Edguy Show
Well, here's my recap of the Edguy show last Thursday :)
allisaire, her friend Kyle, and I left work around 5:30pm to head down to the venue. The trip went pretty fast compared to last year's Edguy show which took forever due to traffic. We got to the venue around 6:00pm and sat by the front door. There was maybe 5-6 people in front of us. The doors thankfully opened on time and we headed inside around 7:00pm. After grabbing a few bottles of water we headed for the front of the stage. We managed to get a spot on the right side in front of what would be Jens' mic. I've gone to enough Edguy shows over the years to figure out exactly where each guy will stand. Though it looks like they redesigned the stage a little because there was way more extra space on the right side than normal. I figured that maybe Tobi would head over to that spot to work the crowd but it wasn't meant to be :(
The first opening band went on 7:17pm which was 13 minutes earlier than they were supposed to go on....
December Under the Sun (local band) - Band full of young kids. The average age couldn't have been more than 18 at the most. Crappy cookie monster vocals. The bassist and drummer was pretty good but the guitarist and singer sucked. Not to mention the band wasn't playing to the audience at all. If you're going to bother to get on stage, at least look at the audience once during your performance. Even when the singer was announcing the songs, he was looking at one of his bandmates instead of the audience. Hopefully with time they'll figure this out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622336980663/
They got off after 30 minutes and we waited for the next band. I saw a guy walking around with a US tour The Days of Grays t-shirt. I was sorrily tempted to steal it from him. It's so unfair that Sonata Arctica isn't playing Seattle this time around :(
Anyway, the next band went on at 8:00pm which was on time....
Blood and Thunder (local band) - A lead singer/drummer was odd to see. Usually drummers do backing vocals not lead. The backing fell on the guitarist who was playing a Alexi Laiho brand guitar. In fact, they sounded a little too much like Children of Bodom in general. Well except for the keyboardist, who seemingly couldn't play more than four notes at a time. Janne Wirman, he is not. Though he was nice to look at. They had the same problem that the previous band did, totally ignored the audience, save for the singer/drummer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622461632810/
They got off after 30 minutes and the drums were carted offstage for some bigger ones. We chatted to pass the time and watched the audience slowly fill in. Though it wasn't a sellout by a long shot. The venue holds I think 400 people and there was maybe 200 at the most when Edguy went onstage. D'oh.
The next band went onstage at 8:51pm which was 9 minutes early....
Luna Mortis (from Wisconsin) - Another cookie monster vocal band for the most part. The female singer switched back and forth between clean and cookie monster. The one thing this band had going for them is they were entertaining on stage and looked like they were having a good time unlike the previous two bands. The guitarist standing in front of us was very cute, always smiling and looking our way. I could swear he was flirting with me at some points but maybe he was just being nice. Who knows? I tried to get a pick from him at the end of their set but he gave it to the guy next to me. Ah well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622461655334/
They got off after 30 minutes and the drums were again carted off for bigger ones. The cute guitarist came back onstage right as allisaire and I were pointing to his rig and laughing. Apparently you can program in words to describe your settings. The more memorable ones were: 666, Bleed, Dirty, Clean, and Brian. I couldn't figure out why he had a setting called "Brian" until I got home. It's actually his name. Anyway he chatted with us and even shook our hands. Awww, how sweet :)
The next band went on 9:55pm which was five minutes early....
Epicurean (from Minnesota) - Imagine my surprise to find out the cute guitarist from Luna Mortis was playing with this band as well. Apparently Epicurean's two guitarists were denied a visa to play in the US. So instead of canceling their participation on the tour, they recruited the two guitarists from Luna Mortis to do double duty. Ironically they looked like they fit in with the band just fine. Usually you can tell when a band has hired guys but you couldn't tell with these two guitarists. The cute guitarist told us before they went on that it was tough to do 30 minute back to back sets every night. Poor thing. Anyway, it was the same brand of music as the previous bands. Except this singer screamed instead of growling most times, not to mention totally flirting with the cute Luna Mortis guitarist. I leaned over to my co-worker and told her they were so doing it and she started laughing. Hey, I just call them as I see them ;)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622337052103/
They got off after 30 minutes and the second drum set was carted offstage. Felix's kit was already onstage and against the back wall. It's smarter to do it that way so you don't have to do any sound checks on it like the opening bands do. We waited for what seemed like forever for Edguy to come onstage. Bizarrely enough the crowd started chanting "Huey Lewis". I can't figure out why but it was amusing to say the least.
