Feb062009
Progression of Metal Show Review
Filed under Music by Kim at 3:28 pm on Feb 06 2009
Last weekend I packed up the Nikon and headed out to Fairfax for a rock show. I skip lots of local shows and it’s really a pity, but I was determined to make it out to this one. And I was rewarded for my efforts.
The show was arranged by members of Iris Divine to drum up support for local progressive metal bands. To that end they lined up a space that could accommodate an all-ages show and recruited three other bands to round out the lineup.
I joined the fray somewhere in the middle of the Concrete Prophet‘s set. Considering their status as the opening band, I was pretty stoked to find the quality of shredding and songcraft to be very high. That’s a tough one when you’re going to see a whole mess of new bands – hearing 15 new songs doesn’t give you much time to soak them in. To give you an idea however, I had allowed for myself to pick one CD to buy, and I picked theirs. They’ll be playing the Whiskey in Annapolis in March – wanna join me?
Next up was Timelord, whose myspace page I had actually explored beforehand (I usually like to just be surprised). Their guitar player was nuts. If you like to watch/listen to fingers fly, check this band out. Their singer is in the higher-pitched intense range, if that’s a turn-off for you so be it, but it works really well with the music and the lead singer is strong and pulls it all off. I happen to like it. I wish I knew what the last song they played with the dynamics and the quiet and the loud parts was, but I was too shy to go ask them about it. 
Next up was Iris Divine. This band is one of those “why aren’t these guys pulling in a thousand folks at the Ram’s Head” bands that as progressive rock fans we get to see amongst a crowd of 100 and walk right up to the bassist and put our faces a few feet away from his flailing fingers. I can only assume that we should either just gloat that our tastes are so refined, or we (the fans) are not doing a good enough job of word of mouth. Anyways, the energy in their performance was tops and I am almost always a sucker for vocal harmonies, so for most of this set I was a happy camper. There were some songs not to my taste but the musicianship was excellent. Definitely swinging towards the melodic, Iris Divine should honestly have a broad appeal that genre-worship can’t suppress.
It was interesting to me to note that there seemed to be at least ten people there with SLR cameras. I thought maybe since it was a small show, I’d be one of two or three amateurs. Nope. There was one professional for sure, and at least two other people with shoe mount flash (something I consider more professional), and then four other folks like me.
I left before the last band as I had a date with a friend and her friend. Who may have long ears. And eat brussel sprouts. (Click through the picture for more cute as your reward for letting me hype local metal bands.)
