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288: TÝR Battle Ballads Tour, Mar 28, 2024 @ Baltimore Soundstage | Concert Review
9 Plays7 months ago
Reviewing the TÝR Battle Ballads Tour, Mar 28, 2024 @ Baltimore Soundstage with TROLLFEST, ÆTHER REALM, and THE DREAD CREW OF ODDWOOD. #TYR #TÝR #folkmetal #faroesemetal #trollfest #norwegianfalsemetal #worstbandever #aetherrealm #ncmetal #melodicdeathmetal #dreadcrewofoddwood #cametal #heavymahogany #piratemetal PODCAST THEM DOWN - https://linktr.ee/pctd https://patreon.com/podcastthemdown
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Transcript
Introduction and Concert Experience
00:00:00
Speaker
Tonight on Podcasts and Down, the worst band ever opens for the best band ever. Podcasts and Down. Hail Metal Nation. It is I, Tim. This is Podcasts and Down as usual. And that's Mike. And that's it. We're not having anyone else. It's just you and me today. We saw the first date of the
00:00:31
Speaker
the Tier Battle Ballads Tour at Baltimore Soundstage. Oh, look at that. I have mine. Well, I don't have mine within reach because it's actually in my CD player, but what I do have is the Synergy album that we were in Mike's car and he put on Synergy and so I bought it and it finally arrived from Japan because apparently it's pretty rare.
00:01:01
Speaker
Anyway, that was a while ago. More recently, we went to see this concert. Opening date, Baltimore Soundstage. It was tier. Okay, and let's address. I've already said it wrong twice. Let's address that. There's a little over the Y. It's pronounced Tua, like Tuesday. But as Americans, we don't recognize
00:01:28
Speaker
accents or pronunciation of things that aren't American. So we're going to say tier. I know we're wrong, but that's just how it's going to be. All right. All right. You know, I, I think British English is way more over the top with that.
00:01:47
Speaker
You know, they'll just be like, it's a filet mignon, now it's a fillet steak. Fillet, yeah, fillet. Yeah, yeah. It's just like, fuck you. I don't care what your, your pronunciation is. Oh, and then like, is it an history or a history? Is it an herb or a herb? They don't fucking know what they're doing. All right.
The Dread Crew of Oddwood
00:02:09
Speaker
So none of the bands were British. So then, uh, so before,
00:02:16
Speaker
The billing top to bottom is tier. I'm letting you sit uncomfortably with the mispronunciation followed by I hate them so much. I forgot their name. Trollfest. Trollfest. Thank you. Then aetherrom. Then the drug crew of oddwood.
00:02:39
Speaker
So, so why don't we just start from the beginning, work our way to the end? Cause I want to end talking about tear because they were amazing. So the dread crew of Oddwood, what they are. So I,
00:03:01
Speaker
Sorry to say I arrived late. I didn't get to see them, but I've seen them before obviously. So they are an acoustic pirate band. Okay. They're from San Diego. This is great. They referred to themselves as heavy mahogany. That's amazing.
00:03:25
Speaker
And yeah, so it's basically a bunch of various acoustic instruments with a pirate theme. They're one of the very, very, very vanishingly few good pirate bands. I can think of two. And no, the other one's not AleStorm because AleStorm fucking blew it. The other one is Running Wild. So here's a list of
00:03:52
Speaker
the various instruments they have or have had in their band. Whistles, guitar, ukulele, mandolin, concertina, bass, accordion, toy piano, Irish bazooki, I didn't know there was an Irish one, drums, percussion, that's not helpful, orchestral strings,
00:04:15
Speaker
and vocals. So they have five albums and I guess they're touring for Rust and Glory, which is listed as coming out in 2024. Okay. I wish they, here are their current members, according to Wikipedia, Wolfbeard O'Brady,
00:04:44
Speaker
And I really hope that's his legal name. Smithy Crow, Stark Cordwane, Deckard Cordwane. Probably related. And on drums is Pete. No last name. Hey, Pete. Everyone gets cool names but you. He must be like their equivalent to a bassist. Although that'd be Smithy Crow.
00:05:11
Speaker
Another interesting fact about Dread Crew is that, apparently no longer, but the guy behind Rainbow Dragon Eyes used to be in it. Oh. Which is a very, very different type of band. And we opened for him too, because you remember that show was us, Second Guard, Rainbow Dragon Eyes and Dread Crew. Yeah.
