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Concert Photo Recap: Soulfly’s Conquer Tour @ the Rock

Posted in Concert Reviews with tags bleed the sky, devastation, incite, soulfly on Friday, December 12, 2008 by Ryan Buege

Max Cavalera and my great friends in Soulfly played the Rock in Maplewood, MN just before Thanksgiving! Luckily for you, we’ve got a half-assed photo gallery if you were stupid enough not to attend.

Soulfly – infused this time by equal parts Cavalera, Rizzo, Burns, and Nunez – are back at the top of their game, and they seem to be provoking some of the most enthusiastic crowd responses and deadly pits (not to mention sold out shows) that I’ve ever seen from them. Fuck it – even the mosh at Behemoth or Dying Fetus last year couldn’t have matched the intensity that I saw in the circle during the Soulfly set.

Throughout the night, I was busy hanging with my cousin Krista and partying with the rest of the band backstage, and as a result I only got performance photos from Soulfly, Incite and Devastation. (And unfortunately I missed the performance from my drinking buddies in Bleed the Sky). The weed treats alone would have made it a night to remember; many other encounters throughout the night made it unforgettable. Thanks again to Max, Gloria, and the entire Soulfly tribe!

Click on any photo to enjoy the entire album:

SOULFLY

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Concert Photo Recap: Today is the Day, Count Vesuvius, Ambassador Gun @ the Turf Club

Posted in Concert Reviews with tags ambassador gun, count vesuvius, david hall, live, minnesota, st. paul, today is the day, turf club on Thursday, November 20, 2008 by Ryan Buege

The date was Saturday, November 15th for experimental metal (underground legends) band Today is the Day‘s headling performance at the Turf Club in St. Paul with local crust/grind stalwarts Ambassador Gun and psychedelic doom prodigies Count Vesuvius. Despite being vastly underattended, the opening bands were AMAZING (..seriously, check them out)..) and the main set was a brilliant showcase of Today is the Day’s most recent album Axis of Eden set to feature film directed by David Hall. For nearly 2 decades, Steve Austin and Today is the Day have been redefining and expanding the definition of music, and even the performance that night redefined how a metal band can present a new album to its audience. The videos played throughout the performance were shockingly realistic, stark, and beautiful – the perfect mindfuck to complement the music of Today is the Day, a band that has embodied and defined this imagery ever since their early days on local AmRep.

While I didn’t capture any video, I’ve got a pretty spectacular photo gallery from the night!

Today is the Day

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Concert Review: In Flames, Gojira, All That Remains, and 36 Crazyfists, 11/15/08 @ Myth

Posted in Concert Reviews with tags 36 crazyfists, all that remains, gojira, in flames, myth on Monday, November 17, 2008 by Ryan Buege

In Flames, All That Remains, Gojira, 36 Crazyfists
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Maplewood, MN at the Myth

The temperatures may have finally taken a dip here in Minnesota, but none of that mattered last Wednesday at the Myth in Maplewood, as In Flames and their touring partners set the venue ablaze to some roaring metal classics. While I have nothing good to say about my experiences with the overly cautious asshole security guards that blanket the Myth, I was highly anticipating seeing some of the bands playing that night, especially Gojira, so my spirits couldn’t be killed.

In Flames sets off the mosh

It had been nearly 6 years since I had last witnessed a live set from 36 Crazyfists. In April of 2002, I was lucky enough to attend their album release show for their debut Bitterness the Star when they opened for Chimaira, and I saw them again later that year at the Warehouse in La Crosse with Candiria. At that time, I had been really impressed by the dynamic nature of their music, and they really struck me as a band that had limitless potential. Fastforward 6 years, and this is still the same band that I saw in high school. Although they might not have progressed in the ways that I hoped and thought they might, they still play an extremely catchy brand of melody laced metal and punk that has more to do with bands like the Deftones rather than Atreyu (despite what some of their fans might lead you to believe). I only wished that they had played more songs from their older albums because these were the only ones I knew, but sadly I was only familiar with about 1 of their songs that they played.

