This is one hell of a line up to squeeze into an early weeknight, but even so I am quite surprised at the fact that this has not sold a few more tickets, given the strength of the package. However, that’s the challenge of taking four top notch Thrash bands and their crews out for a world tour for months on end, as some dates are always going to fall on the school nights. …And four acts also means a very early start to the night.
Brazil’s Nervosa (8) open up the evening and prove that this music is not all about bands who have been treading these boards since the mid-1980’s. It’s never easy taking the graveyard slot, especially with such an early start to the show, but Nervosa step up to the challenge well. I haven’t seen these ladies before (and to be fair very few have seen this incarnation, which has rebuilt its line up twice since Covid hit - with only guitarist Prika Amaral remaining from the original line up), but they hit the stage with a confidence and familiarity that instantly warms the sparse audience up.
It’s fast, furious, tight as a gnat’s whisker, yet with enough old school Metal harmonised guitar lines to crack the toughest of audience nuts. Being a fraction of the age of all the other bands means they are still happy to work it hard, made especially challenging being perched on the front of a very full stage with no wriggle room. By the time their thirty-minute set is over, the rapidly filling room is in the palm of their hands.
As one of the original second wave of Thrash Metal bands from the early 80’s, Germany’s Destruction (9) have earned their place at this table, but the fact that they so rarely play these shores (despite having travelled a far shorter distance than the rest of the acts on the bill) tells you why they are only second in the line-up. Not that this stops them from pulling out all the stops. I’ve not ever seen them live before, and they’ve been on my bucket list for a while.
Again this is another act that has shed most of its long term line-up with only bassist and vocalist Schirmer having put in the years, but they do not disappoint with a brutal and crisp assault of rip-roaring foot-stamping old school proper Thrash that has the front half of the standing section circling and surfing for the whole forty-five minutes. What’s refreshing is that there are a lot of young faces in this crowd for whom this music is as fresh and edgy as it was to me forty years ago (although I’m quite happy with my seat on the balcony, thank you very much). It was absolutely on the ball, and this band were worth the wait.
Then there’s Obituary (10). Oh my word…
Always on the edge despite the passage of four decades, Florida’s finest have got something to prove tonight. Although this has been pitched as a joint headliner, and even though we are now three acts in, there’s still remarkably little room on the stage for the band, despite two backlines having been stripped out already – so it’s clear who thinks they are the real top billing. It doesn’t make a difference to Obituary, who promptly spend the next sixty minutes tearing Bristol a new waste hole, whether or not it needed one and making themselves a genuinely tough act to follow.
No theatrics, no stage show, just hard edged in your face and down the back of your throat delivery that literally has the building (or at least the balcony) shaking, and despite a number of technical hitches that threatened to derail things they steamroller through. Some acts struggle to make the same impact after all this time, especially vocally, but John Tardy’s performance tonight is not the slightest bit diminished by age as he stomps his way round every inch of the stage (or the little they have been given anyway).
The crowd responds, and the roars, pits and surfers are as relentless in their delivery as the band. Even from up where I am perched, I feel for the security guys (and there are a lot of them at the barrier) who have a lot of orbiting bodies to steer to safety, and it’s been like that since 6.30 p.m. (and a special shout out for the nutcase dressed in a full head to toe Elmo costume who spent most of the evening orbiting the front of the pit). Follow that…
Well, turns out that Testament (6) couldn’t, which genuinely shocked me because over the years they have always been a band that could be guaranteed to deliver the goods live, whether on their own or on a festival slot. Something is definitely not right tonight…
This is a band who are about to release one of their strongest records in years in a couple of days, but whose heart does not seem to be in it tonight. I am hoping that this is just the results of a bad day or some travel disruption, but extreme acts have a tendency to turn that sort of stuff into fuel for a more intense show, but tonight I am sadly disappointed by an act whose performance is normally a benchmark in excellence. I know it’s early days for what’s going to be a beast of a tour with this package, and so far everything to this point has been bang on the money, but the final part of the show fails to hit the mark.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. The reason no-one has had any space to play tonight is because a significant portion of the stage (which is by no means small) is taken up by a giant inflatable demonic skeleton, with horns raised. Let’s call him Skellibob, because something this Spinal Tap deserves a memorable name…
Whilst I am not averse to a bit of pantomime theatrics and tongue in cheek stagecraft, Skellibob is clearly already causing issues, and we are only a few days into this leg of the tour. Before the band even hit the stage, the crew were clearly having difficulty getting him up and were forced to shed some light on stage to resolve the issues, which meant any impact was spoilt because the white semi-transparent cloth front of stage allowed the audience to see what was going on. Once up, he stayed up, even though I suspect he was only supposed to be there for the opening part of the set and then proceeded to gently sag in his seat as it were throughout the night. To be honest I felt the same by the end of the night.