00:05:42
Speaker
Something I didn't know on their biography, it says they were formed as an eight piece in 2008 after Wolf Mirdo Brady organized a meeting at San Diego Comic Con for fans of the Sega Genesis game, Echo the Dolphin. Only eight people showed up to the meeting and the group formed the band's original lineup. That is fucking incredible. I know. Did you have Echo the Dolphin? I did. I did not. I wasn't at... Couldn't...
00:06:12
Speaker
But I think before Sonic, maybe it was the launch title. It was like bundled with the system, I think. I want to say that I'm not I'm not entirely sure that's true. I'm not sure either. But I can tell you that Echo the Dolphin is. Not it's not inherently a depressing game, but something about it is like the most. Dark worrying setting.
00:06:38
Speaker
That you can imagine. You're in the deep ocean. The music is sparse. Somehow the end is somehow there's the end of it. It has you being crushed in a giant machine and an alien ship. There you go. Well, they. There was a game here. Maybe I had the game gear one. Oh, I I still have my game gear. Oh, yeah.
00:07:05
Speaker
But I guarantee all the capacitors have leaked all their juice all over the board by now. I was just trying to see real quick if it was bundled with the system, but I'm not seeing anything quickly. I didn't think so. Anyway, I feel like the Echo the Dolphin theme is very
00:07:29
Speaker
I think they go all pirate and not Echo the Dolph. Now an Echo the Dalton related band, I think they realized was a bad idea since only eight people showed up at Con Con for, for the meeting. But anyway, what were they going to talk about? God knows. Yeah. Okay. So then aether realm now burning shadows opened for aether aether realm way back when
Opening for Aether Realm
00:07:59
Speaker
We, it was the university of Maryland's shell fest. Oh yeah. Yeah. And they were, they were the headliners and we played, I want to say right before them, but I'm not, we definitely open for that. And at the time they had like a handful of lights and a synced up light show. Yeah. I had them turn off all the lights in the room. There, there were no stage lights at this place.
00:08:28
Speaker
Yeah, it was organized by the metal club at University of Maryland. I wonder if there still is one. They're damn well better me. Yeah, I hope so. So then I know we, I know I saw them again after that. Eisenmoor opened for them. That's right. Yeah. So I've opened for them twice and now they're opening for tear. And their one guitarist is playing in cradle of filth. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah.
00:08:59
Speaker
He's a super nice guy. And I'm sure he's making bank from that. There is no better position than to be a touring musician, hired gun in a band that sometimes does okay. I probably like
00:09:20
Speaker
I'd be very curious to know how much that pays because it's not enough for like rent, I'm sure. I mean, when people, when I talk to people about, you know, how much money you could make doing this, it's like, well, just keep in mind that when the singer of Goire died, he was found by his roommates. Plural.
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's a guar is like one of the biggest bands and ever. And he still needed roommates. So yeah, so eight the Rome is from Greenville. I've been saying they're from Raleigh, but they're not they're from Greenville, which is like an hour and a half away by car. It's basically a mix of
00:10:10
Speaker
melodic death metal and folk metal. And I want to say lately they've been going more mellow death than folk, but, but they straddle that line. Yeah. Like, I don't know. It depends. I think it depends on the release, like what they're feeling at that time. I don't know if they consistently Lee stay right between them, you know,
00:10:38
Speaker
Yeah, their latest album was called Redneck Vikings from Hell, which, you know, sounds too Pantera for me, you know? It's like maybe everyone in North Carolina thought that was a good album title, but I think it's going to turn people off. That's not to say to suggest the quality of the music because they played plenty from it.
00:11:07
Speaker
But yeah, maybe Workshop the next album title a little more. So, oh, and apparently the guy from AleStorm did guest vocals on their second album, which I didn't know. Anyway, so Atheron played, oh, I meant to bring this up. So they were both supposed to play, I think, a half hour, but they pushed the start time of the show back
00:11:37
Speaker
And I'm pretty sure both those openers played for, on the tour, played for 40 minutes.
Baltimore Soundstage Experience
00:11:43
Speaker
Oh, okay. And what they should have done is given both the openers 40 minutes and remove that time from Trollfest. You could not. So we showed up right as Aetherrealm started. We showed up the Baltimore soundstage for reasons.
