shit generic sound, prancing around the stage and swinging their guitars around like total douchebags. It was embarrassing to just be there in their presence while they played. At least the band name was appropriate, since it was agonizing to suffer through their set. They need to retire, shoot themselves or whatever—just go away.

Another opening act, Arsis had a pretty good sound, but their bass player kept weirding me out. First off, the guy looked to be wearing woman’s jeans, which was fairly creepy. Second, every time before the band kicked into a song, he spent way to much time arranging his hair to hang in the appropriate Metal style. Third, he wasn’t a particularly great bassist and he’s got this huge six string, showing it off, posing and tapping the strings over the top of the neck with his right hand, something that from what I saw from his finger positioning etc., would pretty much sound like drivel, but sure did look spiffy. Still, they were a fuckload better than The Agonist.

Enslaved was awesome. Once they came on the night went from being a rip-off, to a good time. I have all of Enslaved’s albums and while I really liked them, never counted them in my top list of bands. After seeing them live, my impression of them is greatly raised. They sound fucking great. I took a good amount of photos and posted them to my Flickr stream for all to see.

I have absolutely fucking no love for TicketMaster. I go to a fair amount of concerts. Usually three to four a month, sometimes more. Recently, I’ve been booking my next couple months and have had to buy several tickets through TicketMaster or TicketWeb. TicketWeb is reasonable enough. Their service fees are usually anywhere from two to six bucks and they let you download and print your ticket for free. This, I can live with. Ticketmaster fucking bends me over and reams my wallet like it was a doe-eyed boy in a prison shower room.

For example, I’m going to see Amon Amarth at Irving Plaza, here in New York City in early December. The cost of the actual ticket is $19.99. If I’m going to buy it from Ticketmaster, first I pay a “Convenience Charge” of $6.20. Then, I’m slapped with a $4.90 processing fee. Finally, if I want to download and print my ticket, I’ve got to shill out another $2.50 for the privilege. This brings my bill to a randy, fat and sweating $33.59. They’re nailing me in fees for an additional 68% of the cost of my ticket. Totally fucking disgusting.

So screw them. From now on, any venue that uses them for online sales will be getting my money from ticket booth sales unless it’s something I absolutely have to see and can’t get a ticket any other way. It just sucks because I like to research what I want to go see online and then nail the ticket right then and there. It’s convenient for me, but I also spend a lot more money on venues that way. Impulse shopping…it’s supposed to be encouraged, not bludgeoned to paste.

Last night. I caught Boris, one of my all-time favorite Drone Doom bands, live at the Bowery Ballroom with Michio Kurihara. Without a doubt, it was one of the best concerts I have been to in a good long while. Boris has a massive sound live. My ear filters were put to the test and yet I still went to bed with my ears ringing. I’d never been to the Bowery Ballroom before. It’s a pretty nice place. I spent perhaps a little too much time in the bar downstairs, skipping the opening acts that I didn’t give a fuck about in favor of a good number of Stellas. I ended up with a greasy, green and morbid motherfucker of a hangover this morning because of it. Still, I had a crazy good time head-banging in the middle of a bunch of posers who have no clue about Doom Metal. I love Boris.

As usual, I took a ridiculous amount of photos and uploaded them to a Flickr set. Feel free to check them out.

While I was in San Francisco last week, post Hawaii, I went out to a club in the mission district to see the Japanese Punk/Comic/Costume band Peelander-Z one evening. After a couple lame-ass and tired bands finished their sets and the main act went on stage in their costumes, I took a mess of photos of what was a decidedly rowdy concert. Peelander-Z are hilarious and judging from the exuberant and violent actions of the crowd at the club, everyone loves them.

After I got back to New York, I hit BB Kings to see the Death Metal band, Daath and Swedish Black Metal bands, Naglfar and Dark Funeral. I noticed that there was more than a healthy population of South American guys under five feet in height and wearing corpsepaint in the crowd. I liked Daath a lot. I have a few Naglfar albums, which I think are pretty good, but for their first American show, they were fairly underwhelming. Adequate, would be a good descriptor. Dark Funeral was interesting to see live. They’re pretty old and fat for corpsepaint and all the leather bondage shit they wear. They’re a good band, but they look fucking stupid. I don’t really consider them real Black Metal, more like a hybrid with Death Metal. I like them, but they’re not exactly high on my list of top bands. The whole grim and cold Black Metal act falls flat on their beer guts and their lead singer seems like a bit of a douchebag as far as stage presence goes. Still, they were good. Embarrassing looking, but good. Photos of the concert can be found here.

Last night, I saw Turbonegro, one of my all-time favorite bands, perform at the Nokia Theater here in New York. I’ve never seen them live before and while I’m jaded in their favor due to being a fan, I really was pretty unprepared for exactly how truly fucking awesome they are in person. Norwegian fucking Death Punk! Hank From Hell was totally hilarious, shaking his blubber all over the place and Happy Tom is the fucking man. Easily one of the best concerts I’ve been to. Denim, lipstick, mascara and some fucking rouge.

I took almost two hundred photos that night and have uploaded them to a flickr set. Feel free to view them at your leisure.

A couple nights ago I dragged my still semi-sick ass out to BB King’s on 42nd Street to see a few bands. The main headliner was Nile, who I didn’t know too much about. Mainly I was there to see ChthoniC, the Melodic Black Metal band from Taiwan. Since it was primarily a Death Metal show, graphic band tees were in full effect, there was a hell of a lot of hair, as well as an extremely large representation in the crowd from the South American continent. Rock hard, my Spanish amigos. Eighty-percent of the metal acts on this planet would tank if it wasn’t for your die-hard loyalty to head-banging.

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