ICED EARTH / WARBRINGER / HALCYON WAY
The Masquerade, Atlanta, GA
March 4, 2012
It takes a special show to lure us to make the 300+ mile drive to Atlanta on a
Sunday night, especially with the grim prospect of driving home immediately
after the show to be at work the next morning. We did it in December 2010
for Blind Guardian. And we did it this past weekend for Iced Earth.
Although Iced Earth and Symphony X are in the midst of a co-headlining run
through the U.S., Symphony X was not on the bill tonight (presumably to
preserve the exclusivity of their forthcoming Atlanta appearance at ProgPower
in September). Strangely, the Symphony X guys were here tonight even
though they weren’t playing. (Maybe not so strange – I guess they didn’t
have much else to do on their night off.) Their bus was parked outside
the venue, and bassist Mike LePond was spotted lurking in the shadows of the
Masquerade chatting with some fans after the gig.
As usual, the Masquerade (an old cotton mill in a slowly gentrifying warehouse
district near midtown) was double-booked tonight, with a rap show in the “Hell”
room downstairs and metal in the “Heaven” room upstairs. It was a rather
entertaining sight to witness two disparate worlds colliding outside the venue
while we waited for doors to open, and to compare/contrast the styles of dress
between the two audiences. It was also a strange sensation during the gig
to feel the constant rumbling of the floor, as the floorboards literally shook
from the bass-heavy rap performance going on downstairs. The Iced Earth
gig didn’t draw as well as one might have expected. There were
considerably fewer people here tonight than there were for Blind
Guardian. I’d guess the place was 2/3 full, which is certainly
respectable, especially when one considers that Iced Earth have never made
touring the Southeastern US a priority. For whatever reason, I was able to
nab a spot on the rail at the far right side of the stage, so I grabbed it, and
remained there all night.
At 7:30, local openers Halcyon Way took the stage. Being Nightmare
Records recording artists and stalwarts of the Atlanta metal scene for several
years, HW were known to many in the audience, and they were given a warm
reception. But it was a weird show for the band on several different
levels. First, Halcyon Way were breaking in two brand-new members who’d
never performed with them before, including a new second guitarist and a
fill-in bassist (the band’s regular bassist is not available for a forthcoming
European tour opening for Delain, so they’ve recruited a stand-in). That
definitely affected the cohesiveness of the band’s performance. Second,
we learned before the gig that guitarist Jon Bodan’s mother had passed away
unexpectedly that morning. Somehow, he soldiered on with the concert, but
it must have been hugely difficult from him to do so. Much respect to
Jon, for going on with the show in almost unbearable circumstances.
Third, with just 30 minutes to work with, Halcyon Way had to condense their
performance to their very best songs. Although I’ve seen the band a
number of times over the years, I was really impressed tonight at how strong
tunes like “Rise to Revise,” “On Black Wings,” and “Deliver the Suffering”
sounded in the context of a compact 5-song set. Even though they were
visibly miffed to be cut off before playing their planned sixth song, kudos to
Halcyon Way for delivering the goods under adverse conditions.
At 8:30, it was time for Ventura, California thrashers Warbringer to
display their wares. Going into the show, I was no big fan of what I’d
heard of their one-dimensional, monotonous thrash rehash. After seeing
Warbringer play live for 50 minutes, I’m still no big fan of theirs. Too
often, the songs ran together into one undifferentiated mountain of
noise. Sure, taken in isolation, individual parts sounded cool, but there
honestly wasn’t much to latch on to. And I was frankly surprised at how
low the energy level was from all band members other than frontman John
Kevill. The guitarists and bassist (wearing Ghost, Iced Earth, and
Candlemass shirts, respectively) mostly stood still with blank expressions on
their faces, not making eye contact, not moving around, not even headbanging
much. Maybe they’re burnt out from the road – after all, Warbringer is a
relentless touring machine. But it seemed way too much like going through
the motions, especially when this was a special night for Warbringer getting to
play a much longer set than the usual 30 minutes they’ve been allotted on this
tour. But I don’t want to be too hard on Warbringer. Their brand of
retro-thrash was well-executed and well-received by the appreciative audience,
which generated a sizeable circle pit for much of their set. And frontman
Kevill (clad in vintage Exodus tee) was fun to watch, whirling about the stage
in a rage, pounding beers, perching one foot on the rail and the other on the
stage, and thrashing like a maniac. Overall, I think if Warbringer had
just played 30 minutes I would have come away from it happier (and not as numb)
than I was after a 50-minute bludgeoning that laid bare the band’s
one-trick-pony flaws. But rockin’ out to Warbringer wasn’t at all an
unpleasant way to spend some time leading up to the Iced Earth set. I’d
see ‘em again, even though I probably wouldn’t bother picking up any of their CDs.