Edguy - They didn't get on until almost 11:00pm, despite the fact that the previous four bands went on fairly early. Tobi was still suffering from the flu as I noticed him coughing between songs or during the guitar solos. It didn't seemingly change his voice too much. He was able to hit the high notes in "Babylon" with ease. Though this show wasn't as good as the 2007 one. Maybe it's because the venue was only half full. I feel bad for them because of that. Though Tobi didn't let it keep him down. He was constantly trying to get the audience to sound like a gathering of thousands instead a handful of hundreds.
Tobi was talking a lot more than when I saw him previous times. Making fun of grunge which is a staple at every Seattle show since 2005 and making fun of his bandmates. Specifically of Dirk and Felix this time around. They just take it with good humor and laugh back. Goofballs. Oh and our section one the battle of the screaming. Damn straight ;)
This was the first time I was in the front row for an Edguy show, so I had to dodge Jens a lot during it. He would practically lean over me during several songs. And I would totally look up at him and drool. I never managed to get any pictures off when he was that close, unlike with Weiki last year. Then again, Jens is one of my favorite members and Weiki is not. My only gripe was again with Tobi not coming over that much to our side that often. Eggi was constantly over by us and Dirk did a few times but nothing for Tobi. *sighs*
Either way, they put on a great show and I was definitely happy to attend with someone else instead of always going alone. Plus I got to shake Eggi's hand. It was really sweaty but nice to do anyway. Sadly, no picks as everyone seemingly gave them to the guy next to me who wasn't even singing along. Lame, is what I have to say about that.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622337098617/
Setlist:
Dead or Rock
Speedhoven
Tears of a Mandrake
Lavatory Love Machine
Vain Glory Opera
Ministry of Saints
Drum Solo
The Pride of Creation
Save Me
Superheroes
Babylon (parts of The Trooper in the middle)
Sacrifice
King of Fools
The show ended a little before 1:00am, just in time for the live curfew to set in. I'm thankful that the opening bands went onstage without a hitch unlike at the King's X show in 2002. That cut King's X show in half because the stupid openings bands were late.
Anyway, Kyle dropped me off and I wound down surfing the internet before sleep claimed me at 1:30am.
allisaire, her friend Kyle, and I left work around 5:30pm to head down to the venue. The trip went pretty fast compared to last year's Edguy show which took forever due to traffic. We got to the venue around 6:00pm and sat by the front door. There was maybe 5-6 people in front of us. The doors thankfully opened on time and we headed inside around 7:00pm. After grabbing a few bottles of water we headed for the front of the stage. We managed to get a spot on the right side in front of what would be Jens' mic. I've gone to enough Edguy shows over the years to figure out exactly where each guy will stand. Though it looks like they redesigned the stage a little because there was way more extra space on the right side than normal. I figured that maybe Tobi would head over to that spot to work the crowd but it wasn't meant to be :(
The first opening band went on 7:17pm which was 13 minutes earlier than they were supposed to go on....
December Under the Sun (local band) - Band full of young kids. The average age couldn't have been more than 18 at the most. Crappy cookie monster vocals. The bassist and drummer was pretty good but the guitarist and singer sucked. Not to mention the band wasn't playing to the audience at all. If you're going to bother to get on stage, at least look at the audience once during your performance. Even when the singer was announcing the songs, he was looking at one of his bandmates instead of the audience. Hopefully with time they'll figure this out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622336980663/
They got off after 30 minutes and we waited for the next band. I saw a guy walking around with a US tour The Days of Grays t-shirt. I was sorrily tempted to steal it from him. It's so unfair that Sonata Arctica isn't playing Seattle this time around :(
Anyway, the next band went on at 8:00pm which was on time....
Blood and Thunder (local band) - A lead singer/drummer was odd to see. Usually drummers do backing vocals not lead. The backing fell on the guitarist who was playing a Alexi Laiho brand guitar. In fact, they sounded a little too much like Children of Bodom in general. Well except for the keyboardist, who seemingly couldn't play more than four notes at a time. Janne Wirman, he is not. Though he was nice to look at. They had the same problem that the previous band did, totally ignored the audience, save for the singer/drummer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622461632810/
They got off after 30 minutes and the drums were carted offstage for some bigger ones. We chatted to pass the time and watched the audience slowly fill in. Though it wasn't a sellout by a long shot. The venue holds I think 400 people and there was maybe 200 at the most when Edguy went onstage. D'oh.
