After two weekends without a noteworthy local show, the Tri-State area was presented with a smorgasbord of concerts this past Saturday night. Siren topped the list of 5 metal bands playing at Backstage Café in Covington; Moonbow was playing the V-Twin after party at Mainstay Rock Bar downtown; Electric Citizen was bringing their brand of psych-rock to the stage at The Comet. Being an ambitious fake journalist, I attempted to catch at least one band at all three shows. I failed miserably.
On top of all of the live music Saturday night, I was also hellbent on watching the UC/SMU game at 7:30. I knew from previous visits that Backstage Café had TVs and I figured that Mainstay and The Comet would be way too hip to show something as pedestrian as college hoops, if they even had TVs to begin with. Thus, my night began at Backstage Café.
One of my favorite things about Backstage is the lack of ear-splitting volume during live performances. Whether this is due to insufficient equipment or a merciful sound guy is up for debate, but it's nice to be able to watch a game and listen to heavy metal bands at the same time without being deaf for the next 3 days. However, it would be nice if those heavy metal bands were worth listening to. Now, I'm not going to slam bands by name on here. This blog is about celebrating heavy metal in all its glory. If you are curious about unnamed bands, you can find the relevant info for yourself.
That being said, the evening's opener was by far the worst band I've ever seen live. I can say that with authority because I am an expert on shitty bands. My old band None the Wiser was the shittiest band in the history of Cincinnati, so I know these things. These guys made None the Wiser look like The Beatles, or at least Loverboy. 40 minutes of halting, rappy, industrial metal straight out of 1997...absolutely horrifying. Isn't it too soon to start a wave of retro late-90's bands? I hope so.
The second band of the evening was a decent thrash outfit but I don't think the singer's microphone was ever turned on, which is a shame. Those guys deserved better. They sounded pretty good, from what I was able to hear. For those of you unfamiliar with Backstage, the sound guy kind of stands behind a wall and peeks out at the bands from time to time. Maybe he was unaware that the band even had a singer. Or maybe the $250 sound system just couldn't keep up. I'm not sure what was going on, but it would've been nice if the sound issues happened during the first band's set.
By this point, UC had finished up getting destroyed by SMU and I noticed that Siren, the only band on the bill that I wanted to see, was not loading gear on stage for the next set. I decided to make a quick trip across the river to check out the happenings at Mainstay Rock Bar. For some reason I assumed that Moonbow would be headlining the show at Mainstay, but I walked in at 10:00 to find them mid-set. After watching 4 or 5 songs, not to mention 10 minutes' worth of the singer lauding the band members' personal achievements, I was bored to tears and decided to head back to Covington for the Siren set at Backstage.
I arrived back at Backstage just in time to catch Siren in the midst of their opener. I'm not sure how these guys landed on a bill with so much sub-par metal. I was not familiar with Siren's sound prior to the show, but I can only describe it as epic Power Metal with death and doom influences, so they pretty much nail all of the best aspects of heavy metal in one shot. I really enjoyed the Matt Barlow-esque vocals on top of the monstrous riffs that the band kept churning out. The drumming was fantastic. I'm not a drummer, so I don't know if the guy was technically sound, but I never notice drummers and I noticed this guy. Unfortunately, some of the guitar solos were lost to the poor sound. It wasn't a flawless performance, by any means. It seems like Siren is still putting everything together, but I think they're definitely a band worth keeping tabs on. I'm not aware of any other bands playing pure heavy metal like that in the area. We have enough bad death metal in town, so this was a nice change of pace. Also, they had very nice, professional banners on stage, so I assume they're in it for the long haul and not just a side project.
The next band up had those giant rings that stretch one's earlobes into cartoonish proportions. I wasn't aware that this was still going on in 2014. Maybe they used the same time machine as the first band. Also, they were under the mistaken belief that they were in Cincinnati, not Covington, so I had to bail in the middle of the first song. If you have two singers in your band who don't play an instrument, you're doing something wrong.
I couldn't get ahold of anyone that knew what was going on at The Comet, so that was enough for me for one evening. I wasn't going to drive up there just to find out that Electric Citizen had already played. I had already witnessed enough mediocrity and bad basketball for one night. Besides, EC has another show coming up this month, so I'll catch them then. Plus, I'm old and midnight is pretty rough these days.