In between bands, it occurred to me that the music being played over the P.A.
was probably hand-picked by Jon Schaffer. It was a mix of all stuff that
Schaffer’s on record as loving, including Sabbath’s “Die Young,” Priest’s
“Painkiller,” Kiss’s “War Machine,” Savatage’s “Dungeons are Calling,” Maiden’s
“To Tame a Land,” and a shitload of Volbeat. If you’re stuck against a
barricade in a crowd of people just trying to kill time and you can’t drink
beer because you have to drive 5 hours after the show, it’s nice to be able to
sing along with the house music while you wait. So that’s what I did.
Finally, the magic hour of 10 p.m. arrived, and it was Iced Earth
time. The taped intro was actually the beginning of the song
“Dystopia,” with the tape cutting out and the band kicking in live right at Stu
Block’s opening scream. Make no mistake: Months of touring have honed this
incarnation of Iced Earth into a lethal machine. New guy Block sang his
ass off, hit every note, and showed not the slightest sign of
road-weariness. To the contrary, the guy was constantly smiling and
bouncing around the middle of the stage. Block was like an enthusiastic
kid playing with a new toy as he egged on crowd participation (once
inadvertently letting slip an “eh?” that was a telltale sign of his Canadian
heritage). He poked fun at Schaffer’s menacing vocal parts in “Damien,”
and poked fun at himself for making himself dizzy leading an “Iced Earth” chant
after the old splitting-the-crowd-in-two trick (the “Iced” side and the “Earth”
side, with Block pointing first to one side than the other with increasing
speed). For his part, the Confederate-flag-bandanna-wearing Schaffer was a
precision riffing monster. I spent entire songs just lost in watching him
attack his axe with that relentless galloping right hand. Dude’s
awesome. Bassist Freddy Vidale was also a fireball of energy, totally into
the show. Guitarist Troy Seele was much more reserved and unexpressive,
but he played the leads beautifully, so no criticism from here. I could
hear drummer Brent Smedley, but he was invisible for almost the entire gig,
cloaked in the choking stage fog that was used to annoying excess all night long.
In terms of song selection, the show had high points and low points. I was
thrilled to hear the ‘Dystopia’ material. Songs like the title track and
(especially) “V” are awesome live, and “Dark City” gets boosted a notch in the
live setting as the harmony guitars really shine. And it was unspeakably
incredible to hear the venerable chestnuts “Angels Holocaust” and “When the
Night Falls” be unearthed after years of not being on the regular Iced Earth
setlist. Those songs rule. I was a bit less enthused with set list
in other ways. It seems like Schaffer was consciously steering away from
the “hits” this time, focusing more on deep cuts. Only 2 songs from last
year’s live ‘Festivals of the Wicked’ CD package were played, so that just
shows how far off the beaten track many of the set list choices were. I
guess that’s fine, but if I could only hear one song from ‘The Dark Saga’ I
damn sure wouldn’t pick “Slave to the Dark.” If I could only hear one
song from ‘Horror Show’ I sure wouldn’t want it to be the brooding, moody,
overlong “Damien.” And if I could hear one big Iced Earth epic, I’d take
Gettysburg or Something Wicked in a heartbeat over “Dante’s Inferno,” which has
some exceptionally killer parts but also some parts that frankly drag.
So, for my personal taste, the setlist was a bit of a mixed bag. But I do
understand and appreciate Schaffer’s efforts to mix things up, rather than
falling into the trap of playing the same old shit every single tour and becoming stale.
