Freitag, 9. Feb 2007, 15:50

Fri 26 Jan – Converge, Mastodon, Priestess

So tonight my friend Trina, John, and I went down to see the opening night of the Mastodon/Converge tour at the Culture Room. Opening up the night was Priestess, who I can only describe as nu-arena rock. They really sort of sucked quite a bit. The drummer also attempted to drum solo for what felt like hours. Honestly, I hate drum soloing, unless you are Flo Mournier or Jon Theodore, in which case you are awesome and entitled to wank.

Next up was the band I really cared to see-especially after missing them in November-Converge. Their set was nothing short of amazing, transcendent, and ridiculous. For being around for over 15 years now, the band still brings an incredible amount of energy. Jacob Bannon is a madman on stage, screaming right in our faces (we were all about 2-3 people back from the exceptionally high stage). Their bassist Ben Koller actually looks like Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite (worst movie ever). . What I found really excellent about their set was the fact that they didn't play it note for note from the album, but Bannon interjected with mid song spoken word parts which added a whole different dimension to the already amazing set. But what set Converge apart from so many other bands I've seen live was the fact that after the show, Bannon sat on the edge of the stage, shaking everyone's hands and thanking them personally for coming out, which I thought was one of the most humbling actions from the band.

Their setlist included (in order, thanks to some douche I found on Last.fm who went to the show)

1. Plagues (No Heroes)
2. No Heroes (No Heroes)
3. Eagles Become Vultures (You Fail Me)
4. The Broken Vow(Jane Doe)
5. Hope Street (You Fail Me)
6. Last Light (You Fail Me)
7. Locust Reign(The Poacher Diaries Split LP)
8. Forsaken (Petitioning the Empty Sky)
9. Homewrecker (Jane Doe)
10. Black Cloud (You Fail Me)
11. Versus (No Heroes)
12. Heartache (No Heroes)
13. Hellbound (No Heroes)
14. Concubine (Jane Doe)

On the other hand, the little bit I saw of Mastodon was nothing short of extremely dissappointing. They made the terrible decision of opening with "This Mortal Soil", which while being a boring cut from a tame album, was a miserable selection for an opening track, unlike another track from Blood Mountain such as "The Wolf is Loose" (which was also the leading single for the album). Not only was the opening track selection an extreme lapse of judgement, but the band just sounded terrible, with the guitarists all but inaudible due to the fact that Brann Dailor's bass drum was turned up so loud. But even without these things, it was shaping up to be a boring show if for no other reason than that the band just stood their, nearly motionless, playing senseless amounts of hammer-on's. Needless to say, we left shortly after Mastodon began playing and went to Denny's.

All in All, I have to say that Converge's set was one of the best performances I've seen ever, although the other two bands were tripe. Overall though, Converge's performance more than made up for the bad showing from both Priestess and Mastodon.