The next band went onstage at 8:51pm which was 9 minutes early....
Luna Mortis (from Wisconsin) - Another cookie monster vocal band for the most part. The female singer switched back and forth between clean and cookie monster. The one thing this band had going for them is they were entertaining on stage and looked like they were having a good time unlike the previous two bands. The guitarist standing in front of us was very cute, always smiling and looking our way. I could swear he was flirting with me at some points but maybe he was just being nice. Who knows? I tried to get a pick from him at the end of their set but he gave it to the guy next to me. Ah well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622461655334/
They got off after 30 minutes and the drums were again carted off for bigger ones. The cute guitarist came back onstage right as allisaire and I were pointing to his rig and laughing. Apparently you can program in words to describe your settings. The more memorable ones were: 666, Bleed, Dirty, Clean, and Brian. I couldn't figure out why he had a setting called "Brian" until I got home. It's actually his name. Anyway he chatted with us and even shook our hands. Awww, how sweet :)
The next band went on 9:55pm which was five minutes early....
Epicurean (from Minnesota) - Imagine my surprise to find out the cute guitarist from Luna Mortis was playing with this band as well. Apparently Epicurean's two guitarists were denied a visa to play in the US. So instead of canceling their participation on the tour, they recruited the two guitarists from Luna Mortis to do double duty. Ironically they looked like they fit in with the band just fine. Usually you can tell when a band has hired guys but you couldn't tell with these two guitarists. The cute guitarist told us before they went on that it was tough to do 30 minute back to back sets every night. Poor thing. Anyway, it was the same brand of music as the previous bands. Except this singer screamed instead of growling most times, not to mention totally flirting with the cute Luna Mortis guitarist. I leaned over to my co-worker and told her they were so doing it and she started laughing. Hey, I just call them as I see them ;)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622337052103/
They got off after 30 minutes and the second drum set was carted offstage. Felix's kit was already onstage and against the back wall. It's smarter to do it that way so you don't have to do any sound checks on it like the opening bands do. We waited for what seemed like forever for Edguy to come onstage. Bizarrely enough the crowd started chanting "Huey Lewis". I can't figure out why but it was amusing to say the least.
Edguy - They didn't get on until almost 11:00pm, despite the fact that the previous four bands went on fairly early. Tobi was still suffering from the flu as I noticed him coughing between songs or during the guitar solos. It didn't seemingly change his voice too much. He was able to hit the high notes in "Babylon" with ease. Though this show wasn't as good as the 2007 one. Maybe it's because the venue was only half full. I feel bad for them because of that. Though Tobi didn't let it keep him down. He was constantly trying to get the audience to sound like a gathering of thousands instead a handful of hundreds.
Tobi was talking a lot more than when I saw him previous times. Making fun of grunge which is a staple at every Seattle show since 2005 and making fun of his bandmates. Specifically of Dirk and Felix this time around. They just take it with good humor and laugh back. Goofballs. Oh and our section one the battle of the screaming. Damn straight ;)
This was the first time I was in the front row for an Edguy show, so I had to dodge Jens a lot during it. He would practically lean over me during several songs. And I would totally look up at him and drool. I never managed to get any pictures off when he was that close, unlike with Weiki last year. Then again, Jens is one of my favorite members and Weiki is not. My only gripe was again with Tobi not coming over that much to our side that often. Eggi was constantly over by us and Dirk did a few times but nothing for Tobi. *sighs*
Either way, they put on a great show and I was definitely happy to attend with someone else instead of always going alone. Plus I got to shake Eggi's hand. It was really sweaty but nice to do anyway. Sadly, no picks as everyone seemingly gave them to the guy next to me who wasn't even singing along. Lame, is what I have to say about that.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31444560@N00/sets/72157622337098617/
Setlist:
Dead or Rock
Speedhoven
Tears of a Mandrake
Lavatory Love Machine
Vain Glory Opera
Ministry of Saints
Drum Solo
The Pride of Creation
Save Me
Superheroes
Babylon (parts of The Trooper in the middle)
Sacrifice
King of Fools
The show ended a little before 1:00am, just in time for the live curfew to set in. I'm thankful that the opening bands went onstage without a hitch unlike at the King's X show in 2002. That cut King's X show in half because the stupid openings bands were late.
Anyway, Kyle dropped me off and I wound down surfing the internet before sleep claimed me at 1:30am.