Got the venue about an hour before doors, line was super long. I got in the venue about 1:10ish, and Thrown into Exile had already started. They sounded alright, but I just used their set time to go get a schedule thing and look around. I tried to find the sumerian stage and/or tent but couldn't see where it was. I asked a guy working the sumerian merch tent and he told me he was up in a different area of the venue, where the was a bit of open space. I decided I'd go investigate during Attika 7's perforamance. In the mean time me and my friend Alex went to the Jager stage to go check out Huntress.
If you don't know already, Huntress are a traditional sounding metal group with a female singer. They sounded pretty good live and it was obvious they were stoked on the experience. It was with them I noticed a trend with a lot of the opening side stage bands. It seemed that just about all of 'em referred to the crowd simply as "Mayhem Fest" never acknowledging the location. Nothing serious, but I thought it was kind of funny. The sound for Huntress was good except the vocals being a little underneath the mix and absolutely like 0 bass. Fortunately the singer didn't sound too bad in the live setting, but when ever she went for Halford level highs I was like "bitch, nah". Overall though they were a fun band with some decent songs. The song the opened with is still stuck in my head. I don't the the setlist for sure so I'm making assumptions for the most part based on the other setlist I've seen and what I remember them announcing.
Huntress Spell Eater Zenith Blood Sister I Want To Fuck You To Death Eight Of Swords
After their set we went to check out the Sumerian Stage and to my relief and excitement we actually got a stage
This made Slap a happy boy.
After that we went to the Jager tent again to check out Battlecross
I was pleasantly surprised by these guys. I had heard some of their songs before going to Mayhem, so I knew they were a decent band, but they put on a really good performance. They were really full of energy and I was impressed with the vocalist and bassist the most. The vocalist has really good growls of all types, from Trevor Strnad-like highs and Johan Hegg-like lows. And the bassist was really impressive. His technique was great and he was doing a lot from slapping, two hand taps and there was some song that featured a bass solo I wish I could've heard better. Musically, nothing out of the ordinary, but definitely the perfect kind metal for a thing like Mayhem Fest. I can see these dudes getting big. Again, I don't really know the setlist, so I'm basing it off what I've heard elsewhere, only thing I can confirm is they didn't do a that Pantera cover this time.
Battlescross Breaking You Man Of Stone Ghost Alive Kaleb Push Pull Destroy Force Fed Lies
The next three band were all shit, Born of Osiris, Butcher Babies and Motionless in White, so me and my friend just kind of wandered around checking out merch and stuff. We went to the rockstar tent where they had all the free shit and I didn't really like the selections this year. They had two Rockstar Energy Waters, Tropical Citrus, and Blueberry Pomegranate Acai (only reason I know the names is because there's an ad for them on the back of the tour program), which tasted like a retard baby between Vitamin Water and that G2 gatorade stuff. The three cans they had were tea/leamonade, green apple and some bubblegum shit. The latter two were too artificial for me and I've never like tea, that one wasn't great. Also, I recognized one of the Rockstar girls walking around as my waitress at some local restaurant. Thought that was funny. Observations I made one those three bands were that BoO suck, Butcher of Babies weren't as naked as I thought they'd be, and Motionless in White is legit the stupidest shit I've ever had the misfortune of being around in a live setting. Their look, character and sound is just cringe-worthy. I wasn't aware whispering into the mic was a new style of singing scene core bands used.
I was planning on checking out a bit of JFAC for old-times sake but was like fuck it and just went to the Sumerian Tent to make sure it was running ahead of schedule because I didn't want to miss Scorpion Child. Fortunately they were on schedule and I was able to grab some rail and get ready for the best side stage band of the day.
Scorpion Child are the Led Zeppelin response to all the Sabbath-worship bands in recent history. They proved to be serious business when I noticed every member was wearing jeans, including the drummer. They sounded really great and had delicious fuzzy tones. The singer was a good frontman and was doing a lot of tricks with the mic-stand and such. There was a time he picked it up fast the bottom half of it flew off. I was worried it was gonna hit one of the security dudes when I saw it flying but it didn't. So he went Chuck Billy style for a bit until abandoning the whole mic-stand for the rest of the set, by throwing it like a javelin into the area between the barrier and the stage. He also went to sit on some of the monitors on the side of the stage and stuff like that. They were really entertaining, and were the first band I heard all day to refer to us as Mountain View, which I was impressed with because most of the time when bands try locations they just say Bay Area or San Francisco. So props to Scorpion Child for not only putting on a badass set but getting our location right. I'm definitely gonna check out their debut now.
