Gigantour -- Columbus, OH -- September 23th, 2006

[DethMaiden]

Venue curfews make me a sad panda. Every band that came up was forced to truncate their setlists last night, and that set the stage for what was an incredible but disappointingly brief show. In fact, the only band who played their long set was Lamb of God, which is about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, but more on that later.
We got there at 2, thinking the doors opened at 1 (thanks to Arch Enemy's myspace), but they actually opened at 4. But hey, I was the first person into Gigantour in Columbus! When we did get inside, I went to the merch table and asked for the Opeth shirt with Gigantour dates on the back only to discover they didn't have it in XL. Now, I'm technically a Large, but I don't like shirts that don't have a little room in them. So I went with a more generic Opeth shirt in XL that had the logo on the front and a picture inspired by The Baying of the Hounds' lyrics on the back. Pretty cool. Then to the arena where we grabbed three rail spots. We didn't have to fight for them until much, much later, so it was very relaxed.
Out came The Smashup, who were, in essence, emo dance metal. I didn't know it existed either. Holy shit sandwich, Batman, Dave Mustaine has lost his mind. After fifteen or twenty minutes of having my eardrums injured, they left the stage, and the emo girl on my left left the venue. Whatever floats your boat, you rich bitch. $50 ticket for a 20 minute set. Mmhmm. They opened with Rachel's Day but I don't have the rest. Then again, who gives a fuck?
Then came Sanctity. The singer looked pretty metal, kinda like '87 Hetfield. The music...well, to be honest, I can't remember the music. But that dude looked cool.
Next up were Into Eternity. They blew down my expectations. The singer had a kinda bad growl, and a sort of bad singing voice too. But his falsetto...Ripper Owens can't touch that shit. The guitarist surprised me when he ACTUALLY SOLOED. That was what impressed me most. The Smashup and Sanctity didn't take solos but this IE dude shredded and shredded well. I was very impressed. I may pick up one of their records eventually. Their setlist was as follows:

Severe Emotional Distress
Splintered Visions
Beginning of the End

Following Into Eternity were Overkill, who disappointed me. I’d find it hard to be honest with myself if I berated Lamb of God for being same-y and said that Overkill played an entertaining show. The shoutalongs were fun, and the music was fast, loud, dirty, and mean...but the Horrorscope album provides variety, whereas their live show provides one-dimensionality and anger. I enjoyed them but they didn’t make me want another Overkill album. I managed to get their set as well, which may turn some folks on since it’s different than any we have:

Feel the Fire
Rotten to the Core
Battle
Wrecking Crew
Elimination
Old School
Fuck You

After Overkill came a band who blew my mind and kicked my ass. Arch Enemy. The shirts they were selling read “PURE FUCKING METAL”, and that is 100% correct. Angela is brutiful on stage, a word which here means, “brutal and beautiful”. Anyhow, they had a choral intro and then launched into Nemesis. They only got a seven song set but they inspired me. I’m going to buy Anthems of Rebellion today or tomorrow. Arch Enemy played the best show last night at Gigantour. I don’t know if this is consistent for the tour or if they just had a damn good show last night, but Arch Enemy have, as I said, inspired me. I need to see them headline now. Here’s what they played (they went all the way back to Stigmata!):

Nemesis
Dead Eyes See No Future
My Apocalypse
I Am Legend/Out for Blood
Ravenous
We Will Rise/Bridge of Destiny

Then came the band I was really there for. With my jaw dropped and my adrenaline flowing I was worried that I’d be disappointed. Well, it’s Opeth, and I fucking wasn’t. But I do have some comments. Even though I thought they were incredible as I always do, the crowd was practically comatose throughout the duration of their set. The girl on my left was “making a statement” and laid down her head on the rail, pretending to sleep. Some dicks behind me actually chanted for Lamb of God during Windowpane. Fuck them. Mikael tried to be funny but with a severe dickhead capacity, he had trouble getting past our icy shell. I yelled encouraging words the whole time though. Their set was unfortunately a song shorter than the other shows (curfews )

Ghost of Perdition
The Leper Affinity
Windowpane
Deliverance

With Opeth off the stage with poor reception from the crowd, I determined that an Opeth/Arch Enemy off date would have been ideal, and preferable to Gigantour. Lamb of God came out and sucked major balls. Fuck Randy Blythe. Fuck Lamb of God. Fuck Lamb of God fans. Fuck encouraging crowd-surfers. Fuck encouraging violent mosh pits. Fuck same sounding music. And most of all, if you like Lamb of God, fuck you. That’s all I have to say.

