Thursday 20 May 2010

May concert madness: Covenant, Hypocrisy and more

Okay, maybe not madness, but my concert drought is finally over and I'm seriously making up for lost time this month.

Things started off with Porcupine Tree (and Big Elf) at Sound Academy. It was my first time at the venue and I was impressed - great sound, good view from where we were standing, clean bathrooms. The last time I saw Porcupine Tree they were playing with Opeth on the acoustic tour, and this was a rather different vibe, with Porcupine Tree being the main event. I loved it, but then my months of concert withdrawal (and a few other extraneous reasons) might have contributed to an uncritical appreciation of what was going on. Either way, I had a blast. Check out Natalie Zed's review on Hellbound with some great shots by Adam Wills.

My next concert was only two days later: the 16 Volt/Chemlab show at Neu+ral. Very different music and venue (and sketchier washrooms). Openers Promonium Jester sounded great but were a little short on stage presence. Left Spine Down had enough stage presence for both, but it wasn't until their second last song that they really started to win me over. But then, in terms of personality, Chemlab cranked things up even further (part of it had to be the silver jacket). And finally, for 16 Volt it was back to sound over spectacle. I saw the show with Melissa Andrews, so you can read her proper review of it at Hellbound. A couple of dudes were taking pictures but you'll have to seek those out on your own.

Since we didn't make it to Montreal for Kinetik fest, we made up for it with another electronic show on May 17: Covenant and Decoded Feedback with DJs Skin and Lazarus at the Mod Club. I actually wrote up a real review for this one, so if you're so inclined, read it over at exclaim.ca.

Up next: Hypocrisy and more at the Wreck Room on May 28, and then as the month turns over Entombed/Obituary at the Opera House on June 1. May is turning out to be a good month after all.

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