Whilst everyone else on the bill made do with minimal resources, Testament have the full stage to work, but they do so without any of the energy and enthusiasm I expect of them. This is a band that can drag any festival crowd out of the doldrums and have been the source of many a memorable headline set for me personally, but it’s just not working this evening.
Well, turns out that Testament (6) couldn’t, which genuinely shocked me because over the years they have always been a band that could be guaranteed to deliver the goods live, whether on their own or on a festival slot. Something is definitely not right tonight…
This is a band who are about to release one of their strongest records in years in a couple of days, but whose heart does not seem to be in it tonight. I am hoping that this is just the results of a bad day or some travel disruption, but extreme acts have a tendency to turn that sort of stuff into fuel for a more intense show, but tonight I am sadly disappointed by an act whose performance is normally a benchmark in excellence. I know it’s early days for what’s going to be a beast of a tour with this package, and so far everything to this point has been bang on the money, but the final part of the show fails to hit the mark.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. The reason no-one has had any space to play tonight is because a significant portion of the stage (which is by no means small) is taken up by a giant inflatable demonic skeleton, with horns raised. Let’s call him Skellibob, because something this Spinal Tap deserves a memorable name…
Whilst I am not averse to a bit of pantomime theatrics and tongue in cheek stagecraft, Skellibob is clearly already causing issues, and we are only a few days into this leg of the tour. Before the band even hit the stage, the crew were clearly having difficulty getting him up and were forced to shed some light on stage to resolve the issues, which meant any impact was spoilt because the white semi-transparent cloth front of stage allowed the audience to see what was going on. Once up, he stayed up, even though I suspect he was only supposed to be there for the opening part of the set and then proceeded to gently sag in his seat as it were throughout the night. To be honest I felt the same by the end of the night.
Whilst everyone else on the bill made do with minimal resources, Testament have the full stage to work, but they do so without any of the energy and enthusiasm I expect of them. This is a band that can drag any festival crowd out of the doldrums and have been the source of many a memorable headline set for me personally, but it’s just not working this evening.
The whole thing feels half ready, with lighting completely misfocussed or missing (I’m an ex-lighting guy, so I can tell) and a sound mix that is frankly flat and terrible, allowing only drums and bass to be heard with any depth and clarity. Chuck Billy’s voice sounds on good form, but the problem is for most of his set you simply cannot hear him. The same with Alex Skolnick and Erik Peterson, whose intense guitar action is normally a highlight of their show but who tonight are lost in a dirge that completely lacks any depth or mid-range.
And here’s the rub – this sort of problem is not normally an impediment to the ability of this band to deliver, despite any technical difficulties. And everyone else tonight had bugger all room and a few glitches to deal with too, but it didn’t hold any of them back. The worst part for me seems to be that they don’t have the energy or fire to rise above this. We’re only four dates into this leg, yet the band exude a sense of fatigue and nonchalance that spreads to the crowd very rapidly, and the pits and surfers rapidly decline in number. Even Elmo buggers off home early…
Then there’s the set itself, which apart from a few new songs getting early airings from the upcoming Para Bellum album, the older material on the list is pretty much exactly what they have played the last couple of times out, which is disappointing given the depth and breadth of their back catalogue.
To be fair though, they do give the new songs a fair push and it’s nice to see them live, even if they lack the usual impact. With their hearts not really into things, not even gems from Practice What You Preach can really get the crowd engaged, which is an absolute shame. This night categorically belonged to Obituary, Destruction and Nervosa. As for Skellibob? Time for a bit of pyrotechnical destruction...
And here’s the rub – this sort of problem is not normally an impediment to the ability of this band to deliver, despite any technical difficulties. And everyone else tonight had bugger all room and a few glitches to deal with too, but it didn’t hold any of them back. The worst part for me seems to be that they don’t have the energy or fire to rise above this. We’re only four dates into this leg, yet the band exude a sense of fatigue and nonchalance that spreads to the crowd very rapidly, and the pits and surfers rapidly decline in number. Even Elmo buggers off home early…
Then there’s the set itself, which apart from a few new songs getting early airings from the upcoming Para Bellum album, the older material on the list is pretty much exactly what they have played the last couple of times out, which is disappointing given the depth and breadth of their back catalogue.
To be fair though, they do give the new songs a fair push and it’s nice to see them live, even if they lack the usual impact. With their hearts not really into things, not even gems from Practice What You Preach can really get the crowd engaged, which is an absolute shame. This night categorically belonged to Obituary, Destruction and Nervosa. As for Skellibob? Time for a bit of pyrotechnical destruction...
No comments:
Post a Comment