00:12:05
Speaker
We had someone in our group that needed the ADA seating. And so we reserved the seat and basically hung around that area. So at Baltimore Soundstage, this is great. The ADA seating is right behind the lighting guy. So you can watch the house lighting guy. You can watch him the whole time.
00:12:30
Speaker
Really nice guy. And you also have a good view of the sound guy whose name is Mike. He's run sound when I've played soundstage. He's fantastic. He's not afraid to give you constructive criticism.
00:12:50
Speaker
to help you get a better show. And he's gentle about it. Yeah, he's not just like, oh, this sounds like shit, you know? Maybe you should... So he knows what he's doing. Yeah. So if you're in the ADA area, you get to watch him. And easy access to the bathroom as well. You don't have to fight the whole crowd. My complaint about soundstage is that the water is $4.
00:13:18
Speaker
And yeah, that's, that's $5. So I, I know they have to make money, but come on. So does are also $5. So here's my, here's my tip. Get a glass, a cup of ice as well. And then that's how, that's how you can stretch your $4 water into, into, uh,
00:13:47
Speaker
you know, some extra water throughout the show. Anyway. It's like that Mitch Hedberg joke. It's like somebody asked me if I wanted a frozen banana. I said no, but I wanted a regular banana later. So I said, yeah. The beer price is also expensive because you're in downtown Baltimore, you know, um,
00:14:13
Speaker
Then you have to make money. Costs are going up. So I guess pre-game is my point. So hydrate before you get there and bring a few fives for water if you're going to be thirsty. So yeah, so then Trollfest comes on after both
Trollfest Performance Critique
00:14:34
Speaker
the bands play 40 minutes. And I swear to you, I'm pretty sure they played for four hours.
00:14:42
Speaker
They came by. Would not stop. Oh my fuck. Okay. You, let me, let me get my, my troll fest rant out of the way. Troll fest. You could not design a band that I hate more. Like it is engineered for me to dislike them. What they do. Perfect storm. It's the perfect storm for you. What they are. So I don't know which end to start on. So I'll just, I'll just, you know, throw it all against the wall. They have a saxophone.
00:15:12
Speaker
That's where I'll start. I'm not starting in the most obvious place. I don't think saxophone has ever worked in metal with the one possible exception of that solo in Another Day by Dream Theater, but even then, it would have been better on any other instrument. I don't know what it is about saxophones, but they don't work. They don't work in Trollfest. They don't work in ISAN. There I said it. They don't work.
00:15:43
Speaker
maybe in some like weird avant-garde shit. Okay. You know, like if they're used melodically, it's, it's not terrible, but metal for some reason tends to want to treat it like this. I don't know. Freeform solo instrument. And it, it just, it doesn't work. So luckily, okay. So Mike stopped running sound after the two openers played. So now they're on the tours.
00:16:13
Speaker
Sound guy and he smartly mixed out the saxophone so I couldn't hear it so it's I but I've seen troll fest before and it's fucking awful with the with the saxophone just ruining everything so Then they have they have a percussionist Okay, I've never seen either percussionists bug me too I
00:16:41
Speaker
I'm working my way up to the big ones. Did you see three when they opened for, was that Opeth, like forever ago?
00:16:52
Speaker
Well they have a guy at a drum set and they have a percussionist at like half a drum set and he just looks like a fucking idiot hitting the cymbal. He's like standing up and every so often he's like doing some Tom things. You look fucking bored. It was dumb when Metallica did it on the hardwired tour. It's dumb when anyone is standing and playing drums. I don't know why you're not in an orchestra.
00:17:21
Speaker
Let the drummer be the fucking drummer. You're stepping on his toes, man. Yeah, I don't quite get it. Like, I mean, if you've got some, like, highly specialized, like, I don't know, like, gong, but then the drummer could do that too. I don't know. Yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
And these drum parts aren't so amazingly hard that he can't do it too. You just need something to do, so you're gonna play a tambourine that doesn't add anything to the song at all. Okay, so then they have, according to this, they have a bazooki. I don't remember that. There was an accordion slash keyboardist.
00:18:04
Speaker
I did see the bazooki. I'm not complaining about the accordion. Frankly, I'm not complaining about the bazooki, but the keyboard. Oh yeah. It was used like a stamp board. See, that's what it was like. It was very meme-ish, right? It's the meme of vocational music. It's awful.
00:18:32
Speaker
Like it's just grating to like, you're just trying to listen to music and he's here. Shut the fuck up. Get the fuck off the stage. Oh my God. And then.
