This was an absolutely killer show, so here are some blurry pictures and an even blurrier write up of the evening...
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| Gamaliel |
While it's not fair to Gamaliel I really hadn't heard of them before the show, but their set was still really enjoyable and a good fit. Based off of the strength of their performance, I'll be digging deeper into their music over the coming weeks and regret that I hadn't done so before. It's always better when you go into a show knowing, at least partly, what to expect from a band. That way you get a sense of how they sound in the studio versus live and can really embrace the live experience rather than focusing on absorbing new music.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1404839292/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://gamalielofficial.bandcamp.com/album/the-abyssal-gateway">The Abyssal Gateway by Gamaliel</a></iframe>
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| Volahn |
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| Volahn - Passion and Sweat |
Going into the night, I would have put Volahn as easily my favorite band of the set and man did they deliver. While some of the more atmospheric nuances of the music were burnt away by the ferocity of the live performance, the overall meaning of the music was made abundantly clear. There's not much sense belaboring the point, Volahn is an awesome project and I'm assuming the rest of the lineup was filled out with Black Twilight Circle Crew. Part of me was morbidly curious as to how a solo project would be done live (which honestly, I've seen a more times than I care to count).
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| Uada |
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| Uada - Expert Level Smoke Tech |
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| Uada - From 0 to 100 |
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| Uada - These Cymbals were Ridiculously Clean and Pretty |
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| Uada's Smoke Tech the Night's Real Hero |
Uada is absolutely fantastic live. Just to put things into perspective, Volahn is a huge deal for me and I absolutely love their music and I'm also super into Inquisition. Uada on the other hand I never really got into, but on this night their performance was hands down the best of any of the bands in attendance. Their energy was unreal and they sounded significantly better than what I had heard from them on "Devoid of Light." I'd have to really sit down with the album and hear them live again to totally pin down why the magic failed to translate onto the recording. Despite how much I appreciate the band's smoke tech, there is a substantial difference in their live sound that goes well beyond theatrics.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=336486757/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://uada.bandcamp.com/album/devoid-of-light">Devoid of Light by UADA</a></iframe>
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| Inquisition |
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| Inquisition's Banners Hide Incubus from View (Also Note - Real Photographer in Background) |
You know what's absolutely bewildering? How Inquisition sounds so immersive with just two musicians in a live setting. In a live venue, similar to music in a vehicle, the high end can often get drowned out. With Inquisition though the lead guitar occasionally occupies some of the frequencies that you'd usually hear from the bass. Also the music's composition darts from high tremolo picking to low bends so frequently that they can somewhat convincingly project greater numbers than they have (a similar effect, albeit much smaller, as what you can hear from famous folk guitar prodigy Leo Kottke who uses virtuoso speed and liberal counterpoint to sound like five people). Another thing notable about Inquisition is how even the vocals are live. You can hear this in similar vocalists like Demonaz, so it may be attributable to the style, but even the brief operatic/bark/cleans (sorry, I'll work on a better term for these) were 100% precise. All in all this was a hell of a night and one of the best shows I've been to.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2574764700/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://inquisitionbm.bandcamp.com/album/bloodshed-across-the-empyrean-altar-beyond-the-celestial-zenith">Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith by Inquisition</a></iframe>
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