Seduced By The Opening Act

Amorphis with Samael & Virgin Black
10/12/2008 - Slim's - San Francisco, CA



I love surprises.

The atmosphere inside of Slim's struck me as soon as i passed through the doors. Gone was usual sea of bodies packed in like sardines; the venue's population was much sparser this night. The back half of the floor was set up with tables (!), and the place actually felt like a low-key bar with a dark and mellow tone set by the music. Oh, the music!

Virgin Black were on the stage, bathed in warm red light, playing low and slow; rich melodies dripping with dark energy and emotion. Listening to the songs on their myspace page does NOT do justice to this amazing band. Their live show captivated me.




I'm not sure how to categorize these guys; doom metal, maybe, with elements of symphonic and black metal. Much of their music is dark and introspective; gothic landscapes painted with orchestration and choirs. But they also pick it up at times and rock hard. Rowan London performs lush vocals ranging from beautiful operatic singing to low shrieks and sustained growls, each style fitting the songs like a puzzle piece.




I was also intrigued by their guitarist, Samantha Escarbe; her face was covered by her hair for most of the set (even as she rocked out) adding a mysterious allure to her presence. (Also reminded me a little of Samara from The Ring). Solid guitarwork. I later found out that she and London are the founding members and primary songwriters of the band.


i think she's cute


I felt like i'd been transported to a faraway land. As their set ended and i faded back into reality, i knew i'd discovered another gem. I actually met London briefly after the set, but i was too rattled to say more than "Great set; i love your vocals!".



...

I don't have much to say about Samael, who took the stage next. Pretty good as an industrial metal act, but i had to dock points because of their faux drumming. Most of the percussion was programmed, but their synth guy had half of a drumkit (a snare, a few toms & cymbals) next to his keyboards which he'd peroidically wail on. LAME. I mean i'm down with electronica, but if you're going to have three guys playing guitars on stage, you should hire a touring drummer as well.




I was also annoyed because the afformentioned fight club started up under the guise of a mosh pit. News flash, assholes - if there are only 4 of you and everyone else is clearly pissed off at your assholery, then you need to take it outside. Moshing requires crowdsourcing; willing participants not only inside the pit, but also forming the circle wall and surrounding buffer. Since i wasn't really feeling the band anyway, i found a new perch at the bar and watched the rest of the set from there.

...

Amorphis rocked the house. Melodic death metal band from Finland, they're yet another act who manage to balance rich melodies and heavy riffing, with vocals split between singing and growling. Their vocalist, by the way, wears an impressive set of dreadlocks that hang almost to his knees. And he wields an old-shool, announcer-style microphone. Nice.




I only recognized a handful of their songs (the ones from "Silent Waters", their latest), but i really enjoyed the set, especially some of their older stuff. I actually picked up one of their EPs when i was in college (from the cheap-o bin at a cd shop in East Lansing); i did like it but didn't get into the band past that. Now, many years later, i end up picking up their latest album after randomly hearing a song on a sampler collection, liking it enough to want to see them play live, and being inspired by the show to go back and check out some of their stuff between then and now; funny how things play out sometimes.






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Great night, all in all. Amorphis definitely fired me up the most, but i'm still haunted by Virgin Black. I listened to a lot of their music online today, and picked out a couple of albums to start with.

And thus ends the current leg of my 2008 concert marathon - 6 shows in 6 weeks. It's been a lot of fun, but rather exhausting, so i'm looking forward to having a few weeks off before my next show. Then again, Iced Earth is playing next week, and Apocalyptica the week after that; even though neither are tier1 bands (yet), both are rather tempting. Hmmm.