After that me and my pal went back the main side stages. My pal wanted to get a close spot of Bodom, so we did that and heard Machine Head in the distance. Their set was the same as the one posted earlier. I was disappointed to only hear Rob Flynn yell "HEAD BANG MOTHERFUCKER" like 3 times. I was hoping at least 10. The shit went on too long and caused CoB to start late.
Machine Head This Is the End Imperium Old Locust Halo
Children of Bodom went on people went nuts. I wasn't expecting so much excitement, I mean there were people shouting and chanting for Bodom well before Machine Head were done. So when they started people went nuts and the pits started. Unfortunately a good amount of the crowd were the kind of people who didn't realize that when it Waynes, it pours you get in the pit, you're gonna get pushed around and you're going that have crowd surfers falling on you every so often. This caused a few scuffles between dudes with their ladies and dude who just wanted to get crunk have fun. And I saw plenty of people rush through the crowd to get close then one song later push their way out of the crowd because it was hectic. Meanwhile, Children of Bodom sounded pretty good, and when Alexi isn't singing and shredding, he's swearing. You know, the classy stuff more-or-less like "holy motherfucking shit, motherfuckers, you guys are fucking crazy, holy shit". Either way, even though I don't care about the band too much, they were fun and some of their material really isn't all that bad. After that we rushed to the main stage in time to catch Amon Amarth, we got to our seats right as they started.
I guess there's a character limit to these things, so to be continued very shortly.
As weird as it was to watch them while sitting, I didn't give a fuck because my legs needed the break and I could see them perfectly fine. The viking ship set up was awesome. The thing blows smoke every now and again. Also, the water background gets dropped for when they play the title track of their new album, to the album artwork for Deceiver of the Gods. It was obvious the dudes were glad to be on the fest and were having fun. Although some of the guitar were low in the mix, they sounded pretty good and Johan is probably one of my favorite vocalists in melodic death metal. It's always a good time to see these guys.
Amon Amarth Destroyer of the Universe The Pursuit of Vikings War of the Gods Deceiver of the Gods Death in Fire Twilight of the Thunder God
Next up were the band I really came for Mastodon. As you guys might know, I just saw them this past Wednesday, so I already saw a good amount of the set, but it was still fun to see the dudes again in this setting. Only thing that was a bummer was that everything Brent Hinds related was low in the mix. I couldn't hear his solos too well or his vocals very well except for Curl of the Burl. At this point this really isn't too much I can say that I haven't already. I love The Hunter, but love the other albums more so it'd be nice if the set was more varied. At least for the most part they stuck to mostly heavier tunes from The Hunter, and they played Blood and Thunder, which is always a pleasure.
Mastodon Black Tongue Crystal Skull Dry Bone Valley Oblivion Octopus Has No Friends Blasteroid Bedazzled Fingernails Spectrelight Curl of the Burl Blood and Thunder
Me and my pal skipped 5FDP for obvious reasons. We spent the time just chatting and stuff. There was one point I noticed a dude that looked like Brann Dailor and was like, that dude sure does look like Brann Dailor. Then I noticed a dude went up to him and some other guy noticed him, so I was like, well shit that’s Brann Dailor. So we went up to him and talked for a bit. I did my best not to go completely fangirl, and I didn’t go over the top “OMG LIKE YOU GUYS ARE LIKE MY FAVORITE BAND YOU GUYS ARE PERFECT” but I just told him some basic stuff like Mastodon is my favorite, I discovered them at the first Mayhem, this was my 7th time seeing them and other stuff. Also, this was the most famous did I’ve talked to, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous. Other than that though we were mainly just talking about stuff like how the tour was going, how cool Queens of the Stone Age are, and how they were doing on new material. If it wasn’t obvious already, the new Mastodon is more than likely gonna drop in 2014. He was nice enough to sign my tour program and take a photo. I usually don’t that kind of thing but he’s my favorite drummer and from my favorite band since 2008, so why not? He was a totally awesome dude. Definitely glad that happened.
