Paganfest 2008 @ The Boardwalk in Orangevale was incredible to say the least. This is the first "fest" I've ever been to and forgot that means a shit load more bands than I thought. Nowhere near an ozzfest or warped tour number of bands but still 6 bands was the most I've ever seen on one show.
Opening up the show as we are waiting in line the busting began with high schoolers standing in front of us talking about Magic The Gathering, Growing old and pretending to have alsheimers and then schooling people on X Box Live, and Getting 50 cats to throw at people. I can't make this shit up...
Opening was a local band from Yuba City, At Dawn, and they were ok, not really fitting in with the pagan style but a decent somewhat more hardcore technical metal band. I wasn't really into it although their last song was pretty good.
Next was Suidakra from Germany and they were more celtic metal so a good switch to really get into the show. I have heard a few of their songs and they were good.
Next up was Eluveitie from Switzerland which was the entire reason for me going to Paganfest because they're an 8 piece band with Instruments including Flute, Mandola, fiddle, Hurdygurdy,gaita, etc. They blew the roof off the Boardwalk and best live metal band ever seen, IOS agrees. They played a way longer set than I thought they would too which was even better.
Turisas followed who were also Awesome. Turisas got the biggest crowd reaction of the night as they seriously knew how to work a crowd and included singing happy birthday to someone in the front row and splitting the crowd into two teams to see who could scream louder. Turisas includes a fiddle and accordion player and accordion in a metal band is crazy unique and also awesome. The best finish to a set of the night. Lead singer announced they wouldn't be playing their normal finishing song and instead since they were so close to San Francisco that they would end with a Gay Ballad. Hillarious. People were initially pissed but then got into it swaying their hands in the air. It ended and a thank you good night, two steps toward the back of the stage and then Bam! right into Battle Metal Anthem to finish the set. Fucking Great.
TYR from Scandinavia followed and they were a little calmer than the other bands with a definite folk metal sound. I wasn't near the stage at this point I was at the bar getting some pics with the band members from Eluveitie as you can probably already see me marking out for.
Ensiferum from Helsinki, Finland headlined and I had already seen the bands I wanted to see. The music for Ensiferum was good but their stage presence just wasn't at that High Energy Level that Eluveitie and Turisas was. In fact it seemed like after every song Ensiferum tried to get the crowd to scream loud and were disappointed and would say louder, louder like 3 or 4 times. Obviously these bands are used to playing in Europe where crowds are in the thousands so to play a show at the boardwalk in front of maybe 250+ is a step back. Some members of the band had their back to the audience for a part of their set, this reminded me of Maynard James Kennan doing the same thing when I saw A Perfect Circle open for Nine Inch Nails. Kind of put me in a mood of disgust. All in all though this show is probably the best experince at a concert I've had since the first time I saw Nine Inch Nails in 2001.
One other cool thing to note would be this is the first time all these bands (except At Dawn) had been to the United States.
Quote of the night- "Thank You very many." ensiferum-
Shirt of the night- Drug Free for Satan -At Dawn Bass Player
No comments:
Post a Comment