Gojira's Duplantier brothers reverse the rotation of the planet with their groove

Gojira came on stage next. These guys have been favorites of mine for quite a while and they are just coming off the release of their colossal new album The Way of All Flesh so I was really anticipating the show. On Wednesday they brought the massiveness of their new songs to an entirely new level. At the beginning of their set, Gojira sent the crowd into a frenzy that didn’t stop until they left the stage. Their heaviness is something that is almost hard to define until you hear it; while Mario Duplantier’s drumming is mind-boggingly technical and the riffs are devastatingly heavy, a psychedelic, unnerving melody takes underlies the heavy barrage and entrances you. These French masters of progressive death metal easily put on the best performance of the night. I strongly suggest to any fan of music – especially metal heads – check out these guys on youtube or at their myspace.

All That Remains came out next and gave the worst performance of the night. In all honesty, I don’t see anything redeeming about this band; their singer is a self-indulgent doucebag who didn’t even know what town he was in, and the scrappy band sounds like a trend-hopping bastard version of every popular style of metal from the last 4 years. To me it seemed very amusing that a second rate Gothenburg metal ripoff band was playing direct support to the Swedish death metal innovators of In Flames. Thank God they weren’t headlining or some bullshit.

It was my first time seeing In Flames live, and they certainly made it worth my wait. Their set was surprisingly short, but it was packed tightly with some of their best songs from their catalog – both old and new. While it was most fun to headbang to the likes of “Pinball” and “Behind Space”, newer anthems like “Cloud Connected” and “Take This Life” drew the biggest response from the crowd. Anders and the band were full of energy and were feeding off the crowd and they made it a very interesting and varied performance. All in all, it was great to see In Flames show All That Remains fans how Swedish death metal riffs were supposed to by played.

For a photo album from the night, click on one of the pictures or visit MetalInjection.net.

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Grizzly Bear, The National [New York City, New York; 10/10/08]

Posted in Concert Reviews with tags Grizzly Bear, Indy Rock, New York City, The Hammerstein Ballroom, The National on Monday, October 20, 2008 by gieb0624

With an eight dollar beer buzz, lungs filled with the New York City air, and finely pressed button up shirt that travelled with me from Minneapolis, I was ready for a night out with Grizzly Bear and The National, and let’s just say Matt Berninger (Lead Vocalist of The National) showed a New York City audience what a good show is really all about.

When Grizzly Bear took the stage I didn’t really know what I was going to expect from this Brooklyn based Indy folk band that I had listened to a hand full of times. I was feeling optimistic at first and kept telling myself that it was going to pick up, but I found it never really did. While Grizzly Bear’s rifts sounded pleasant and the vocals alarmingly beautiful, the music seemed to make me fade in and out of interest. At one point I found myself resting my chin on top of my girlfriends head as a prop to hold it up. Even though their album Yellow House can be found on my IPod with a dozen listens or so, I have come to the conclusion that like Ambien, it is best to take just before bed. After what seemed to be a fairly tame bear left the stage, the audience that was now halfway asleep started dozing into their IPod Touches playing games and choking down all the expensive “cheap” beer they could get in before The National would take the stage.

The National entered the stage. Because I was positioned right in the front I was able to notice a little bit of the pre-show sweat that had accumulated on Matt Berninger’s brow. I assumed from the drinks that were carried out with him the vodka and lemonades were going down smooth prior to the show, and to be honest that was perfectly all right with me. Right away the show started. The energy was so much higher than I expected. I had figured that much of the concert was going to consist of select songs from their latest release in 2007, Boxer, which landed them on the cover of Paste Magazine with best album of 2007. I’m not saying that the band didn’t grace us with the slow Bruce Springsteen-esque songs like “Fake Empire” and “Slow Show.” However, it was songs like “Abel,” from their 2005 release Alligator that got me singing at the top of my lungs and throwing my head around like I still had long hair, even though I didn’t. The parts of the show that I found to be the most intriguing all had to do with the lead singer. Because Berninger is just the vocalist and leaves the lead guitars up to the one set out of the four brothers in the band, he ended up being extremely entertaining. He moved around frequently when his vocals were not needed. Throwing his drinks at the back of the stage, yelling at the top of his lungs, and breaking the microphone stand and throwing it, all completed my National experience that night.

The songs danced around The Hammerstein Ballroom like garbage blowing through Times Square. Lovers held each other close when his words were deep and full of passion. Rockers danced about when the emotions got heavy and ending the concert with the song “Mr. November” from Alligator couldn’t have been any more appropriate with the Election in progress. All in all, the lyrics of Matt Berninger were louder than I had ever heard them before and it brought me back to the winter I first listened to The National with a friend while driving through the bluffs of northern Minnesota. We were “half awake in a fake empire.”

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