Enslaved -- Chicago, IL -- October 2nd, 2011

[daimonos]

Well, I got there a little before 6, but chilled outside for whatever reason. Eventually I found Dan (Garagemetal) and we shot the shit for a little bit until JD showed up. Finally we went inside and caught the beginning of Junius's set. They weren't bad, but I really wasn't that interested.

Not long after their set we found Brad and Javier (llama lom). The group of us took up a pretty big chunk of the front right of the stage. I'll admit that I'm not a huge Alcest fan like alot of you guys, but they put on a great show, I think. Percees De Lumiere was the highlight for me, as that's probably my favorite Alcest track. One of these days I'm going to get around to picking up more of their stuff.

Those of you who've been around here awhile know that Enslaved is one of my favorite bands. I'm talking like, Top 4 caliber. So of course, I lost my shit while they were playing. It was incredible to finally see them play longer than 30-45 minutes, and I have to say that for the whole hour and a half they were onstage they tore it up. They all put energy into their live show, especially Grutle and Ice Dale, and like Brad told me the other day, they're so rock n' roll for a black metal band, which is awesome in my eyes. Although there were a couple songs I would have rather seen than some of the songs they played, I can't complain, because you really can't go wrong with Enslaved. The highlights for me would have had to been Ruun, Ground, As Fire Swept Clean the Earth, the encore (Immigrant Song, Isa), and Allfadr Odinn. I'll say that again, Allfadr Odhinn. Holy shit, was that song incredible live. When they were playing that, everyone just lost it, and it was great. I'm not always one to feel like moshing, but I just wanted to freak out while that was on. Their version of the Immigrant Song was awesome as well, and they got a great response of course.

After the show, JD, Javier and his friend and I hung around out front in hopes of catching some members of the band, which we did. Enslaved really are some of the nicest, most respectful musicians in my eyes. They'll talk to fans and hang out all night. It was interesting to talk to Ivar about their current releases and some other stuff, and Cato about drumming, as well reminiscing about the time we spent locked up together for raping pigs. He's a hilarious guy, Cato. Ivar said a new album should be on the way next fall. This is the third time I've met these guys, and they all remembered me once I explained the last time we met, so that was kind of cool. I wish I had my Thorn EP, I definitely would have got that signed.

I'm just hoping they come back soon.

[MPF]

I will be seeing this show in about 4 hours!

[adamclark52]

Originally Posted by llama lom

Let's see, quick summary of the night:

I got to Bottom Lounge literally five minutes before Alcest got on (I wasn't expecting them to go on until 8ish, but whatever). I met up with a friend of mine there and watched Alcest kick complete ass. I was pretty upset that they didn't play Le Secret (damn you 10 PM curfew! ), but I saw Alcest and inside, I was going complete fanboy. After that I saw JD and went over and met everyone. We talked for a bit then Enslaved come on. I'm not going to lie, I didn't know any of the songs, but regardless, they played an amazing set! The Immigrant Song cover was pretty well done and I loved it. The singer for Enslaved (don't know the name) gave the crowd his Sam Adams, which my buddy managed to grab and I got a sip of. Alas, the show ended. A few of us went over to the merch table and got a picture with Alcest. I noticed afterwards that I got cut out of the picture so I went back in and got another. Neige seems like a cool guy, but I got the sense that he was a little socially awkward. He's still a god to me though. After we hung outside for a couple of hours waiting for the guys from Enslaved to come up. Slowly but surely, they each came out one at a time and we got pictures and the like. By the end, we got a group pic with 4/5 of Enslaved. Overall, pretty goddamn awesome night. I'll get the pics on my phone up sometime tomorrow, most of them are pretty dark so I'll try to fix that.

I noticed that when he was on stage Friday in Toronto. The crowd was going ballistic for them and I don't think he was expecting that at all. When the crowd would go nuts he'd sort of turn his back (embarrassed), look back and give these little grins, like "holy shit, they like us, they really like us".

[llama lom]

Pics be up, yo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/llamalom/

I still can't believe I got cut out of the group pic.