By the time Brann took of to hang with the dudes from Machine Head, 5FDP was over so we went in to catch Rob Zombie. He came on and it was kind of a weird experience for me. He’s not unenjoyable by any means, but his new stuff wasn’t that great and while his stage show was cool, the music really just did nothing for me, and it would look like I wasn’t alone by the lack movement I saw in the crowd. I didn’t see many people shouting along or dancing or anything like that, but it was obvious people were eating it up. Like the dude next to me was singing all the words to a lot of the songs and giving roaring applauses after each song, but he did so while standing complete static. It was just weird. Other than that, the set was definitely my least favorite of the night. Also John 5 can shred. We cut out before the encore to beat traffic and then got some In-n-Out. Overall, this Mayhem was a success.
Rob Zombie Teenage Nosferatu Pussy Superbeast Meet the Creeper Living Dead Girl More Human Than Human (White Zombie song) Theme for an Angry Red Planet Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga Drum Solo Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy) Sick Bubble-Gum Lords of Salem Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown Thunder Kiss '65 (White Zombie song) (w/Guitar solo) We're an American Band (Grand Funk Railroad cover) Encore:Dragula
Huntress: 7/10 Battlecross: 7/10 Scorpion Child: 7.5/10 Children of Bodom: 7.25/10 Amon Amarth: 8/10 Mastodon 8.5/10 Rob Zombie: 6/10
Born of osiris is good, gives a fuck about what you say. The spell eater song is alright at times but annoying as well. Don't like huntress at all. Cob part was funny and glad you liked scorpion child.
Also you needed more fan boy in your mastodon part
You tryin to be a hero fool? You wanna see badass mother fucker?! I'll show ya a badass!!!
Honestly I don't hate mastodon that much...I mean they do suck.....but a lot of that comes from their live show for me...literally every time Iv seen them the mix is off
Most times I see 'em clubs the sound is awesome. I guess it's just in huge venues like this it's usually a bit off.
Also, if you need more fanboy, as we were walking towards the stage to see Rob Zombie, Brann was walking the same way and he was like, "Oh we're going in the same direction." and I said we were just going to the stage, and he said "Oh cool, let's get weird." So naturally I was like, "aight let's hold hands" and my friend was like "yeah Wizard of Oz style" to which Brann replied 'no'. Then some other dudes spotted him and wanted stuff signed. Thought it was funny. Obviously I wasn't srs doe. but i rly was
And I agree, I don't really like Huntress on record, but they're good live.
Motionless in White is legit the stupidest shit I've ever had the misfortune of being around in a live setting. Their look, character and sound is just cringe-worthy.
Intronaut -- San Francisco -- July 5th, 2013 I got to Slim's with my friend Alex. There was a surprising amount of people early to the show. It really wasn't many people but dudes aren't usually getting to Slim's before doors, so I wasn't able to get front and center viewing but was a little to the left, close enough. Right around 9 the first band of the night went on.
The first band of the night was the bay area's very own Castle. To the disappointment of a few individuals, Mouth of the Architect dropped off the tour early to go do some European touring, so the last few dates of the tour welcomed Castle to the stage. Castle are a female fronted old school doom metal trio. Their set focused off material from their 2012 effort, Blacklands. They were met with a warm crowd response and it seemed they were happy to be playing with Scale the Summit and Intronaut, even if only for a few dates. They sounded great, bringing a slab of great riffs with a retro sound to them and good stage presence. If you dig the likes of Witch Mountain, check these guys out.
Castle Ever Hunter Venomous Pentagram Corpse Candles Alcatraz Blacklands Storm Behind the Mountains Dying Breed
Next up was Scale the Summit, and right off the bat it was pretty obvious a decent amount of the attendees were mainly there for these prog metal giants. I didn't really know what to expect from their set, since I loved their major label debut, Carving Desert Canyons, but wasn't too keen on the kind of darker atmosphere they presented on their 2011 effort, The Collective. Since most of their set consisted of songs from their latest album, The Migration, their set was going to be my deciding factor of whether or not I should give it a shot. And after their set I'm definitely doing so. From what I heard, their newer material has pretty much everything that I loved about CDC and retains the good aspects of their heavier shift on The Collective and sees even more math rock tendencies than ever before, in a lot of tapping and clean tones that are very reminiscent of Piglet and Giraffes? Giraffes! The technical prowess these guys posses is nothing short of amazing really, and it was delight to hear and see such great musicianship right in front of my face. And it was awesome to hear a couple of tracks from Carving Desert Canyons. Something that was pretty funny was in between songs some guy, probably near the sound booth or something, would talk all tough guy metal in a forced low voice. The band introduced the mysterious voice as Phil Anselmo, so it seemed legit. Also Intronaut came out with some drinks and they all did shots. Scale the Summit returned the favor during Intronaut's set as well. Overall, Scale the Summit were a really great show.
