mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2023-03-20 10:23 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2023-03-20 10:23 pm
Saturday: Combichrist, Grendel, Priest, and Esoterik show
The show on Saturday was fun! Who wants some mediocre stage photos!?
Obligatory venue sign.
The lead singer of Priest. My favorite shot of the night, despite the rando taking up half the frame.
Combichrist!
I had that mandatory work meeting after work, though I'd told my manager that I had to leave at 6:00. But then Alex was running late, and the meeting was winding down anyway, so I stuck around. Then Alex arrived, but I got cornered by the head of compliance who wanted to answer one of my questions, which I appreciated, but I had to go! I did cut out pretty fast after that, but we were still not leaving until almost 6:30.
As we arrived at the venue, dreading the parking situation and hoping we hadn't missed much, we saw a huge line of goths waiting outside, lol. Checking on the event page, we found out doors had been postponed until 6:45, so the timing was almost perfect!
We pre-gamed a little bit, and then headed in.
One of the beams on the patio, covered in stickers. "Eyvre", the one on the elephant toward the middle, is an old coworker of mine from the bakery, ha.
The venue was pretty crowded - genuinely glad there was pretty good turnout! We got ourcups of paint thinner well drinks. My back was unfortunately pretty cranky already, so we camped out by a pillar so I had something to lean on.
The first opener, Esoterik.
They... weren't really much to my liking. It's a shame, because I think I'd really like what they were going for if they had a little more skill behind it. Unfortunately, the vocalist seems like she was struggling to really project her voice, so instead she would just *scream* the words, and it was definitely not terribly in-tune. It's certainly possible she was having an off night, or maybe she couldn't hear herself on the venue's sound system, or maybe they aren't used to a tour schedule that doesn't allow for a lot of recovery days from singing.
The second opener was Priest, from Sweden, and I *really* liked them! They were probably my favorite of the show, despite not having heard them prior. Next Bandcamp Friday I'm planning to grab a few albums.
I'm weak for a cyberpunk aesthetic, I have to admit.
The guitarist played some things ordinarily and sometimes played his guitar with a violin bow, which you can see above, ha.
Here you can see the more "leather plague doctor" shape to the guitarist's mask. (The synth player's was identical.)
The singer did a thing where he came around and "blessed" members of the crowd during one of the last songs. (Just a firm hand-on-top-of-head for a moment.) I was one of them, and so was Alex. Then he came back around and got Alex again, who leaned over and said "Aw, he pet me twice!" lol.)
After that was the last opener/co-headliner, Grendel. I've certainly heard OF them and seen them mentioned around the scene for a long while, though my familiarity with their stuff is very much "in-passing" at best.
But they were pretty good! Definite post-apocalyptic/currently apocalyptic tone to most of their stuff, which felt fitting, tbh.
Unfortunately, the Tallest Guy In The Venue shoved his way through and stood in front of me and Alex. I had accepted my fate, since I wanted to stay in the spot next to the pillar, and Alex initially seemed to take it with good humor in the "ugh, typical, what the hell" vein, but after a little bit he was getting really annoyed as this dude kept then running into us while trying to talk to the girl he was with.
Eventually, Tallest Guy In The Venue moved, so we slithered forward on the floor, even though it meant I had to ditch my leaning pillar.
The theme of the tour for both Grendel and Combichrist is that they're doing old-school songs of theirs. They did do one newer one for their final song, after a short "fuck fascism, fuck authoritarianism!" speech.
And then Combichrist! The stage was very dark the whole time, so I got very few pictures!
We were able to slide around to the side of the stage, where there was a bar I could lean on. Unfortunately, we wound up right behind the Most Annoying Guy In The Venue. (Super high, super not into the music, kept texting on his brightness-up-the-whole-way phones - plural, he had three phones in his pockets -, kept dragging his girlfriend into making out, even though she did seem to be into the music, then was trying to get her to get another girl she'd been talking to to go home with them for the night? It was a whole drama playing out. He and some other guy kept trying to cut through a staff area to shortcut back to the bar and then back to the stage, even though staff kept yelling at them. It was very annoying, but at least I had somewhere to lean to take pressure off my back, so beggars choosing and all.
