Gojira Hits Hard and In Flames Mellows
Show date: December 7, 2008
Venue: Terminal 5
Bands: In Flames, Gojira and 36 Crazy Fists
The time has come for me to let go of the rigid journalistic form which means that articles take hours to complete because of picture uploading, researching, linking, etc. Yeah, I’m taking the easy way out to bring to light awesome shows I would otherwise just not have time to write about.
Perfect example: In Flames, Gojira and 36 Crazy Fists at New York’s Terminal 5 this past Sunday. Amazing show, even though I’m not crazy about 36 Crazy Fists (yeah, I punned it, I’m sure I’m not the only one who did).
Terminal 5 was packed. We showed up fashionably late and still had to hang around outside waiting to be let in. The venue itself deserves a mention, because it is gorgeous, spacious (3 levels, with a bar on each) and incredibly expensive. Sure, the tickets were a mere $25, but so was a couple of Red Bull and Vodkas.
All That Remains were supposed to be part of the line up, but bailed due to issues with Phil Labonte’s throat. A good amount of people who came to the show weren’t aware of that and were pretty pissed to find out.
36 Crazy fists, a metal band from Alaska, opened and didn’t really hold my attention. d42 and I traveled around the various levels of the venue, trying to find a good spot to wait them out during (saving my strength, not as young as I used to be), but I wished I stayed on the balcony when they called forth a rather successful wall of death. I bet seeing two masses of humans collide looked wicked good from up high.
I planned on waiting out Gojira (yes, that IS how you spell it) but quickly realized I was being an asshole. It was too late to mend my ways because the floor was so full, but this death metal band from France really made the blood boil. The pits were vicious, the cords were heavy. They stuck to a slow sludgy sound, but I recognized an industrial element in their sound, which only made it extra sweet. And then there were explosive songs like “Wisdom Comes.” Gojira has one hell of a drummer, and that reflects in their sound. They were out promoting The Way Of All Flesh, a new album from which they played a good amount of songs. Listening to the songs after the show lessened my love for them somewhat, but live they are unparalleled.
Ok, well, not totally unparalleled, since of course, In Flames were still on the way. They are touring with A Sense of Purpose, which, from the sound of things is a good follow up to Come Clarity (I only heard whatever they played live, don’t take this as a review of the album). Seems this band comes out with an album every two years or so, but they are touring pretty consistently. With this show they are nearing conclusion of the U.S. tour and invited fans to cross the Atlantic for more local shows.
Anders Fridén (vocals) joked around about Gojira being that “not very heavy band” which only made me realize that despite being death metal, In Flames are in fact melodic death metal, which means their songs are pretty mellow in comparison to that night’s fare. Since I was now on the floor (accompanied, of course, by d42), getting hit in the face already, I think the melodic factor really worked out for me.
Since we were really in the crowd only for In Flames, I can only talk about them, but damn, what a buncha friendly people! It got a little rough sometimes, but there was no end of “protectors” for the two girls near/in the pit and I’ll admit that it felt nice. Yeah, it was laughable to be corralled into someone’s arms for protection, but it reminded me that metalheads are awesome. We made friends with everyone around us and there was no end of grinning and the old falling down to be picked up by the person who just knocked you down. And then there was crowd surfing, or crowd hopping. Some guy kept doing flips over the crowd, it was quite impressive.
It has been a while since we attended a show that was not at B. B. King’s and it was great to actually get lost in the crowd, to mosh and crowdsurf unfettered. I hope Terminal 5 schedules more metal.
Now go out and buy music!
OKOK, I’ll still link:
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