Scale the Summit
The Dark Horse Age Of The Tide Odyssey Whales Atlas Novus The Great Plains The Olive Tree The Traveler
Finally, came the main band of the night, Intronaut. I was really excited to see them as this was the first time I'd be seeing them since I saw 'em opening for Mastodon back in 2009. They came out and the mysterious voice returned only this time posing as a wimpy boy introducing Intronaut. After that, Intronaut introduced themselves and then proceeded to play almost non stop for the next hour, focusing mainly on newer material for the first half of their performance then older stuff the later half. The whole time I was having a complete blast because I love all of their material and they sound absolutely phenomenal live, especially Joe Lester and Danny Walker. Joe's bass tone is just something from out of this world, and same goes for Danny's drumming. The only thing that was kind of a bummer was I couldn't hear Sacha's vocals all too well, but when they came in he sounded great and when both Sacha and Dave sang it sounded wonderful. The two voices really compliment each other. The visuals they were playing in the background were pretty cool too, mostly stuff relating to their album art work then clips of other stuff. The new stuff sounded great and really was just kind of a blissful sludge trance the whole time, and when they started busting out older material, starting with Prehistoricsms, I started losing my shit. That album is one of my all time favorites so I was to hear 3 songs off of that live. After they played Black Cloud they went of stage but came back on like not even half a minute later for their 'encore'. Overall the set was a great time, and it being a free show made just a bit sweeter.
Intronaut Killing Birds With Stones Milk Leg The Welding Core Relations Harmonomicon Sore Sight For Eyes Prehistoricisms Gleamer The Literal Black Cloud Australopithecus
After their set I ran into Nick from Cormorant and chatted with him for a bit. No real new news I can report, but it's always call to chat with a dude from one of my favorite bands for a bit. I also talked to Joe Lester for a little bit and he was super nice a really appreciative. Talked about latin jazz for a little bit which was cool, and learned he apparently went to UC Santa Cruz for music school. Maybe I should've gone there myself...
Castle: 7/10 Scale the Summit: 8/10 Intronaut: 9/10
Comments
Got the venue about an hour before doors, line was super long. I got in the venue about 1:10ish, and Thrown into Exile had already started. They sounded alright, but I just used their set time to go get a schedule thing and look around. I tried to find the sumerian stage and/or tent but couldn't see where it was. I asked a guy working the sumerian merch tent and he told me he was up in a different area of the venue, where the was a bit of open space. I decided I'd go investigate during Attika 7's perforamance. In the mean time me and my friend Alex went to the Jager stage to go check out Huntress.
If you don't know already, Huntress are a traditional sounding metal group with a female singer. They sounded pretty good live and it was obvious they were stoked on the experience. It was with them I noticed a trend with a lot of the opening side stage bands. It seemed that just about all of 'em referred to the crowd simply as "Mayhem Fest" never acknowledging the location. Nothing serious, but I thought it was kind of funny. The sound for Huntress was good except the vocals being a little underneath the mix and absolutely like 0 bass. Fortunately the singer didn't sound too bad in the live setting, but when ever she went for Halford level highs I was like "bitch, nah". Overall though they were a fun band with some decent songs. The song the opened with is still stuck in my head. I don't the the setlist for sure so I'm making assumptions for the most part based on the other setlist I've seen and what I remember them announcing.
Huntress
Spell Eater
Zenith
Blood Sister
I Want To Fuck You To Death
Eight Of Swords
After their set we went to check out the Sumerian Stage and to my relief and excitement we actually got a stage
This made Slap a happy boy.