00:18:46
Speaker
Um, so I, and I realized this whole thing makes me, I know I'm not in their main demographic and just complaining about them makes me sound old as fuck, but here we go. The last time I saw them, they dressed as bumblebees. All of them were bumblebees and they were singing a song about bees or honey or some dumb shit. That's not metal, but it, but bees are way more metal than flamingos, which is what they were dressed as this time.
00:19:15
Speaker
They were wearing flamingo heads. And my wife, who came to the show, all she wanted was a good night out. She doesn't get many of those. And she thought they were chicken heads. I said, no, they're flamingos. And she goes, I'm pretty sure they're chickens. And I said, I can't believe this phrase had to come out of my mouth. No, their latest album is about flamingos.
00:19:46
Speaker
This is fucking stupid. This is supposed to be a metal... If you're gonna have a band that's about flamingos and piña coladas and has a big fucking joke to you, go tour with Hailstorm so I don't have to see you, okay? Go over there. Go open for baby metal. Go tour with some band that has a low standard because I don't wanna fucking see you.
00:20:14
Speaker
It is an odd fit because Tyr is so serious about their music. Exactly. Exactly. And you know, and everyone, the reaction for, for many people at the venue was that they loved Trollfest, but for old curmudgeons like me, I literally pulled up a video of paint drying because they were so fucking bad. And
00:20:40
Speaker
My wife, who had never heard them, got bored with them after three songs, which would have been fun, but they played like 20 songs. It just kept going. It was way too long. Oh my God. I can't complain about Trollfest enough, so maybe we should just move on. I'll say this. I don't have an innate hatred of Trollfest.
00:21:04
Speaker
But it's clearly a gimmick, right? Yes. And I think that's part of the problem. It's like, do you have a gimmicky band? It's very hard to stay fresh. If you have a funny band, like you don't listen to the same comedy album every week forever. You know, like even Weird Al has a burn rate. Trust me, I know. Like,
00:21:33
Speaker
Like it was amusing, but then yeah, it just, it's just like, okay, I got it. Right. Like air horns, you know, uh, dub step, dumb shit. It's like, all right, I understand the joke. Yeah. And then, and then that's why like, you go see, uh, comedians, they'll stop after an hour. Cause that's as long as they can go.
00:22:01
Speaker
Before you, you're just like, okay, I'm done with this funny man.
Tier's Performance Review
00:22:05
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So, uh, finally tier. So this is, is this the first time? No, it's not, but they rarely headline in the United States. Yeah. Like, like the best way I know that I was thinking about this. They, they tend to support, they tend to be support for bands that I don't give a shit about.
00:22:33
Speaker
Like, I mean, I, I like Elvaytay, but they're not going to draw me to a show. Corpora Kalani is fun, but they're not going to draw me to a show. But Tierra will be support for both those acts. And it's like, eh, man, come on. All right. I have seen, well, according to setlist.fm, I have seen them 10 times the second most of any band.
00:22:57
Speaker
The most being Symphony X, believe it or not. Oh, wow. At 11, Ice Darth and Hope at the ninth, Dream Theater at six. I wonder about those. But let's see, in 2014, they only played nine songs. Who were they trying to see who they were with? There was- Whatever.
00:23:21
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's right. They came around twice in 2014. The other time they only played six songs. 2013, they played eight songs. 2012, they played nine songs. Uh, I saw them in Vulcan. They played 11 songs. I saw, they did. I saw them at Jax. If you can believe it, they did. Oh my God. I saw them at sonar and they toured with sweet ochre and ale storm.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah. I was that March 27th, 2009, because I was there probably, but no one put up the set list. I saw the next again. They headlined that one at sonar. Wow. Our, well this time they played 15 fucking songs. Oh, so good. It was fantastic. Let's start with the, the bad stuff. Bad is relative.
00:24:19
Speaker
They were clearly playing to a click that they were not used to. I could say that first show of the tour. Yeah, they come in the Yahoo. I think they flew in to Atlanta a couple days before for our. For our non East Coast audience, a good drive from Atlanta to Baltimore is 12 hours. Yeah, I would fly that if I if I had the option. Yeah.
00:24:48
Speaker
I don't know if they flew or drove, I just know they came in through Atlanta. They were selling their album that you showed, which we're gonna review before it comes out for the first time ever. They were selling their album and they played three new songs off of it. I believe at least two of them were already released as singles, so you can go see them.
