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Power Metal = Joy
Oct. 12th, 2009 08:49 amSaw DragonForce at the TLA last night. So awesome it kinda hurt a little.
Highlights reel:
1st opener--Taking Dawn, from Las Vegas. When the opener for the opener is good, you know it's going to be a good night. I think they were the Wyld Stallionz in disguise...the frontman and bassist even looked like Bill and Ted. They covered Fleetwood Mac's "Break the Chain" (very popular to do in metal, go fig) and the frontman (who also played rhythm guitar) got off the stage (wireless amp) and played IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PIT. So, so metal.
2nd opener--Sonata Artica, from Finland. Big, theatrical sound. Frontman could have played Jean Valjean or Jekyll on Broadway. At one point, they did heavy metal Hava Nagila. At another, the frontman did some classic yodelling. In power metal, it's perfectly acceptable to be hilarious. No irony required.
The nitty gritty--DragonForce is awesome. No questions. They heckled each other all night while playing incredible metal. My brain melted. Their keyboardist and they keys man from Sonata Arctica had a keytar duel in the middle of the set. The DF keyboardist also wore lime green pants to match his hair and played a theramin. Herman Li has a guitar with 5 pickups. The DF frontman keeps a fan pointed up at him to make his hair flow in a breeze at all times. And when it makes him eat his hair, he laughs it up. The last time I laughed this much in a theater it was at Patton Oswalt.
Ah, and a humbucker is a pickup, but not all pickups are humbuckers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbucker. Herman Lees guitars do not (that I saw) have humbuckers, just pickups. But more than usual.
Highlights reel:
1st opener--Taking Dawn, from Las Vegas. When the opener for the opener is good, you know it's going to be a good night. I think they were the Wyld Stallionz in disguise...the frontman and bassist even looked like Bill and Ted. They covered Fleetwood Mac's "Break the Chain" (very popular to do in metal, go fig) and the frontman (who also played rhythm guitar) got off the stage (wireless amp) and played IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PIT. So, so metal.
2nd opener--Sonata Artica, from Finland. Big, theatrical sound. Frontman could have played Jean Valjean or Jekyll on Broadway. At one point, they did heavy metal Hava Nagila. At another, the frontman did some classic yodelling. In power metal, it's perfectly acceptable to be hilarious. No irony required.
The nitty gritty--DragonForce is awesome. No questions. They heckled each other all night while playing incredible metal. My brain melted. Their keyboardist and they keys man from Sonata Arctica had a keytar duel in the middle of the set. The DF keyboardist also wore lime green pants to match his hair and played a theramin. Herman Li has a guitar with 5 pickups. The DF frontman keeps a fan pointed up at him to make his hair flow in a breeze at all times. And when it makes him eat his hair, he laughs it up. The last time I laughed this much in a theater it was at Patton Oswalt.
Ah, and a humbucker is a pickup, but not all pickups are humbuckers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbucker. Herman Lees guitars do not (that I saw) have humbuckers, just pickups. But more than usual.