After that we went to the Jager tent again to check out Battlecross
I was pleasantly surprised by these guys. I had heard some of their songs before going to Mayhem, so I knew they were a decent band, but they put on a really good performance. They were really full of energy and I was impressed with the vocalist and bassist the most. The vocalist has really good growls of all types, from Trevor Strnad-like highs and Johan Hegg-like lows. And the bassist was really impressive. His technique was great and he was doing a lot from slapping, two hand taps and there was some song that featured a bass solo I wish I could've heard better. Musically, nothing out of the ordinary, but definitely the perfect kind metal for a thing like Mayhem Fest. I can see these dudes getting big. Again, I don't really know the setlist, so I'm basing it off what I've heard elsewhere, only thing I can confirm is they didn't do a that Pantera cover this time.
Battlescross
Breaking You
Man Of Stone
Ghost Alive
Kaleb
Push Pull Destroy
Force Fed Lies
The next three band were all shit, Born of Osiris, Butcher Babies and Motionless in White, so me and my friend just kind of wandered around checking out merch and stuff. We went to the rockstar tent where they had all the free shit and I didn't really like the selections this year. They had two Rockstar Energy Waters, Tropical Citrus, and Blueberry Pomegranate Acai (only reason I know the names is because there's an ad for them on the back of the tour program), which tasted like a retard baby between Vitamin Water and that G2 gatorade stuff. The three cans they had were tea/leamonade, green apple and some bubblegum shit. The latter two were too artificial for me and I've never like tea, that one wasn't great. Also, I recognized one of the Rockstar girls walking around as my waitress at some local restaurant. Thought that was funny. Observations I made one those three bands were that BoO suck, Butcher of Babies weren't as naked as I thought they'd be, and Motionless in White is legit the stupidest shit I've ever had the misfortune of being around in a live setting. Their look, character and sound is just cringe-worthy. I wasn't aware whispering into the mic was a new style of singing scene core bands used.
I was planning on checking out a bit of JFAC for old-times sake but was like fuck it and just went to the Sumerian Tent to make sure it was running ahead of schedule because I didn't want to miss Scorpion Child. Fortunately they were on schedule and I was able to grab some rail and get ready for the best side stage band of the day.
Scorpion Child are the Led Zeppelin response to all the Sabbath-worship bands in recent history. They proved to be serious business when I noticed every member was wearing jeans, including the drummer. They sounded really great and had delicious fuzzy tones. The singer was a good frontman and was doing a lot of tricks with the mic-stand and such. There was a time he picked it up fast the bottom half of it flew off. I was worried it was gonna hit one of the security dudes when I saw it flying but it didn't. So he went Chuck Billy style for a bit until abandoning the whole mic-stand for the rest of the set, by throwing it like a javelin into the area between the barrier and the stage. He also went to sit on some of the monitors on the side of the stage and stuff like that. They were really entertaining, and were the first band I heard all day to refer to us as Mountain View, which I was impressed with because most of the time when bands try locations they just say Bay Area or San Francisco. So props to Scorpion Child for not only putting on a badass set but getting our location right. I'm definitely gonna check out their debut now.
After that me and my pal went back the main side stages. My pal wanted to get a close spot of Bodom, so we did that and heard Machine Head in the distance. Their set was the same as the one posted earlier. I was disappointed to only hear Rob Flynn yell "HEAD BANG MOTHERFUCKER" like 3 times. I was hoping at least 10. The shit went on too long and caused CoB to start late.
Machine Head
This Is the End
Imperium
Old
Locust
Halo
Children of Bodom went on people went nuts. I wasn't expecting so much excitement, I mean there were people shouting and chanting for Bodom well before Machine Head were done. So when they started people went nuts and the pits started. Unfortunately a good amount of the crowd were the kind of people who didn't realize that when
it Waynes, it poursyou get in the pit, you're gonna get pushed around and you're going that have crowd surfers falling on you every so often. This caused a few scuffles between dudes with their ladies and dude who just wanted toget crunkhave fun. And I saw plenty of people rush through the crowd to get close then one song later push their way out of the crowd because it was hectic. Meanwhile, Children of Bodom sounded pretty good, and when Alexi isn't singing and shredding, he's swearing. You know, the classy stuff more-or-less like "holy motherfucking shit, motherfuckers, you guys are fucking crazy, holy shit". Either way, even though I don't care about the band too much, they were fun and some of their material really isn't all that bad. After that we rushed to the main stage in time to catch Amon Amarth, we got to our seats right as they started.I guess there's a character limit to these things, so to be continued very shortly.