[jd091]

Originally Posted by llama lom

Pics be up, yo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/llamalom/

I still can't believe I got cut out of the group pic.

You were in the Enslaved one! The quality isn't the best on it, but every member is there other than Ivan, who we got pics with earlier.

EDIT: Hell, I'm just gonna post it here so you can all see our beautiful faces.




And that Alcest one... I got to stand next to Neige (who was actually much taller than the small French man I expected)... and I think I exploded in that special part of my pants.

[dcmetal108]

Originally Posted by jd091

You were in the Enslaved one! The quality isn't the best on it, but every member is there other than Ivan, who we got pics with earlier.

EDIT: Hell, I'm just gonna post it here so you can all see our beautiful faces.




And that Alcest one... I got to stand next to Neige (who was actually much taller than the small French man I expected)... and I think I exploded in that special part of my pants.

And while you guys were there I was 20 minutes away working in a resturant that only had two tables in the course of almost 3 hours!

[jd091]

MY REVIEW:

Got there around 6:30 when right after the doors were supposed to open, walked it, met Garagemetal and Daimonos and shot the shit for a while. Apparently, Black September had already played , so Juninus came on pretty soon after around 7. Didn't know any of their songs, but they were great live. I love their style of post rock/metal/doom whatever.

After them, we were like, "OH SHIT IS THAT DETHMAIDEN?!?!?!" So we went over and talked for a while with him. It was pretty fun meeting you all.

Alcest came on next, and let me tell you, they were incredible. I have a couple complaints with them: They basically played a 35 minute set instead of a 50 minute set, threw in Solar Song instead of Les Iris, and only had 1 song to showcase Neige's screams (Percees). But goddaamn, they played perfectly. I didn't think the sound was bad like people were complaining in past shows. The setlist was a good build-up to Percees de Lumiere, which is absolutely godly live. They were good and all before that, playing the songs that I loved, but when Neige broke out his twisted, almost-horrific and passionate black metal screams, it was incredible. Le Secret would have been sweet to see opening, but their performance as a whole was still great.

Met with Llama Lom after their performance, talked with everyone, discussed the new Mastodon and Opeth albums and whatnot, MDF, etc. Enslaved came on relatively soon after, at around 8:30 I wanna say. Great performance from a band I've been waiting to see for years! The venue was pretty full surprisingly, and they were getting a great response for the crowd. As a whole, they're very professional performers, and know how to work the crowd. Ice Dale would get up in people's faces soloing, running around the stage, and Grutle was great at getting the crowd to chant and fist pump. He was nursing a beer and a glass full of hard liquor the whole concert, too. His facial contortions while screaming are great! Ivar was solid as ever, a very professional performer.

Set-wise, I was very impressed. Since it's my first time seeing them, I loved 'em having Fusion, Fire Swept Clean the Earth, Ruun, Ground, and Isa in there. Heimvegan was AWESOME live, and same with the Immigrant Song. If you're gonna do a cover, that's the way to do it. When they broke out Allfáðr Oðinn, everyone went crazy and we actually had a nice mosh pit going on, which continued for the Immigrant song and Isa. Overall, it was a fun performance. I would have liked to see another couple off of Vertebrae, and it would have been sick to have them keep Jotunblod in there, but it was still pretty perfect.

Like we said, I waited around for a while after with Daimonos and Llama and after about 45 minutes, we caught Enslaved out by their bus. Got to actually spend a decent amount of time talking to them. They were all great to talk to, except for Grutle, who I think was a little too drunk to say anything.




Oh, and Llama, your one friend is fucking insane.

[llama lom]

Originally Posted by jd091

Oh, and Llama, your one friend is fucking insane.

Yeah he was a bit more crazy last night than usual. He was nowhere near that bad at Amon Amarth.

[GarageMetal468]

Here's the pic of us (minus llama and Brad) with Alcest!

[illuminatus917]

Originally Posted by llama lom

Neige seems like a cool guy, but I got the sense that he was a little socially awkward.

I tried to talk to him at the show in Columbus and I couldn't even tell if he understood English.