New England Concerts
Presents
Epica
w/ Visions of Atlantis
The Agonist
Saturday September 8th
www.marksshowplace.com

we still have an open slot if anyone is interested... email us bandbookingmarks@aol.com

wow. no one is going to be at this.

I LL BE THERE

I will. I've been listening to epica and visions of atlantis a bunch lately.

I really hope there are nice lights since this is all progressive powermetal.

I also wonder what openers are playing.

ill bet that tommy coma is opening.

if they are, it's no on their myspace
http://www.myspace.com/tommycoma

purenform: 6:45-645
barron: 7-7:30
warmonger: 7:45-8:15
akel dam: 8:30-9
agonist, the: 9:15-9:45
visions_of_atlantis: 10-10:45
epica: 11-12:30

completely different atmosphere from last night here. I haven't shot a single one of the bands here. I think that this is one of those shows that very very few people here for bands other than their friends bands. I'm sure people will show up later on, but thus far I've only seen maybe one group of 3 guys who I know are here to see the girl fronted metal bands so they might not even stay til the end. for me, I get better photos the fewer people there are here, but oh well. the second to last local is about to start. this is also the last time I will be here when there is smoking. HELLS FUCKING YEAH! er.. that my or may not be true, but let's just assume it is true.

purenform: pretty sweet guitar playing. I would much rather have seen them rock the dbh. I don't think I would listen to them though. Sort of modern metallica-ish. Idk, will check out the myspace I guess.

barron: slayerized riffs with a pretty decent scream on the singer. The non-screaming singing I could do with out. I, probably going to be typing that a lot tonight. Actually, his scream reminded me a lot of andy's ( random acts of violence RIP ) or whoever andy ripped that scream from. He slowly sounded like he was going to lose his voice.

I'm debating showing up for this but I don't know... Epica were only ok when I saw them in Poughkeepsie(very disappointing since they're one of my favorite bands)

well now you know the set times. you could be the ethnic culture if you showed up.

what are some of you favorite epica songs? i can tell you if they are going to play it. the set list is right in front of me.

warmonger: eh, they were ok. Just a rocky metal band. I have no opinion either way about them.

akel dama: i always think akela when i see their name. I need to stop doing that. Why do nu-metal bands have so many annoying fans. Wait, before that, given the music style that i shoot, i should first bemuse why or how they seem to have so many fans period. I always seems like each nu-metal band has more fans then all the bands out there that will read this sentence right here put together. Seriously, write a book about that. Huh, i can see the book right now "this is what happens when bands stop being polite and start being real". If that gegs used on the dust jacket, i was a usage fee. Now, i typed all that while the band was just setting up. Let's see how this shizzle goes down shall we? Yeah, basically nu-metal. RATM style. Rap singing in effect. I was honestly just interested in the singer. He would have fit perfectly singing for one of the gangster NYC dm bands. I swear, internal bleeding should give this guy a mets of yankees hat and hire him just from my pictures. Their thug life would be pumped and primed at that point. Funny how each of their songs would start out with a riff that was really good and slayerized... But that didnt last more than a beat. Ok... I mentally turned off when they started a song from the first korn CD. I think each one of their songs starts off with the beginning of any other song meaning a popular band.

agonist, the: i dont know this band at all. I heard they used to be another band, but i really dont know anything about them. They took up a lot of time setting up. The crowd (both male and female) slowly filtered over the the strip clubside. When they finally got going (15 minutes late), they were well worth the trip. A devoute section of metal fans kept the front row of the crowd headbanging and horn throwing. I was fearing they would be a crappy girl fronted nu-metal band. Nope, they were really really good. No nu metal at all. Some metalcore parts, but those breakdowns were few and far between. The singer looked like kelly bundy from back when she went to that punkrock club and dressed like mrs. Santa claus. I'm assuming there that over 10 seasons kelly actually did that (if they didnt do that, wait for the reunion special. I WANT ROYALTIES!). The best part of the singing was the melodic parts. Think about it, a girl's voice actually used to sing the parts that dudes try to sing and sound like off-key girls cause it's not in their registry to hit those notes. She was also able to kick out some caccophy vocals. Just a bit of one song, but they were good. Bernie predicts that these guys will be huge. I think with the right label, he will be correct. they are on the sonata arctica show, so all of you guys will be able to judge for yourself. maybe this is what raising kubrick would have become if they hadn't broken up.

visions_of_atlantis: they made me want to clap after each song. Goofy stage banter, but the music was tight. Mostly cause the keys were backtracked and so were the female vocals. You could tell cause of a points were they went out of synch. Kind of sucks cause you couldnt tell how much the girl was really singing (with a back track punch) and how much was her. i didnt see any in-ear monitors and it's gttabe hard to keep in line with out the best monitors ever. The dudes voice was awesome. He is the reason that i like voa better than epica. They had a fill-in on bass, some dude from the band epicurean. My pictures are terrible for the most part (damn red lights) but the band was anything but. I was really surprised that the girl had no accent and said "y'all" and "jazzed". Someone's not really from austria. Funny that people, even in this small venue get so pumped over bands. There was a line up for autographs.

pictures in a minute

epica: pretty damn good. I was much more impressed with them then i am with their new CD. That and they had a real lifd synth player. He went crazy for most of the set. They played a death cover, cfystal mountain, and went into some symphonic black metal towards the end of the set. Some sample about 911 from tony blaire. After their last song, there was a looooooong final fantasy synth piece. The lights went out and it took a while before the synth player came out and started talking to the crowd. "this is the first venue where we can touch the ceiling" then thehy came out for 1 mo song. They really milked the return to the stage, starting and stopping playing things, but finally they all came out to finish the audience off with a happy ending. At this point, i had killed both of my kodak batteries and was wishing that i had my 3rd (the original which has been mia for a while). For the encore, the girl's voice stayed higher than it had been during any of the other songs. It eally reminded me of Plava Laguna, the opera singer on folsom paradise. You know the one who constants the 4 stones inside her. The way she pushed out the vocals was similar too.

Anyhow, this was a really good show. Too bad too many of you missed this.

Whoever didn't go missed out on a great show.

Overall I liked Visions of Atlantis best. Nothing wrong with Epica, but the dark non-singing male voice vocal style just isn't for me. You are right that the business with tracked keys isn't the greatest, though.

best. review. ever.

akel_dama : i always think akela when i see their name. I need to stop doing that. Why do nu-metal bands have so many annoying fans. Wait, before that, given the music style that i shoot, i should first bemuse why or how they seem to have so many fans period. I always seems like each nu-metal band has more fans then all the bands out there that will read this sentence right here put together. Seriously, write a book about that. Huh, i can see the book right now "this is what happens when bands stop being polite and start being real". If that gegs used on the dust jacket, i was a usage fee. Now, i typed all that while the band was just setting up. Let's see how this shizzle goes down shall we? Yeah, basically nu-metal. RATM style. Rap singing in effect. I was honestly just interested in the singer. He would have fit perfectly singing for one of the gangster NYC dm bands. I swear, internal bleeding should give this guy a mets of yankees hat and hire him just from my pictures. Their thug life would be pumped and primed at that point. Funny how each of their songs would start out with a riff that was really good and slayerized... But that didnt last more than a beat. Ok... I mentally turned off when they started a song from the first korn CD. I think each one of their songs starts off with the beginning of any other song meaning a popular band.

huh, I needs ta proof-read.