Between The Buried And Me -- Moscow, Russia -- September 30th, 2011

brutal_descent · #1 09-30-2011, 01:01 PM

First sold out club show of the year for me (back here).
Evening started out a bit awkward when I was buying my Animals As Leaders t-shirt at the merch stand and only realized after looking like an idiot that the guy handling the purchase was none other than Javier (rhythm guitarist for AAL). Apologized to him and got him to sign my ticket. Among the audience there were some interesting t-shirts - Protest the Hero, Veil of Maya, Tool, and even Meshuggah. Most of the audience was visibly more excited for Animals As Leaders than BTBAM surprisingly.

Animals as Leaders started a bit later than you'd expect, about 45 minutes after the scheduled start. With everyone chanting "TOSIN! TOSIN! TOSIN!" which was a bit amusing to me seeing as he's black and this is Russia, they came in with Tosin looking all humble and they began their set. After Point to Point, Wave of Babies, and Song of Solomon were over and all of us were pretty much under his spell (that fucker can REALLY play), they went into Tempting Time and that's when everyone really got into it. I was glad to see that our rowdy crowd of concert-goers weren't crowd-surfing or stage-diving yet, so that the rest of us could enjoy AAL in peace. Isolated Incidents sounded great in a live setting too, and Tosin took a moment to tell us how glad he was they'd finally come to Russia. The rest of the set went smooth, until the end of CAFO (my favorite AAL song!) when some dude decided he couldn't take it any longer and crowd-surfed over my head. Since I was in the middle of a (very badass, if I may add) windmill, I kind of hurt my neck so I gave him a death gkare as he jumped back. All the progheads around me were making it very clear they were pissed. When the set was done, Tosin left without even shaking anyone's hand or even throwing his pick, probably my only complaint about the night at all. Navene (drummer) threw a shitload of drumsticks over my way, and I caught at least three. I did give the other two away, so no one here should be calling me greedy.

Some time later, all of BTBAM came out to set up their gear. While I do think it's cool when a band sets up the stage themselves (instead of getting tech guys), I think they should at least acknowledge the existence of the audience in some way - no single member said anything or even looked at any of us during the 20 minutes they spent setting up. I even asked Tommy something (mind you, he's right in front of me getting some cables done) and he didn't even look at me (I'm speaking fluent English, you fucker!).

As that eerie intro to Specular Reflection started, I think I felt the sensation of shitting my pants. It was that awesome. I thought it was very clever of BTBAM to play songs in the the order they appeared on the album. Specular Reflection and Augment of Rebirth were fucking amazing - the room was on fire. Fortunately, over the course of their set only four or five people stage-dived, but I'm sure there was hell going on behind me in the pit. When Tommy started playing the intro to Mirrors on keys, I probably let loose a tear. One of my favorite BTBAM songs, hearing it live was spectacular - until some dude broke the mood with a scream of:

Quote:

Охуеть, БТБАМ бля!

Seriously, man? Way to ruin it.

The rest of Mirrors wasn't really the same since everyone started clapping to the rhythm of the song and you couldn't hear his soft vocals. The next two Great Misdirect tracks, Obfuscation and Disease Injury Madness went great - I must've screamed my lungs out three times. Surprised those three songs alone didn't leave my voice hoarse. Prequel to the Sequel was brilliant as well - every aspect of it worked great live and the band pulled every moment of it off perfectly. The crowd's reaction to White Walls probably reinforced it's place in my top five favorite BTBAM songs, but I still have a problem with them ending the show with Selkies. They definitely could've played Alaska instead. I spent the next half hour having conversations with everyone in the band. Great dudes, all of them.

Between The Buried And Me

Specular Reflection
Augment of Rebirth
Mirrors
Obfuscation
Disease, Injury, Madness
Prequel to the Sequel
Viridian
White Walls

Selkies: The Endless Obsession

Animals As Leaders

Point to Point
Wave of Babies
Song of Solomon
Tempting Time
Isolated Incidents
On Impulse
Thoroughly at Home
CAFO

Epidemic Reign · #2 09-30-2011, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrutalDescent

With everyone chanting "TOSIN! TOSIN! TOSIN!" which was a bit amusing to me seeing as he's black and this is Russia

wat

Quote:

Originally Posted by some guy

Охуеть, БТБАМ бля!

WAT

brutal_descent · #3 09-30-2011, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malevolent Mike

wat

WAT

1) It's a joke. Most of the world sees Russians as racist, non-tolerant brutes.

2) It's kind of weird translating this since it loses it's meaning once in English, but it's pretty much:

Quote:

Holy shit, it's fucking BTBAM!

It's not that he hasn't been paying attention up to now, it's just that he wants to call attention to himself and point out to everyone there what a great band BTBAM is.

larvtard · #4 09-30-2011, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrutalDescent

With everyone chanting "TOSIN! TOSIN! TOSIN!" which was a bit amusing to me seeing as he's black and this is Russia

Kinda shitty BTBAM set.

Hmmm...let's see. My dream set would probably be:

Foam born (b)
Informal Gluttony
Augment of Rebirth
Desert of Song
Disease, Injury, Madness
Swim to the Moon

Obfuscation --> White Walls

Epidemic Reign · #5 09-30-2011, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrutalDescent

It's a joke. Most of the world sees Russians as racist, non-tolerant brutes.

When I think of Russia, the first thing that comes to mind is smokin' hot women with sexy accents.

brutal_descent · #6 09-30-2011, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malevolent Mike

When I think of Russia, the first thing that comes to mind is smokin' hot women with sexy accents.

They're literally smoking, by the way. All of them. And those accents aren't so sexy when they try to speak English.

mastodon421 · #7 09-30-2011, 01:41 PM

Selkies is such an awesome closer, I hope they keep that for that the US tour.

Epidemic Reign · #8 09-30-2011, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrutalDescent

And those accents aren't so sexy when they try to speak English.

That's actually what I was talking about

jhdeity · #9 09-30-2011, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by logAnarchy

Kinda shitty BTBAM set.

Hmmm...let's see. My dream set would probably be:

Foam born (b)
Informal Gluttony
Augment of Rebirth
Desert of Song
Disease, Injury, Madness
Swim to the Moon

Obfuscation --> White Walls

Have to admit I'd kill to see this set. As far as Russian women, yes they ALL smoke which is a big turn-off but I love the accent trying to speak english. I dated a girl who would always saw vooooT? instead of What? Loved that.

jd091 · #10 09-30-2011, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrutalDescent

Between The Buried And Me

Specular Reflection
Augment of Rebirth
Mirrors
Obfuscation
Disease, Injury, Madness
Prequel to the Sequel
Viridian
White Walls

Selkies: The Endless Obsession

I can live with this set and be really, really happy. I mean, Mordecai would have been nice, but this is still great. And in case you didn't know, BTBAM never plays Alaska live. I forget the exact story, but they used to play it and then Paul or somebody got hit in the face with a bottle, so they never play it.

As for them ignoring you in the beginning... well, I guess they're just being professional. Still sucks. Feel lucky to have seen them in such a small, cool venue! I can't wait to meet them later on this year. I might kiss Paul's feet.