Amon Amarth
Destroyer of the Universe
The Pursuit of Vikings
War of the Gods
Deceiver of the Gods
Death in Fire
Twilight of the Thunder God
Next up were the band I really came for Mastodon. As you guys might know, I just saw them this past Wednesday, so I already saw a good amount of the set, but it was still fun to see the dudes again in this setting. Only thing that was a bummer was that everything Brent Hinds related was low in the mix. I couldn't hear his solos too well or his vocals very well except for Curl of the Burl. At this point this really isn't too much I can say that I haven't already. I love The Hunter, but love the other albums more so it'd be nice if the set was more varied. At least for the most part they stuck to mostly heavier tunes from The Hunter, and they played Blood and Thunder, which is always a pleasure.
Mastodon
Black Tongue
Crystal Skull
Dry Bone Valley
Oblivion
Octopus Has No Friends
Blasteroid
Bedazzled Fingernails
Spectrelight
Curl of the Burl
Blood and Thunder
Me and my pal skipped 5FDP for obvious reasons. We spent the time just chatting and stuff. There was one point I noticed a dude that looked like Brann Dailor and was like, that dude sure does look like Brann Dailor. Then I noticed a dude went up to him and some other guy noticed him, so I was like, well shit that’s Brann Dailor. So we went up to him and talked for a bit. I did my best not to go completely fangirl, and I didn’t go over the top “OMG LIKE YOU GUYS ARE LIKE MY FAVORITE BAND YOU GUYS ARE PERFECT” but I just told him some basic stuff like Mastodon is my favorite, I discovered them at the first Mayhem, this was my 7th time seeing them and other stuff. Also, this was the most famous did I’ve talked to, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous. Other than that though we were mainly just talking about stuff like how the tour was going, how cool Queens of the Stone Age are, and how they were doing on new material. If it wasn’t obvious already, the new Mastodon is more than likely gonna drop in 2014. He was nice enough to sign my tour program and take a photo. I usually don’t that kind of thing but he’s my favorite drummer and from my favorite band since 2008, so why not? He was a totally awesome dude. Definitely glad that happened.
By the time Brann took of to hang with the dudes from Machine Head, 5FDP was over so we went in to catch Rob Zombie. He came on and it was kind of a weird experience for me. He’s not unenjoyable by any means, but his new stuff wasn’t that great and while his stage show was cool, the music really just did nothing for me, and it would look like I wasn’t alone by the lack movement I saw in the crowd. I didn’t see many people shouting along or dancing or anything like that, but it was obvious people were eating it up. Like the dude next to me was singing all the words to a lot of the songs and giving roaring applauses after each song, but he did so while standing complete static. It was just weird. Other than that, the set was definitely my least favorite of the night. Also John 5 can shred. We cut out before the encore to beat traffic and then got some In-n-Out. Overall, this Mayhem was a success.
Rob Zombie
Teenage Nosferatu Pussy
Superbeast
Meet the Creeper
Living Dead Girl
More Human Than Human (White Zombie song)
Theme for an Angry Red Planet
Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga
Drum Solo
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
Sick Bubble-Gum
Lords of Salem
Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown
Thunder Kiss '65 (White Zombie song) (w/Guitar solo)
We're an American Band (Grand Funk Railroad cover)
Encore:Dragula
Huntress: 7/10
Battlecross: 7/10
Scorpion Child: 7.5/10
Children of Bodom: 7.25/10
Amon Amarth: 8/10
Mastodon 8.5/10
Rob Zombie: 6/10
Also you needed more fan boy in your mastodon part
Also, if you need more fanboy, as we were walking towards the stage to see Rob Zombie, Brann was walking the same way and he was like, "Oh we're going in the same direction." and I said we were just going to the stage, and he said "Oh cool, let's get weird." So naturally I was like, "aight let's hold hands" and my friend was like "yeah Wizard of Oz style" to which Brann replied 'no'. Then some other dudes spotted him and wanted stuff signed. Thought it was funny. Obviously I wasn't srs doe.
but i rly wasAnd I agree, I don't really like Huntress on record, but they're good live.