A few other random notes from the show: Lots of people are complaining
about terrible sound at other stops on the Iced Earth / Symph X tour. All
the bands had a great sound tonight. I heard every instrument and every
vocal clearly. Iced Earth’s rhythm guitars didn’t drown out the leads,
the snare drum didn’t overpower everything else, and the vocals were all
readily audible. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about the sound
tonight. Oh, one thing that bugged me about the band’s stage presence was
that each band member seemed trapped in his own assigned area. During a
95-minute set, Jon Schaffer ventured over to my side of the stage (I was
standing right in front of Seele) exactly zero times. He didn’t even come
close. Jen said she thought he was moving very gingerly, and that may be
true given his well publicized history of neck and back problems. But he
could have walked over to our side and said hello for 30 seconds during a
song. And it wasn’t just confined to Schaffer either. Block only
came to our side of the stage one time, instead occupying a very narrow sliver
of the center of the stage the rest of the night. And the only time the
axemen interacted with each other at all was during “Declaration Day” when the
three of them came together in the middle of the stage for a few seconds.
That was it. It was like each band member was wrapped in his own bubble
the rest of the night. Weird.
It was a special night in the Schaffer family. Today was his daughter’s
seventh birthday. He announced from the stage that his daughter was here,
and that he’d taken her to Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday, and asked us if
we’d sing to her. So Stu led the crowd in a rousing version of “Happy
Birthday to You” for Jon’s daughter Jonna (heh, I swear I’m not making that
up), who I spotted off the side of the audience wearing oversized red ear
protection. Sweet. Funny, right after we sang happy birthday to his
cute little daughter, Schaffer exclaimed to the crowd “Fuckin’ ay.”
There’s a nice parental sentiment for you. And the other funny thing that
happened was that, at the end of the show, when the band members were together
at the front of the stage taking their final bow, the PA suddenly came alive to
the strains of the “I don’t think these lads can take their ale” beer hall
chant from the end of the ‘Dystopia’ CD. Nice idea for an exclamation
point on the evening, and it was funny to watch an obviously bemused Schaffer
singing along with it and grinning.
Overall, this probably wasn’t the definitive Iced Earth gig. But it was an
ass-kicker that was worth every mile of the miserable drive home, not to mention
the awful head cold that Jen and I got the next day for our trouble. Iced
friggin’ Earth, baby!
Setlist: Dystopia, Angels Holocaust, Slave to the Dark, V, Stand Alone, When the Night
Falls, Dark City, Damien, Anthem, Declaration Day, Days of Rage, Watching Over
Me, Dante’s Inferno, Iced Earth.
The Masquerade, Atlanta, GA
March 4, 2012
It takes a special show to lure us to make the 300+ mile drive to Atlanta on a
Sunday night, especially with the grim prospect of driving home immediately
after the show to be at work the next morning. We did it in December 2010
for Blind Guardian. And we did it this past weekend for Iced Earth.
Although Iced Earth and Symphony X are in the midst of a co-headlining run
through the U.S., Symphony X was not on the bill tonight (presumably to
preserve the exclusivity of their forthcoming Atlanta appearance at ProgPower
in September). Strangely, the Symphony X guys were here tonight even
though they weren’t playing. (Maybe not so strange – I guess they didn’t
have much else to do on their night off.) Their bus was parked outside
the venue, and bassist Mike LePond was spotted lurking in the shadows of the
Masquerade chatting with some fans after the gig.
As usual, the Masquerade (an old cotton mill in a slowly gentrifying warehouse
district near midtown) was double-booked tonight, with a rap show in the “Hell”
room downstairs and metal in the “Heaven” room upstairs. It was a rather
entertaining sight to witness two disparate worlds colliding outside the venue
while we waited for doors to open, and to compare/contrast the styles of dress
between the two audiences. It was also a strange sensation during the gig
to feel the constant rumbling of the floor, as the floorboards literally shook
from the bass-heavy rap performance going on downstairs. The Iced Earth
gig didn’t draw as well as one might have expected. There were
considerably fewer people here tonight than there were for Blind
Guardian. I’d guess the place was 2/3 full, which is certainly
respectable, especially when one considers that Iced Earth have never made
touring the Southeastern US a priority. For whatever reason, I was able to
nab a spot on the rail at the far right side of the stage, so I grabbed it, and
remained there all night.