The moral of the story is that I need to start coordinating my live music schedule better instead of saving up three weeks worth of shows for one evening. As always, I'm happy to post show dates and/or reviews for anyone who tips me off to something going on locally. My calendar is looking pretty sparse for the rest of the month. - JO
On top of all of the live music Saturday night, I was also hellbent on watching the UC/SMU game at 7:30. I knew from previous visits that Backstage Café had TVs and I figured that Mainstay and The Comet would be way too hip to show something as pedestrian as college hoops, if they even had TVs to begin with. Thus, my night began at Backstage Café.
One of my favorite things about Backstage is the lack of ear-splitting volume during live performances. Whether this is due to insufficient equipment or a merciful sound guy is up for debate, but it's nice to be able to watch a game and listen to heavy metal bands at the same time without being deaf for the next 3 days. However, it would be nice if those heavy metal bands were worth listening to. Now, I'm not going to slam bands by name on here. This blog is about celebrating heavy metal in all its glory. If you are curious about unnamed bands, you can find the relevant info for yourself.
That being said, the evening's opener was by far the worst band I've ever seen live. I can say that with authority because I am an expert on shitty bands. My old band None the Wiser was the shittiest band in the history of Cincinnati, so I know these things. These guys made None the Wiser look like The Beatles, or at least Loverboy. 40 minutes of halting, rappy, industrial metal straight out of 1997...absolutely horrifying. Isn't it too soon to start a wave of retro late-90's bands? I hope so.
The second band of the evening was a decent thrash outfit but I don't think the singer's microphone was ever turned on, which is a shame. Those guys deserved better. They sounded pretty good, from what I was able to hear. For those of you unfamiliar with Backstage, the sound guy kind of stands behind a wall and peeks out at the bands from time to time. Maybe he was unaware that the band even had a singer. Or maybe the $250 sound system just couldn't keep up. I'm not sure what was going on, but it would've been nice if the sound issues happened during the first band's set.
By this point, UC had finished up getting destroyed by SMU and I noticed that Siren, the only band on the bill that I wanted to see, was not loading gear on stage for the next set. I decided to make a quick trip across the river to check out the happenings at Mainstay Rock Bar. For some reason I assumed that Moonbow would be headlining the show at Mainstay, but I walked in at 10:00 to find them mid-set. After watching 4 or 5 songs, not to mention 10 minutes' worth of the singer lauding the band members' personal achievements, I was bored to tears and decided to head back to Covington for the Siren set at Backstage.
I arrived back at Backstage just in time to catch Siren in the midst of their opener. I'm not sure how these guys landed on a bill with so much sub-par metal. I was not familiar with Siren's sound prior to the show, but I can only describe it as epic Power Metal with death and doom influences, so they pretty much nail all of the best aspects of heavy metal in one shot. I really enjoyed the Matt Barlow-esque vocals on top of the monstrous riffs that the band kept churning out. The drumming was fantastic. I'm not a drummer, so I don't know if the guy was technically sound, but I never notice drummers and I noticed this guy. Unfortunately, some of the guitar solos were lost to the poor sound. It wasn't a flawless performance, by any means. It seems like Siren is still putting everything together, but I think they're definitely a band worth keeping tabs on. I'm not aware of any other bands playing pure heavy metal like that in the area. We have enough bad death metal in town, so this was a nice change of pace. Also, they had very nice, professional banners on stage, so I assume they're in it for the long haul and not just a side project.
The next band up had those giant rings that stretch one's earlobes into cartoonish proportions. I wasn't aware that this was still going on in 2014. Maybe they used the same time machine as the first band. Also, they were under the mistaken belief that they were in Cincinnati, not Covington, so I had to bail in the middle of the first song. If you have two singers in your band who don't play an instrument, you're doing something wrong.
I couldn't get ahold of anyone that knew what was going on at The Comet, so that was enough for me for one evening. I wasn't going to drive up there just to find out that Electric Citizen had already played. I had already witnessed enough mediocrity and bad basketball for one night. Besides, EC has another show coming up this month, so I'll catch them then. Plus, I'm old and midnight is pretty rough these days.
The moral of the story is that I need to start coordinating my live music schedule better instead of saving up three weeks worth of shows for one evening. As always, I'm happy to post show dates and/or reviews for anyone who tips me off to something going on locally. My calendar is looking pretty sparse for the rest of the month. - JO
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