Ruin
Hourglass
Laid to Rest
Walk With Me In Hell
Again We Rise
11th Hour
Something to Die For
Pathetic
What I’ve Become
As the Palaces Burn
Blacken the Cursed Sun
Vigil
Redneck
Black Label

They played for way too long but Megadeth made it worth it and fucking delivered. The pyrotechnics were mind-blowing. The whole band clicks and I hope this lineup lasts a while. Glen Drover actually takes more leads than Dave. Dave’s vocal mic was down and he didn’t even know it, because the crowd’s singing was deafening. Very late in the set I finally realized his mic was down during Washington’s Next. No one knew the words, obviously, and I couldn’t hear anything but the music even though his lips were moving. The set was depressingly short, but Dave, despite protest from security, played an encore after curfew.

Blackmail the Universe
Set the World Afire
Skin O’ My Teeth
Wake Up Dead
In My Darkest Hour
Devil’s Island
She-Wolf
Symphony of Destruction
Trust
Take No Prisoners
Hangar 18
Kick the Chair
Tornado of Souls
Washington’s Next
Peace Sells

Holy Wars...the Punishment Due

Overall I really can’t give it more than a 7/10 or so, because there were two (maybe three, I can’t for the life of me remember Sanctity) really bad bands, and the good ones had to cut down their setlists. Still, I’d go next year. It’s a great way to spend an entire day in the company of metal.

I took a bunch of pics too...those will be uploaded later today or tomorrow (at the latest Tuesday)

[ChildrenofSodom]

[ChildrenofSodom]

Angela tiene un asno caliente

[SomewhereInTime72]

Into Eternity ARE really good, bitch.

Also, Opeth losing Godhead's Lament and not being well received + no Take No Prisoners = suck.

I'm just jealous though.

[ChildrenofSodom]

Originally Posted by SomewhereInTime72

Also, Opeth losing Godhead's Lament and not being well received + no Take No Prisoners = suck.

they had to cut something dude....Lamb of God were too full of themselves to moderate their time.....

It was so fucking awesome.....during Holy Wars, Dave stepped back to let Drover solo, and he looked stage right, and this dude with a clip board and headphones was telling him to "cut it, stop, end" because of the curfew...but dave just shoot his head and mouthed "no."


He even flipped him off (I think)...And everytime a crowd surfer was pulled down and escorted out of the arena, Dave stared down at them and shook his head at the security guards.



just goes to show, DAVE CAN STILL STICK IT TO THE MAN!!!

[DethMaiden]

Originally Posted by ChildrenofSodom

Angela tiene un asno caliente

[DethMaiden]

HAHA I totally forgot Take No Prisoners. But they did play it.

[SomewhereInTime72]

Originally Posted by ChildrenofSodom

It was so fucking awesome.....during Holy Wars, Dave stepped back to let Drover solo, and he looked stage right, and this dude with a clip board and headphones was telling him to "cut it, stop, end" because of the curfew...but dave just shoot his head and mouthed "no."


He even flipped him off (I think)...And everytime a crowd surfer was pulled down and escorted out of the arena, Dave stared down at them and shook his head at the security guards.



just goes to show, DAVE CAN STILL STICK IT TO THE MAN!!!

NOW THAT IS FUCKING METAL!

Edit: well thank fucking god they played TNP, that and Devil's Island are like the two awesomest surprise songs.

[ChildrenofSodom]

Originally Posted by DethMaiden

HAHA I totally forgot Take No Prisoners. But they did play it.

oh...

[DethMaiden]

Originally Posted by SomewhereInTime72

Edit: well thank fucking god they played TNP, that and Devil's Island are like the two awesomest surprise songs.

Everyone sang "TAKE NO SHIT" so loud