At 7:30, local openers Halcyon Way took the stage. Being Nightmare
Records recording artists and stalwarts of the Atlanta metal scene for several
years, HW were known to many in the audience, and they were given a warm
reception. But it was a weird show for the band on several different
levels. First, Halcyon Way were breaking in two brand-new members who’d
never performed with them before, including a new second guitarist and a
fill-in bassist (the band’s regular bassist is not available for a forthcoming
European tour opening for Delain, so they’ve recruited a stand-in). That
definitely affected the cohesiveness of the band’s performance. Second,
we learned before the gig that guitarist Jon Bodan’s mother had passed away
unexpectedly that morning. Somehow, he soldiered on with the concert, but
it must have been hugely difficult from him to do so. Much respect to
Jon, for going on with the show in almost unbearable circumstances.
Third, with just 30 minutes to work with, Halcyon Way had to condense their
performance to their very best songs. Although I’ve seen the band a
number of times over the years, I was really impressed tonight at how strong
tunes like “Rise to Revise,” “On Black Wings,” and “Deliver the Suffering”
sounded in the context of a compact 5-song set. Even though they were
visibly miffed to be cut off before playing their planned sixth song, kudos to
Halcyon Way for delivering the goods under adverse conditions.
At 8:30, it was time for Ventura, California thrashers Warbringer to
display their wares. Going into the show, I was no big fan of what I’d
heard of their one-dimensional, monotonous thrash rehash. After seeing
Warbringer play live for 50 minutes, I’m still no big fan of theirs. Too
often, the songs ran together into one undifferentiated mountain of
noise. Sure, taken in isolation, individual parts sounded cool, but there
honestly wasn’t much to latch on to. And I was frankly surprised at how
low the energy level was from all band members other than frontman John
Kevill. The guitarists and bassist (wearing Ghost, Iced Earth, and
Candlemass shirts, respectively) mostly stood still with blank expressions on
their faces, not making eye contact, not moving around, not even headbanging
much. Maybe they’re burnt out from the road – after all, Warbringer is a
relentless touring machine. But it seemed way too much like going through
the motions, especially when this was a special night for Warbringer getting to
play a much longer set than the usual 30 minutes they’ve been allotted on this
tour. But I don’t want to be too hard on Warbringer. Their brand of
retro-thrash was well-executed and well-received by the appreciative audience,
which generated a sizeable circle pit for much of their set. And frontman
Kevill (clad in vintage Exodus tee) was fun to watch, whirling about the stage
in a rage, pounding beers, perching one foot on the rail and the other on the
stage, and thrashing like a maniac. Overall, I think if Warbringer had
just played 30 minutes I would have come away from it happier (and not as numb)
than I was after a 50-minute bludgeoning that laid bare the band’s
one-trick-pony flaws. But rockin’ out to Warbringer wasn’t at all an
unpleasant way to spend some time leading up to the Iced Earth set. I’d
see ‘em again, even though I probably wouldn’t bother picking up any of their CDs.
In between bands, it occurred to me that the music being played over the P.A.
was probably hand-picked by Jon Schaffer. It was a mix of all stuff that
Schaffer’s on record as loving, including Sabbath’s “Die Young,” Priest’s
“Painkiller,” Kiss’s “War Machine,” Savatage’s “Dungeons are Calling,” Maiden’s
“To Tame a Land,” and a shitload of Volbeat. If you’re stuck against a
barricade in a crowd of people just trying to kill time and you can’t drink
beer because you have to drive 5 hours after the show, it’s nice to be able to
sing along with the house music while you wait. So that’s what I did.
Finally, the magic hour of 10 p.m. arrived, and it was Iced Earth
time. The taped intro was actually the beginning of the song
“Dystopia,” with the tape cutting out and the band kicking in live right at Stu
Block’s opening scream. Make no mistake: Months of touring have honed this
incarnation of Iced Earth into a lethal machine. New guy Block sang his
ass off, hit every note, and showed not the slightest sign of
road-weariness. To the contrary, the guy was constantly smiling and
bouncing around the middle of the stage. Block was like an enthusiastic
kid playing with a new toy as he egged on crowd participation (once
inadvertently letting slip an “eh?” that was a telltale sign of his Canadian
heritage). He poked fun at Schaffer’s menacing vocal parts in “Damien,”
and poked fun at himself for making himself dizzy leading an “Iced Earth” chant
after the old splitting-the-crowd-in-two trick (the “Iced” side and the “Earth”
side, with Block pointing first to one side than the other with increasing
speed). For his part, the Confederate-flag-bandanna-wearing Schaffer was a
precision riffing monster. I spent entire songs just lost in watching him
attack his axe with that relentless galloping right hand. Dude’s
awesome. Bassist Freddy Vidale was also a fireball of energy, totally into
the show. Guitarist Troy Seele was much more reserved and unexpressive,
but he played the leads beautifully, so no criticism from here. I could
hear drummer Brent Smedley, but he was invisible for almost the entire gig,
cloaked in the choking stage fog that was used to annoying excess all night long.