One of the few times there was any light, lol. And you still can't see shit!
I'm not a wild superfan fan of Combichrist. Like... I like his stuff okay! Some of it is extremely excellent to dance to! But it's not like, top 10 for me or anything, except when I very specifically want angry stompy choices, ha. (Which IS rather to my taste lately, ha.) It's more to Alex's liking than mine. However, thanks to a basically unending tour schedule, I've seen Combichrist more than just about anyone else it feels like.
However, I have enjoyed Andy's mini-redemption arc of the last few years (which I've gotten mostly second-hand from Alex.) Andy had a few pretty rancid takes several years back, mainly regarding how the scene shouldn't devolve into infighting over petty politics, and everyone can have their own beliefs. Except those politics were "we don't want nazis in our scene, actually". But despite his garbage takes at the time, he actually apparently listened to a lot of the people who were trying to explain why those were garbage takes, and revised a lot of his attitudes. I certainly hope it's genuine, and it seems to be. He's apparently now gotten #cancelled for being a libtard by the alt-righters who used to love him, so that's a good sign, lol.
Very similar to the one I left above the cut. This one you can see him better, but I liked the more dramatic silhouette more.
We got home a bit after midnight, and managed to make it to bed by about 1:00, after taking care of the dogs. It's pathetic that I was as tired as I was after it! This "getting older" stuff is nonsense.
Bleh, photos were definitely pretty mediocre this time. The lighting was as not-conducive as always, but my phone seems to get worse every time I try to use it for things like this.
I know I have a lot a lot of catching up to do here, but it'll be one more night!
Obligatory venue sign.
The lead singer of Priest. My favorite shot of the night, despite the rando taking up half the frame.
Combichrist!
I had that mandatory work meeting after work, though I'd told my manager that I had to leave at 6:00. But then Alex was running late, and the meeting was winding down anyway, so I stuck around. Then Alex arrived, but I got cornered by the head of compliance who wanted to answer one of my questions, which I appreciated, but I had to go! I did cut out pretty fast after that, but we were still not leaving until almost 6:30.
As we arrived at the venue, dreading the parking situation and hoping we hadn't missed much, we saw a huge line of goths waiting outside, lol. Checking on the event page, we found out doors had been postponed until 6:45, so the timing was almost perfect!
We pre-gamed a little bit, and then headed in.
One of the beams on the patio, covered in stickers. "Eyvre", the one on the elephant toward the middle, is an old coworker of mine from the bakery, ha.
The venue was pretty crowded - genuinely glad there was pretty good turnout! We got our
The first opener, Esoterik.
They... weren't really much to my liking. It's a shame, because I think I'd really like what they were going for if they had a little more skill behind it. Unfortunately, the vocalist seems like she was struggling to really project her voice, so instead she would just *scream* the words, and it was definitely not terribly in-tune. It's certainly possible she was having an off night, or maybe she couldn't hear herself on the venue's sound system, or maybe they aren't used to a tour schedule that doesn't allow for a lot of recovery days from singing.
The second opener was Priest, from Sweden, and I *really* liked them! They were probably my favorite of the show, despite not having heard them prior. Next Bandcamp Friday I'm planning to grab a few albums.
I'm weak for a cyberpunk aesthetic, I have to admit.
The guitarist played some things ordinarily and sometimes played his guitar with a violin bow, which you can see above, ha.
Here you can see the more "leather plague doctor" shape to the guitarist's mask. (The synth player's was identical.)
The singer did a thing where he came around and "blessed" members of the crowd during one of the last songs. (Just a firm hand-on-top-of-head for a moment.) I was one of them, and so was Alex. Then he came back around and got Alex again, who leaned over and said "Aw, he pet me twice!" lol.)
After that was the last opener/co-headliner, Grendel. I've certainly heard OF them and seen them mentioned around the scene for a long while, though my familiarity with their stuff is very much "in-passing" at best.
But they were pretty good! Definite post-apocalyptic/currently apocalyptic tone to most of their stuff, which felt fitting, tbh.