I got to Slim's with my friend Alex. There was a surprising amount of people early to the show. It really wasn't many people but dudes aren't usually getting to Slim's before doors, so I wasn't able to get front and center viewing but was a little to the left, close enough. Right around 9 the first band of the night went on.
The first band of the night was the bay area's very own Castle. To the disappointment of a few individuals, Mouth of the Architect dropped off the tour early to go do some European touring, so the last few dates of the tour welcomed Castle to the stage. Castle are a female fronted old school doom metal trio. Their set focused off material from their 2012 effort, Blacklands. They were met with a warm crowd response and it seemed they were happy to be playing with Scale the Summit and Intronaut, even if only for a few dates. They sounded great, bringing a slab of great riffs with a retro sound to them and good stage presence. If you dig the likes of Witch Mountain, check these guys out.
Castle
Ever Hunter
Venomous Pentagram
Corpse Candles
Alcatraz
Blacklands
Storm Behind the Mountains
Dying Breed
Next up was Scale the Summit, and right off the bat it was pretty obvious a decent amount of the attendees were mainly there for these prog metal giants. I didn't really know what to expect from their set, since I loved their major label debut, Carving Desert Canyons, but wasn't too keen on the kind of darker atmosphere they presented on their 2011 effort, The Collective. Since most of their set consisted of songs from their latest album, The Migration, their set was going to be my deciding factor of whether or not I should give it a shot. And after their set I'm definitely doing so. From what I heard, their newer material has pretty much everything that I loved about CDC and retains the good aspects of their heavier shift on The Collective and sees even more math rock tendencies than ever before, in a lot of tapping and clean tones that are very reminiscent of Piglet and Giraffes? Giraffes! The technical prowess these guys posses is nothing short of amazing really, and it was delight to hear and see such great musicianship right in front of my face. And it was awesome to hear a couple of tracks from Carving Desert Canyons. Something that was pretty funny was in between songs some guy, probably near the sound booth or something, would talk all tough guy metal in a forced low voice. The band introduced the mysterious voice as Phil Anselmo, so it seemed legit. Also Intronaut came out with some drinks and they all did shots. Scale the Summit returned the favor during Intronaut's set as well. Overall, Scale the Summit were a really great show.
Scale the Summit
The Dark Horse
Age Of The Tide
Odyssey
Whales
Atlas Novus
The Great Plains
The Olive Tree
The Traveler
Finally, came the main band of the night, Intronaut. I was really excited to see them as this was the first time I'd be seeing them since I saw 'em opening for Mastodon back in 2009. They came out and the mysterious voice returned only this time posing as a wimpy boy introducing Intronaut. After that, Intronaut introduced themselves and then proceeded to play almost non stop for the next hour, focusing mainly on newer material for the first half of their performance then older stuff the later half. The whole time I was having a complete blast because I love all of their material and they sound absolutely phenomenal live, especially Joe Lester and Danny Walker. Joe's bass tone is just something from out of this world, and same goes for Danny's drumming. The only thing that was kind of a bummer was I couldn't hear Sacha's vocals all too well, but when they came in he sounded great and when both Sacha and Dave sang it sounded wonderful. The two voices really compliment each other. The visuals they were playing in the background were pretty cool too, mostly stuff relating to their album art work then clips of other stuff. The new stuff sounded great and really was just kind of a blissful sludge trance the whole time, and when they started busting out older material, starting with Prehistoricsms, I started losing my shit. That album is one of my all time favorites so I was to hear 3 songs off of that live. After they played Black Cloud they went of stage but came back on like not even half a minute later for their 'encore'. Overall the set was a great time, and it being a free show made just a bit sweeter.
Intronaut
Killing Birds With Stones
Milk Leg
The Welding
Core Relations
Harmonomicon
Sore Sight For Eyes
Prehistoricisms
Gleamer
The Literal Black Cloud
Australopithecus
After their set I ran into Nick from Cormorant and chatted with him for a bit. No real new news I can report, but it's always call to chat with a dude from one of my favorite bands for a bit. I also talked to Joe Lester for a little bit and he was super nice a really appreciative. Talked about latin jazz for a little bit which was cool, and learned he apparently went to UC Santa Cruz for music school. Maybe I should've gone there myself...
Castle: 7/10
Scale the Summit: 8/10
Intronaut: 9/10