00:25:16
Speaker
Specifically, the new songs were Dragons Never Die, which the single for that came out the day of that show. Hammered and Axes. All three of which I think are great songs. Yeah, and I thought it was a little weird that Harry, the singer, was like, this guy over here wrote this song. That guy over there wrote this song. Like, is he deflecting blame or is he giving credit?
00:25:49
Speaker
So the rest of their set, so they did four songs from By the Light of the Northern Star, three songs from Valyria, and then one song from pretty much all the other albums, with one glaring exception that I know you noticed. Oh, yes. And what album do they not play anything off of, Mike? Ragnarok. Ragnarok, your favorite album.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah. They just, they just don't touch. I love Ragnarok. What's that something of time? Wings of time. Wings of time. I've seen them do that a few times. I've seen them do like rage at the skull gaffer. Yeah, but they really don't, they didn't touch it. But like they're at the, they're also at the point where, you know, you got to play the new stuff.
00:26:45
Speaker
Right. What's what the light of the Northern Star was their most successful. So that's why they're. That's why they took up half the set, basically. Which song was off of Eric the Red? Why that would be it was one of the Faroese ones. Trondurry. No, Reagan Schmieder. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, OK. The. Well, where is it? So they also did Ragnar's Kvedi.
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, my Faroese is terrible, I'm sorry. Trondorigatu is from By the Light of the Northern Star. Okay. I was so happy to hear Hail to the Hammer. Yeah, that was a good one. Which I'm not positive, but I don't think they played for a while. But, you know, that was like one of the... That was the song they were known for before they got all these other hits, you know?
00:27:47
Speaker
Well, it was interesting because they, they had, they redid hail to the hammer for land, right? Yes, correct. I think that was the first tour I saw them on. Yes. Oh, I was at that Jack show. Yeah. Because I remember Jack's was a legendary venue in Northern Virginia. And, uh, thankfully it closed. So I don't have to go to Northern Virginia.
00:28:13
Speaker
Because I remember, I remember them playing songs off a land and I somehow had already heard it. And I shouldn't have already been able to hear it. I know this. Well, land is land was on the first album as well. Or at least parts of it were how far to Asgard. Yeah. He quotes how far to Asgard in the song land. Yeah. Which is cool. I like that.
00:28:42
Speaker
So I don't want to belabor the point, but maybe I should. The highlights of their set. Anytime they did the Faraway songs, say this is a preview for my album review as well. They just hit differently. Yeah. And
00:29:04
Speaker
So those were great. They did the, uh, well, I think it's Reagan, Reagan smither. Uh, they, he had the EBO or some kind of sustainer. And that's so cool when they did by the light of the Northern star. I love that song blood of heroes. Yeah, that song is such a good song. I, I also liked, they did the lay of thrift.
00:29:32
Speaker
What I like about that, he's doing this tapping thing and singing the whole thing as if it's nothing, and I love it. I've seen him do it a bunch of times now. He used to do the leads, too. Oh, man. I mean, because he's like Thomas England from Evergreen, like where they're the lead and the singer.
00:29:58
Speaker
I feel like I've seen ever gray where the singer wasn't playing guitar though. Huh? Maybe I'm misremembering. I don't know. Okay. But, but I mean like Harry Ohenson is one of those guitars who can literally play leads and sing at the same time, which I think is outrageous. It says Thomas England, vocals and guitar. Okay. Well I miss remembered. Oh well.
00:30:26
Speaker
I haven't seen them in like 15 years. They played mare of my night, which I thought was interesting. Cause I, I don't know why I read some article about how controversial this song was. And it's like, I mean, it's very sexual. Oh yeah. But it's like, that's, that's fairly metal, right? Like that's not all that unusual for metal, right? It's yeah. It's.
00:30:55
Speaker
I feel, I feel guilty complaining about a tear song, but you know, maybe I want to switch that one out. It's a good song. It's just, there's other ones I'd rather hear. They opened with one of my favorites, by the way, by the sword in my hand. Yeah, that is a good one. That is a good open. Yeah. You could swap sword in my hand with blood of heroes and be good to go. You know, if they had swapped,
00:31:23
Speaker
If, you know what, I don't know that I would have wanted them to swap anything. If they had added the edge, I probably would have just been happy. Oh, I love the edge. Oh my God, the edge. What a good song. What would you do while I'm replaced with it? Hold the heathen hammer high. I thought that was a weird closer, but spoiler alert, that was the closer. I maybe controversially am not all that big on by the light of the Northern star.