Unfortunately, the Tallest Guy In The Venue shoved his way through and stood in front of me and Alex. I had accepted my fate, since I wanted to stay in the spot next to the pillar, and Alex initially seemed to take it with good humor in the "ugh, typical, what the hell" vein, but after a little bit he was getting really annoyed as this dude kept then running into us while trying to talk to the girl he was with.
Eventually, Tallest Guy In The Venue moved, so we slithered forward on the floor, even though it meant I had to ditch my leaning pillar.
The theme of the tour for both Grendel and Combichrist is that they're doing old-school songs of theirs. They did do one newer one for their final song, after a short "fuck fascism, fuck authoritarianism!" speech.
And then Combichrist! The stage was very dark the whole time, so I got very few pictures!
We were able to slide around to the side of the stage, where there was a bar I could lean on. Unfortunately, we wound up right behind the Most Annoying Guy In The Venue. (Super high, super not into the music, kept texting on his brightness-up-the-whole-way phones - plural, he had three phones in his pockets -, kept dragging his girlfriend into making out, even though she did seem to be into the music, then was trying to get her to get another girl she'd been talking to to go home with them for the night? It was a whole drama playing out. He and some other guy kept trying to cut through a staff area to shortcut back to the bar and then back to the stage, even though staff kept yelling at them. It was very annoying, but at least I had somewhere to lean to take pressure off my back, so beggars choosing and all.
One of the few times there was any light, lol. And you still can't see shit!
I'm not a wild superfan fan of Combichrist. Like... I like his stuff okay! Some of it is extremely excellent to dance to! But it's not like, top 10 for me or anything, except when I very specifically want angry stompy choices, ha. (Which IS rather to my taste lately, ha.) It's more to Alex's liking than mine. However, thanks to a basically unending tour schedule, I've seen Combichrist more than just about anyone else it feels like.
However, I have enjoyed Andy's mini-redemption arc of the last few years (which I've gotten mostly second-hand from Alex.) Andy had a few pretty rancid takes several years back, mainly regarding how the scene shouldn't devolve into infighting over petty politics, and everyone can have their own beliefs. Except those politics were "we don't want nazis in our scene, actually". But despite his garbage takes at the time, he actually apparently listened to a lot of the people who were trying to explain why those were garbage takes, and revised a lot of his attitudes. I certainly hope it's genuine, and it seems to be. He's apparently now gotten #cancelled for being a libtard by the alt-righters who used to love him, so that's a good sign, lol.
Very similar to the one I left above the cut. This one you can see him better, but I liked the more dramatic silhouette more.
We got home a bit after midnight, and managed to make it to bed by about 1:00, after taking care of the dogs. It's pathetic that I was as tired as I was after it! This "getting older" stuff is nonsense.
Bleh, photos were definitely pretty mediocre this time. The lighting was as not-conducive as always, but my phone seems to get worse every time I try to use it for things like this.
no subject
The purple silhouette ones are cool. Priest sounds awesome
no subject
The purple silhouette ones turned out better than I'd guessed they would!
Priest was very cool, and I look forward to hopefully listening to more of their stuff.
no subject
Yay! I'm really glad you had a good time despite annoying people and annoying tall people. Growing older is a bummer - I also couldn't stand up all evening without a pillar, so I feel the pain there. But you're still going out to concerts, so you're not letting it cramp your style :)
no subject
I saw Combichrist with The Birthday Massacre
Since Dreamwidth won't let me embed a video in comments this is the song that made the biggest impact on me in that concert.
In fact, they were sold out of CDs for the Birthday Massacre came on. Combichrist didn't have a new cd that time which I thought was odd.
They really whipped the crowd into a frenzy with Never Surrender and my glasses got bent in the moshpit. In fact, I use a photo of my face after that as my user icon on Steam (^_^)
Re: I saw Combichrist with The Birthday Massacre
We were standing a little farther back for The Birthday Massacre, and for a bit I was making small talk with an older gentleman. He didn't look like he was a regular on the scene, but he was friendly, and we just chatted about the venue and the like... and it turned out to be Chibi's dad, haha.
I'm sorry your glasses got bent, but I also love that it was energetic enough to do so, lol.
no subject
no subject