In terms of song selection, the show had high points and low points. I was
thrilled to hear the ‘Dystopia’ material. Songs like the title track and
(especially) “V” are awesome live, and “Dark City” gets boosted a notch in the
live setting as the harmony guitars really shine. And it was unspeakably
incredible to hear the venerable chestnuts “Angels Holocaust” and “When the
Night Falls” be unearthed after years of not being on the regular Iced Earth
setlist. Those songs rule. I was a bit less enthused with set list
in other ways. It seems like Schaffer was consciously steering away from
the “hits” this time, focusing more on deep cuts. Only 2 songs from last
year’s live ‘Festivals of the Wicked’ CD package were played, so that just
shows how far off the beaten track many of the set list choices were. I
guess that’s fine, but if I could only hear one song from ‘The Dark Saga’ I
damn sure wouldn’t pick “Slave to the Dark.” If I could only hear one
song from ‘Horror Show’ I sure wouldn’t want it to be the brooding, moody,
overlong “Damien.” And if I could hear one big Iced Earth epic, I’d take
Gettysburg or Something Wicked in a heartbeat over “Dante’s Inferno,” which has
some exceptionally killer parts but also some parts that frankly drag.
So, for my personal taste, the setlist was a bit of a mixed bag. But I do
understand and appreciate Schaffer’s efforts to mix things up, rather than
falling into the trap of playing the same old shit every single tour and becoming stale.
A few other random notes from the show: Lots of people are complaining
about terrible sound at other stops on the Iced Earth / Symph X tour. All
the bands had a great sound tonight. I heard every instrument and every
vocal clearly. Iced Earth’s rhythm guitars didn’t drown out the leads,
the snare drum didn’t overpower everything else, and the vocals were all
readily audible. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about the sound
tonight. Oh, one thing that bugged me about the band’s stage presence was
that each band member seemed trapped in his own assigned area. During a
95-minute set, Jon Schaffer ventured over to my side of the stage (I was
standing right in front of Seele) exactly zero times. He didn’t even come
close. Jen said she thought he was moving very gingerly, and that may be
true given his well publicized history of neck and back problems. But he
could have walked over to our side and said hello for 30 seconds during a
song. And it wasn’t just confined to Schaffer either. Block only
came to our side of the stage one time, instead occupying a very narrow sliver
of the center of the stage the rest of the night. And the only time the
axemen interacted with each other at all was during “Declaration Day” when the
three of them came together in the middle of the stage for a few seconds.
That was it. It was like each band member was wrapped in his own bubble
the rest of the night. Weird.
It was a special night in the Schaffer family. Today was his daughter’s
seventh birthday. He announced from the stage that his daughter was here,
and that he’d taken her to Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday, and asked us if
we’d sing to her. So Stu led the crowd in a rousing version of “Happy
Birthday to You” for Jon’s daughter Jonna (heh, I swear I’m not making that
up), who I spotted off the side of the audience wearing oversized red ear
protection. Sweet. Funny, right after we sang happy birthday to his
cute little daughter, Schaffer exclaimed to the crowd “Fuckin’ ay.”
There’s a nice parental sentiment for you. And the other funny thing that
happened was that, at the end of the show, when the band members were together
at the front of the stage taking their final bow, the PA suddenly came alive to
the strains of the “I don’t think these lads can take their ale” beer hall
chant from the end of the ‘Dystopia’ CD. Nice idea for an exclamation
point on the evening, and it was funny to watch an obviously bemused Schaffer
singing along with it and grinning.
Overall, this probably wasn’t the definitive Iced Earth gig. But it was an
ass-kicker that was worth every mile of the miserable drive home, not to mention
the awful head cold that Jen and I got the next day for our trouble. Iced
friggin’ Earth, baby!
Setlist: Dystopia, Angels Holocaust, Slave to the Dark, V, Stand Alone, When the Night
Falls, Dark City, Damien, Anthem, Declaration Day, Days of Rage, Watching Over
Me, Dante’s Inferno, Iced Earth.