review by: Roberto
Martinelli
The Avalon Ballroom is a historic venue that was a movie
theater for a long while before it resumed its original purpose of hosting
shows. Checking out photos of it on the web makes you double check the
listing in the paper, but sure enough, this was the venue for a heavy
metal concert.
Various merch was on sale outside the main room. One table
was run by a young white guy who was dressed up like a cross of a New
York tough guy and a hip-hop star. It was a strange experience going over
to his table full of CDs and not recognizing a single band in two boxfuls
of stuff for sale. Full Blown Chaos was one of these
bands. They were heavy and almost death, but as simplistic as the genre
can get. The large vocalist dared the audience to “check this out!”
before resuming his vocal attacks.
A good deal of the movie theater lobby feel is still intact.
It’s mostly because of the carpet, which is quite a welcome aspect
of the Avalon when you get tired of standing. But there weren’t
too many fans on their ass when Voivod took the stage.
A lot of people were really jazzed about this show, none explicitly more
than a tall, awkward man with a Voivod t-shirt at least two sizes too
small. The guy provided his fair share of entertainment during Voivod’s
set as he danced in a way best described as aggressive swaying, hitting
poses of mock worship and cosmic connectedness with the band.
But Voivod were really good. The new album seems very weak
and commercial on CD, but even those songs came across very well on this
night. Chalk it all up to the band’s gusto. Ex-Maelstromer Liam
Deely, a once big fan who accompanied me on this night, had seen Voivod
a few years back in Berlin (where they played with Neurosis), and said
they were terrible. It was clear that Voivod got its second wind on this
part.
Liam seemed to enjoy the performance even more than I. In
his words, all the songs sounded different. This is more than I can say,
but I can speak for the immense charisma and likebility of Snake, the
singer. He was clearly having a lot of fun up there, choreographing the
guitarist and bass player’s back-up vocal parts and interacting
well with the audience between songs.
Of course most will know by now that Voivod’s bass
player is Jason Newsted (below), who on this night was nothing more and
nothing less than a good bass player. Newsted got into the music as much
as he could, adopting that “something smells bad” face that
has become his trademark.
Piggy, Voivod’s guitarist, was also very into the
music, but in a much more introverted way, although you wouldn’t
have been able to tell just by looking at his guitar. The latter was a
sort of sci-fi custom made job, very skeletal in nature. Take a look at
the picture below to get an idea.
It was day one of Voivod’s return tour. You could
feel the emotions of eagerness and adventure in Snake’s voice. It
couldn’t have been a finer way to kick things off.
Sepultura has been maligned for being a
shadow of what is was with Max Cavalera as frontman. This may be true
in a sense, as Sepultura will always miss Max’s superb rhythm guitar,
but Derek Greene is a more than apt replacement. This was the second time
I had seen Sepultura with Greene fronting the band, the first being on
the support tour for his first album with the band. He was very good then,
but clearly is feeling very comfortable as a permanent member now.
Sepultura set the table in fine fashion with their oldest
crowd favorite, “Troops of Doom,” one of the couple of tracks
Greene played some guitar for. But Greene is a much better performer with
his hands free, allowing him to flay his impressive dredlocks around and
to go manic to the music.
Greene’s expressions of psychotic intensity were aptly
reflected by the fervor his band mates put out through the set. Every
song, from much of the crowd favorite, older material, to the new songs,
hit hard with tribal intensity. The face of Sepultura may have changed,
but the live machine is still in top shape.
Back to top
