Last night myself, Toothgnasher and some fellow metallions checked out the Mastodon/Dethklok co-headlining show at the San Jose Events Center. We unfortunately missed High on Fire due to a combination of us leaving late and it taking 500 years to get a parking space inside the venue's parking garage. We walked up to the will call booth right as Matt and co. finished their set, which sucked because because they've put on an amazing show the other times I've seen them and our friends that got there earlier all said they were great.
Luckily we got in and were situated on the floor before Converge took the stage and it was well worth it. The guys came onstage with a flurry of energy that, as far as I'm concerned, is unmatchable. Ben Koller was unable to be seen underneath the swirling mass of hair and drumsticks behind the kit. Nate Newton rocked the hell out of his bass. Kurt Ballou somehow managed to play every note perfectly while thrashing himself about. Jacob Bannon was easily the embodiment of stage energy however, as he continued to run around the stage, never staying in the same place for longer than 5 seconds or so. Unfortunately the crowd was pretty unresponsive to any of this as it was mostly made up of 15 year old non-metalheads along with metalheads who were "too tr00" for any "gay ass hardcore shit". While those in the pit were very receptive, there were far more "Fuck Yous" than cheers elsewhere in the audience. Many seemed to have a problem with Bannon's vocal delivery but honestly it doesn't sound much different than what he does on the albums. Also the band plays incredibly angry and emotional hardcore music, so what do you expect? Despite the negative crowd response however, Converge never once let up with their energy or intensity. Every note, drum hit and scream was spot on and the experience of their set (only the second time I've seen them) was exactly what I needed to start my night off right.
I was coming off a huge high after Converge's set and sat there kind of bummed out as I was expecting to be let down by Mastodon. Luckily however, they played a very good but still somewhat lacking set. I knew going in that they were going to play Crack the Skye in its entirety, which I wasn't too pleased about as I like their other albums more but I figured it would come off better live than on CD. Maybe it was the fact that most of the people around me seemed to be simply waiting for Dethklok and didn't seem into the set at all but I didn't find the live experience of the album to be as great as I'd read about from other websites. By this time we were near the back of the crowd and I did hear a ton of people singing along to the songs up in the front. I would imagine that if I were up there the initial set would have been way better. After this the band came out and played through some tracks from their earlier albums however, they played none of my favorites. The songs they did picked aren't regularly played live though and I'm sure it was a welcome treat for the dedicated fans. I had never seen them before though, so the omissions of "Blood and Thunder", "Iron Tusk", "Crystal Skull" and others were a bit disappointing. That's definitely my own fault though, for not making it out to see them before. Throughout the set there was a video playing that portrayed parts of Crack the Skye's story. This was interesting and definitely added something to the show but it seemed to be a distraction from the fact that the band had no energy whatsoever. They pretty much just stood there and played their instruments. Coming right after the energetic high that was Converge, this was a definite downer. Despite this however, the band played everything meticulously. All of the songs were spot on and even bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders doing Scott Kelly's (Neurosis) guest vocal parts on "Crack the Skye" and "Aqua Dementia" sounded perfect. The quality of the set, despite the fact that most of my favorites weren't played was definitely a pleasant surprise.
After Mastodon's set the crowd started to fill into the pit more and we decided to take a seat up in the bleachers. It was a pretty good decision as the Dethklok fans went absolutely nuts once the band hit the stage. As much as I love Metalocalypse, I've really never been able to get into the music of it. It's all well played but it just sounds extremely generic. That can pretty much describe Dethklok's set as well. As I haven't listened to DethAlbum II yet, all the songs they played from that album ran together for me. I did pick out a few choice tracks from the first season and album and while they did appeal to my nostalgia for those particular sequences in the episodes, they made me want to go watch my DVDs rather than listen to the songs. The main reason I was excited to see Dethklok however, was the tour exclusive animations that had been featured between songs the last time I saw them. I remembered them being hilarious and on par with some of the best sequences in the show. To my dismay however, all of the videos they played were exactly the same as the ones they'd done two years ago. There's been a whole second season and part of a third since that time, you would think they'd have some new animated material. Perhaps a guest appearance of fan favorite Dr. Rockso or the Revengencers? This would have added something to what was overall a very boring set for me. Everyone else around me enjoyed it but I think it was their first time seeing the band and thus they didn't experience the same sense of repetition.
Overall this show was definitely worth it. Probably even more so if you were there to see High on Fire. Mastodon was great and Dethklok were at least entertaining to some degree but the band of the night has to be Converge. They just had a new album come out so look for them on a headlining tour soon. They'll be guaranteed to have a more receptive crowd and will probably have even more energy.
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