00:31:51
Speaker
I think there are amazing songs on there, but maybe it's just because we covered it in Eisenmoor, but I'm over, hold the even hammer high. Well, I think that for me, the thing that draws me to tear, and I felt like they abandoned it for By the Light of the Northern Star and Lay of Thrim.
00:32:11
Speaker
is it's a little hard to digest, if that makes sense. Like it is the rhythm. They did. There was a transition. I was going to talk about this in the album review, but they, they, there was a transition at some point where they went from like this. Proggy. I don't know what you'd call it. Like the drums weren't like a beat and it was like, they were following the guitars.
00:32:40
Speaker
Yeah, and it almost, they were almost incidentally folk metal. It was, the progginess was way higher, but for By the Light of the Northern Star and The Lay of Thrim, they were a little bit more straightforward, I thought. Yeah, and I think that kept going to some degree. But I felt like once, like with Valkyria, they sort of brought back
00:33:08
Speaker
a little bit of the weirdness. And I feel like they've kept, I feel like they're walking the line in a way that I enjoy now. Oh, good. Yeah. So I'm, I'm happier with the more recent albums. I would have loved to hear tier to have heard. That's what I was trying to say. The labor lump. That is a great song. Oh yeah. I don't know. I don't know how you do that with just him though. Oh, you don't. You, you, uh,
00:33:37
Speaker
you get a lady or you put her on the backing tracks. Speaking of which, so the Faroese stuff, they're guitarist. There are other guitarist used to also do vocals, but this new guy, I don't know where it's from, but he doesn't sing and he definitely doesn't sing in Faroese. So it's a little more obvious that they have the backing tracks.
00:34:07
Speaker
I was wondering about that. Yeah, they were doing Sinclair's Visa. So it used to be that all four of them would sing, at least for Sinclair's Visa. And being that they were all Faroese, it was believable that the backing track was all of them. According to Metal Archives, Hans Hammer is from the Faroe Islands. Okay, well, work on your singing.
00:34:38
Speaker
We need all those voices. Yeah, so it's hard for me to believe that just Harry and Gunner are doing a four-part. The other thing that's worth mentioning when it comes to backing tracks is, so I didn't realize this until I listened to the actual album, but Battle Ballads is almost like tears S&M in a way. Yes. Okay.
00:35:04
Speaker
Again, we're peeking forward to Thursday's episode, assuming we get it done in time and this comes out on Monday and that comes out Thursday.
Technical Difficulties and Show Environment
00:35:12
Speaker
I don't think it adds anything. I don't know that I agree. I kind of like it. Maybe you have to come on the review episode then. All right. All right. Yeah. Because I do have a night at the Nordic House, which is their live album with the symphony.
00:35:33
Speaker
This one I haven't heard. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So they did this in 2020. I don't know when it came out, but that's when the concert was and they did it with the symphony and the symphony really was well done. But on this album, you know, which is on the backing track as well. There's just like, it's more understated. The song would still be the same. You know, it's more understated on this, but I think it adds some atmosphere.
00:36:01
Speaker
that I like. But that being said, the reason I even bring it up is like, you know, when I say they're clearly playing to a click that they're not used to. Yes. They need it for this. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're backing tracks. I definitely noticed vocals. There was obviously the orchestra. I don't know how much else they used it, but
00:36:29
Speaker
I did notice in Hail to the Hammer, I don't mean to throw the new guy under the bus, but he went into the solo like one repeat too early, and then stopped and had to wait for the solo to start. Because it's one of those things where you can't just start again in the middle of the riff. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it happens. It was the first show. It wasn't only the first show of the tour. It's the first show of 2024.
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah, they did fantastic. I thought they did fantastic. You know, flubs, flubs and all. They did great. Yeah. And apparently in New York the next night, they had to stop by the, by the light of the Northern star because of technical difficulties. I don't know what they were. Oh no. Yeah. That's just a note I saw on, on setlist.fm. So, Oh, Oh.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, the show got out probably before midnight, which was nice because it was, uh, it was a school night and I had to get to work the next day. And we're old. We're old. That's why I didn't like troll fest, you know, have troll plus have troll fest play last, but not headline. Then I can go home early now. Nevermind. Just leave them off the tour and let's all go to bed earlier. That's better.
