It was a great night for a concert. We approached The Electric Factory with high hopes for an amazing, and hopefully chaotic show. First to the stage was 2Cents, and though I was not familiar with them they were surprisingly good. With a mix of heavy metal and punk sound, they had a refreshingly different and crowd stirring quality that I haven’t seen in quite some time. After their set they headed back to their merch booth and shook hands and signed cd’s and posters for the rest of the night. They were certainly the friendliest and most approachable band I’ve come across in a long time.
Clutch. What could I say about this band that hasn’t been said a thousand times over already. Amazing? Of course. Energetic? Almost to a fault. Groovy? You better believe it. These guys know how to fire up a crowd and keep them at a fever pitch for an entire set. Three songs in when Neil says “Please allow me to adjust my pants” the crowd turns into a pack of rabid wolves and begins to jump and mosh and scream along with the lyrics. From that point forward the mob rules and all is chaos and everything is right with the world. Never have these guys disappointed, and they probably never will. Even if you don’t know who Clutch is, see them the next time they are in town and you will be a fan for life.
Next up, all the way from Espoo, Finland, we have Children of Bodom. These 6 time gold recording artists are everything we have come to expect and admire about Finnish metal. Their heavy and melodic sounds will draw you in and refuse to let you go until the last note stops. While on stage they seem to be possessed with an energy that is almost supernatural in it’s limitlessness. Couple that with the fact that front man Alexi Laiho speaks english so clearly that one would almost think he was American, and you have a stage performance to remember for a long time to come. From first note to last note the band did not stop screaming and moshing and jumping and chanting. These guys are definitely someone to keep an eye on from now on.
Last and most assuredly not least we have Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society. The pinnacle of the evening and rightly so. This band thrashes like no one else you will ever see. Zakk comes on stage looking like a Viking from a time long gone, and proves once again that he can do things with a guitar that the guitar itself didn’t even know it could do. Will Hunt, the “new kid” of the band, performed admirably on the drums and seemed as if he had been there all along. If the crowd was fired up before these guys took the stage, then the only word to describe the crowd after they came on is MADNESS. Screaming, dancing, jumping, moshing, chanting and singing all could be seen in equal measure as Black Label Society stormed our brains like the beaches of Normandy. When it was all said and done and the music stopped everyone was exhausted and fulfilled and left with a sense of gratification an hope that Zakk Wylde and his merry band of madmen would be back soon.
