Metal Reviews

Did you get to any of Bloodstock? I am going somewhere with this.

Bah, I wanted to go to Bloodstock OA this year but none of the losers I call "friends" wanted to and I wasn't up for going alone. I may also try to persuade them to go to the indoor one in septembo perhaps.

Right. Well I was going to ask what you thought of Stratovarius stage presence. Too many people were like "oooh they were just standing there."

Yeah, Jens and Jorg are stuck in one spot and Timo T is a fat tadger! Lauri and Koti were bounding about all over the place!

"Oh but Turisas stoel the show!"

Stealing the show involves dressing up and doing stupid comedy skits to cover your lack of songs (tr00 story).

Not that I didn't enjoy them. Just to hear so many people saying Stratovarius sucked because they weren't as 'hilarious' as the band on before them. Hmph.

Ah I see.

I guess especially hip individuals shouldn't really need to be active or extrovert onstage to have charisma. The Gathering were very charismatic, but also pretty still, although in hindsight it may just be that I was blown away by the hotness of Anneke at the time.

When I used to do gigs more often sometimes I had to try to have stage presence but I sucked at it. I did however have some classic gags on standby for when I had to introduce the band. I would first say:

"We're very lucky to have here tonight arguably the best piano player in the entire.... *comedy pause* band!"

then I'd say:

"On bass, a man that needs absolutely no introduction. Anyway the next song we're going to play is..."

The old ones are the oldest.

ROLF

I saw a local band recently, must have been their first gig judging by how, erm, shite they were.

A note to their singer - if there is absolutely no one in the audience here to see you and your too shy to do anything other than mumble into the microphone, don't try and crack jokes! Good thing I had my cringe tan lotion on that night, I tell thee.

Turisas were clearly the best band there but i don't see why people thought that starto had poor stage persence. They were great. Unfortunatly i think people were quite tired by then so the band didn't get the responce they deserved. It was the conbination of playing after Turisas, the heat and being the last band at the end of a long weekend thats caused everyone to be a bit lackluster in their responce to strat which was a shame.

And Rio, good to see you back. You should try and get to the indoor one. have you been to any of the others?? I should be going (with my free tickets ) so i hope to see you down there.

It's amazing how just talking to an audience can be much scarier than actually performing in front of them. Especially if it's the first time you've ever used a microphone. You start to say "Hello" but just after "Hel" you suddenly realise how wierd your voice sounds and you just trail off and mumble. Then you remember pre-planned jokes and you have to say them even though your in no fit state to deliver them. However considering how many gigs Katatonia must have done there's no excuse for looking so afraid to interact with the audience. Sort it out, guys!

Anyway, I'm not sure about the Bloodstock Indoors. I would quite like to go. It's convenient because I live in Derby anyway... I went a couple of years ago when CoB headlined and really enjoyed it.

So yeah, I may go down.

Dark Tranquillity : Stane is frickin awesome! The whole band is awsome. I saw Hypocrisy on that same show and they were also very good.

Word.