00:37:55
Speaker
What was that? We saw Slayer, and the lineup was Cannibal Corpse, Imanimarth, Lamb of God, and Slayer. And if they had swapped Lamb of God and Cannibal Corpse, it would have been the perfect show. But alas. Yeah. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. You can't see me in the photo they took with the crowd.
00:38:25
Speaker
because I was way in the back. Yeah, but it was, oh, and it was so hot and funky in there by the end of the show. Oh my God. So, uh, some stuff that I noticed in general, you know, Harry seems to be offloading the solos to Hans Hammer, who is, who is a fantastic guitarist. Yep.
00:38:54
Speaker
Their stage show, I mean, their stage presence is great. Harry's pretty much locked to the middle. He can't really do a whole lot. Yeah, he's a bit understated, but in a way that works. Yeah, I mean, but he's so precise. I hate it when people just stand there, but every so often, just standing there works. He doesn't just stand there, but it's close to it.
00:39:21
Speaker
Well, but but yeah, yeah, he's it's his guitar playing is precise and his vocal work like blows my mind. Yeah. And he has he has a commanding presence about him. Maybe. Yeah. The one thing I really like is.
00:39:39
Speaker
I think it was Dragons Never Die. So after they finished by the sword of my hand, I feel like— I just noticed I'm drinking an invisible drink here. It's a ghost beer. It's like a ghost kitchen. But they start Dragons Never Die.
00:39:57
Speaker
Most bands would have said like, all right, Baltimore, I want when here I'm going to sing this and I want you to sing too. Well, he does. He doesn't say anything. He just starts going, whoa. And the whole crowd does it. Yeah. And it's like, OK, that was kind of amazing. I was thinking about it. I was like, that's fantastic. Because he just said, no, fuck it. You know what I want you to do like a Freddie Mercury thing only
00:40:30
Speaker
I was just, you know, that's the Freddie Mercury thing. But when Camelot does it, it's in the middle of their 20 minute version of Forever, which has made me not like that song anymore. Thanks, Camelot. You've ruined Forever.
Conclusion and Reflections
00:40:48
Speaker
And I don't think I'm going to go see them when they come back. I might, but I probably won't. They're coming to Baltimore. So they're doing that thing that bands do where they tour the U.S.
00:41:00
Speaker
And then they toured the US again at all the venues that were too close for the market exclusivity. So they played Silver Spring, Maryland. And last time they're going to come back and play Baltimore, Maryland. And those are like 40 minutes apart maybe. Yeah. So like, so they have to wait long enough so they can hit all the alternate cities, you know,
00:41:28
Speaker
So that's what they're doing, and apparently they just always do this in Forever, which is such a good song. But Tommy does the Freddie Mercury thing. He introduces the band that no one needs the band introduced, and they just make Forever last. Forever. Boo.
00:41:54
Speaker
Cut it out, add another song, Camelot, please. Then I'll definitely come see you. Hopefully an old one. Thank you. Anyway, because Camelot's in their bus listening to our review of the tear show. Tommy, come back to Seventh Wonder, since we're talking directly to them. Come back to Seventh Wonder. What is Seventh Wonder going to do, man?
00:42:18
Speaker
I suspect they've already found someone hopefully and they've just been, you know, and they're just waiting to announce. That's what I mean. They're so, they're so good. I hear Roy cons available. Is conception still who cares? I don't know why everyone was so excited about conception. I was just excited to see Roy con.
00:42:45
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So yeah. So maybe we should do the perfect tier set list sometime. Cause that's a series we haven't done in a while. The perfect set list. It's easy. The edge brothers, Bane, Ragnarok. You're just listing the songs of Ragnarok. Oh, the edges off Eric, the red though. Oh, you're right. You're right. You're right.
00:43:12
Speaker
That's a ramen hinunga. Let's see land. Just the song land. All of it. Yep. Oh, God, God. This the Eric, the red Ragnarok and land. It's just whatever, whatever you want. Three hours set. I'm good. Let's do it. All right. Well, until next time, metal nation.
00:43:41
Speaker
keep your trolls to yourself and get them off of that fucking tour. Please. Kids in the memes. I, I find it interesting how poorly I respond to memes. I like, like they just do nothing for me. I'm so fucking old.