October 31, perhaps the scariest day of the year for some, was one of the best nights of my life. The Blackest of the Black tour came to poor old Kansas City last night, and they played at the Uptown Theatre. Because it was Halloween night, people came out all dressed up in their halloween costumes, and there were lots of people with corpsepaint. Security was tight at the event, and they wouldn't let anybody through with a camera, so I couldn't take any pictures =/. But anyways, this was my first time at the Uptown Theatre, and when I entered the main area, I swear to you, the design was pure Gothic, all around. Concert started shortly after 7:00, and the first band up was Skeletonwitch.
Skeletonwitch:
Skeletonwitch hails from Ohio, and they play Blackened Thrash. Perfect way to get the crowd rowdy. They played about 5 songs, I think, and it went by pretty quickly. But almost anybody who was in the room was moshing the entire time. Great energy. The only thing that was upsetting about these guys, were that they weren't headlining, because they very well out performed the later acts (Dimmu Borgir, specifically.) They made very little use of any stage props, but they did have goat skulls over their cabs, which was pretty awesome looking. Check them out their latest album, Beyond The Permafrost, its a must-listen. 9/10
Winds of Plague:
As a Deathcore band that claims to be Scandinavian Black Metal (which they aren't), expectations weren't really high. They came out dressed up with the corpsepaint (except with keyboardist, she came out as a bleeding nun) and the best moment they had was their opening song, A Cold Day in Hell, which was also their shortest song. Nothing really struck out as memorable, just your basic -core band with the fast parts, followed by the breakdowns, then repeat. I spent most of my time moshing (no hardcore dancing at all >_>) until they were done. 5/10
Moonspell:
Now, these guys one of those Death/Doom bands in the 90's that reformed to Goth Metal later one. I was expecting these guys to pull a My Dying Bride and be all about their Goth material. Was I ever wrong. They start by playing full out Death/Doom, which got everybody jumping. By this time, also, the fog machines are all warmed up, and the stage is completely covered. They also had the projection lights on, along with the colored lights. All this created a very intense atmosphere, especially when the strobe lights were used. Amazing energy and stage presence, and the vocalist kept thanking us. I would definitely go see these guys again if they were headlining a tour, they're just pure awesome. They even put on a better show than Danzig (which is hard to believe.) 9/10
Dimmu Borgir:
Lots of the young guys there came to see these guys. The moment they step onto the stage, its instant chaos. Mini-pits form all over the place. The people who came in corpsepaint were losing their minds. After all, they were the ones who put "Blackest in Blackest of the Black." The band didn't have their corpsepaint on, though, because "the freaking crew sneaked onto our bus and stole it all." They started out great, opening with songs like The Serpentine Offering and Spellbound by the Devil. They used all the stage props like Moonspell did, except more fog and more flashing lights. After a while though, the energy started to die down, they did very little to get the crowd pumped (except for the occasional chant). By that, I was a little disappointed, but not much. 7.5/10
Danzig:
By the time Dimmu finished, it was 10:07. To this point, the bands would come out within 10 minutes of the previous. Not Danzig, though. Danzig took the longest out of anybody to come out (around 45 minutes), so most of the crowd started getting angry. The stage crew tried to calm us down by making fun of us, which only got everybody angrier. Finally, he comes out, the everybody went nuts. The show was more of a retrospective, playing songs from every album. During every song, the crowd was singing along, and there was a crowd-wide sway the entire time. During his time, though, somebody jumped the rail and got on stage, and out of nowhere, the fattest freaking roadie I have ever seen ran onto stage and actually JUMPED on the poor guy xD. That is something I'll never forget. Also, Danzig never seems to finish a bottle of water, he just takes a sip from and throws it into the crowd. He even threw one into my direction, and IT HIT ME ON MY HEAD!!!1!1!!!1!!!11!!1 DANZIG HIT ME IN THE HEAD WITH A WATER BOTTLE! I still haven't decided it thats a good thing or a bad thing =/. Anyways, he closed the set with Mother, which everybody sang along with. He thanked us, and walked off. But we weren't gonna let him. Everybody started chanting his name, and sure enough, somebody went backstage and told the boys to come back. They played two more songs off Danzig 2, interacted with the crowd, then the show was over. He had the most tremendous stage presence of any band before him, but the show they put on wasn't as good as it could of been. During most of it, everybody stood in the same place, which was pretty boring. About 5 of the songs they played were hard to differentiate, because they all sounded like She Rides. It was pretty cool seeing him, though. 8.5/10
So, if this tour is coming to your town, go see it. You won't regret it. It gets a studry 8.5/10
Btw, this was pretty awesome, a guy in a wheelchair was in the pit the ENTIRE time. But he wasn't stuck in it, he was actually moshing with the best of 'em, and nobody was afraid to push him back either. Just goes to show you that anybody can thrash, whether you're handicapped or not
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