Well, as some of you know, this was a long-awaited and highly-anticipated event for me. I actually went through a period of depression when they came through on the first US reunion tour and didn't have any shows near me, lol, but that was remedied when they announced the second tour, with a Cleveland show
130-140 miles was nothing for me to travel for this event.
The show was at Peabody's... not exactly my favorite venue, but one that i have witnessed a few good shows (Nile immediately comes to mind) at none the less. I knew that the show would at least be very up-close at this small place. There was some confusion when we departed for the show, as to when the show actually started. Carcass' myspace said 8PM, so we planned to leave according to that. That afternoon though, we discovered that the venues website i think said 7PM, and our printed out tickets said 6PM... Anyways we rushed around, got lost a bit (totally not my fault), and ended up arriving at about 8:15. I rushed in of course, and thankfully it was still an opening band on stage.
We got our drink on and made our way towards the front for the next opener Samael. They were decent, but a bit out of place. They reminded me more of KMFDM mixed with Rammstein... so more of an industrial sound than anything. The vocalist sounded german/austrian/swiss... couldnt tell for sure tho. The main problem i had with them is that their drummer also did keyboards... So a lot of their songs used electronic drums, which i was very disappointed in. Especially due to the fact that he always used the electronic drums whenever there was any part with double-kicks or blast beats. They had a good energy, and i think they could be much better if that drummer just became a full time keyboardist and they got a real drummer behind a real drumkit.
And then the next band of the evening... it's like some sort of cruel joke that this band should be the main support for two of my favorite bands, AND at the same venue. If you've read my review of the Nile concert, you'll know how i feel about this band. Suicide Silence really needs to tour with other "hardcore" "screamo" teenage bands and stay off the tours with the real, ballsy death metal bands. <sarcasm> I was so enthralled by their performance, and how unique each of their songs sound </sarcasm> that I found myself outside smoking a cigarette... and i dont even smoke!
So after they finally left the stage we weaseled our way up towards the front. After a long wait, Carcass finally hit the stage.
I'm not even really going to go into much detail about Carcass or their performance. I'm just going to say that they played every song that I hoped that they would play (sure, i wished they would have just played through all of their albums, beginning to end, but i'm being realistic here), Mike and Bill's playing was both equally flawless, and they really DO sound better live than on the albums. The tone of the randalls they were using was just as incredible as it was at the most recent Arch Enemy show. I was completely blow away in every possible way. jeff had some good banter with the audience, some funny jokes here and there.
There was a good deal of crowd surfing going on, the bands mics and other equipment was getting knocked over quite a bit, and a couple people bumped into a band member or two when they were up on the stage, but all of the band members just sorta laughed at it and had a good time
even more impressive, they didnt miss a note through it all. (yes, that guy landed on me seconds after that picture)
In summary, all i can say is that if you're anywhere REMOTELY close to one of the shows on this tour, and can find tickets still... BUY THEM NOW!!!!
Here's linkage to some clips i recorded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwztBS4Ci30And here's a slideshow of the photos that turned out
http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk265/s...mview=slideshowAs you can see below, this past year has been a very awesome year for me, at least when it comes to seeing my favorite musicians play!