Der Metal Krieger Let's make this world metal shall we?
Hello there again, Gabe here with his very first live review! Last Saturday I had the privilege of interviewing Lee Mckinney, lead guitarist of Born of Osiris. (the interview should be up in due time!) Seeing how for a while I wasn’t sure if I was even going to make it (I don’t drive, I’m basically a nomad of metal), but I found a ride by my good buddy Mike so I was super pumped! It took about an hour and a half to make it to Allentown, PA and by golly it was a lovely city. The venue was next to like this very ghetto area where if people in the area saw you and didn’t know who you were, they would glare at you to show you how much they loved you! As we got into the Crocodile Rock, I first noticed the big slices of pizza for crazy prices for pizza. 4$ for a slice of plain pizza, that’s outrageous! So we get inside the venue, and you can see the bar on the side with the stage in the middle, basic venue layout. 18 and under would have to go through the side door while 21+ could enter through the front area while the under 21 has to go through the side. They way the venue was organized, the merch table was right next to the bathroom. It felt like they could have made more room for the merch space, i mean that is how traveling bands make their money, through merch. When you put it right next to the only bathroom We were able to do our interview and we went upstairs to do it and it was like a big party room, the members were watching football on this huge HD TV while people were drinking and just living it up! The one thing that will stay in planted in my mind that night (aside from meeting Lee Mckinney) was seeing David Derocha (bassist of Born of Osiris) all passed out with his eyes closed and his mouth open. Someone was raging way too hard before the show! We get to the stage and the first band we see is The Contortionist. I feel like half the time these play a set half the people are just loving it, and the other half doesn’t have a clue why people love this band. This was also the only band that didn’t have huge amounts of technical difficulties. There performance was really great. The band always has a great way to mix these jazzy-prog stuff into metal core. Their music defiantly has super unique qualities that they are defiantly underrated as a band. I seriously can’t wait till they get the recognition they deserve. Next up was Unearth,a band I wanted to see since I got their album The Oncoming Storm when I was like fourteen years old. I was super excited to see them play Zombie Autopilot. The unfortunate thing is that the sound guy at the Crocodile Rock had NO IDEA what he was doing. Plus with the addition of a really shitty sound system, it just made the performance so bad. He basically put the volume up on every single instrument on the sound board, not adjusting it for each. In the middle of their set the drums just completely went out for a good 7-10 minutes. It was really disappointing too because there was probably less than 100 people at the show, and 80% of them were only there for Born of Osiris. It sucks when good music can be ruined by a shitty sound system and the person running it not giving a shit about his job. I’m telling you fellas, most people don’t appreciate the guy that runs the sound, but you have to realize that they are the unsung heroes of a concert venue. Those guys are what make or break a concert and because of them. There set was cut short because of all these technical difficulties, and that was really frustrating. When Born of Osiris came on, there was even more technical difficulties. When they played Follow the Sign, I swear to satan, the electronics were screeching in my ear, that gave my eardrums a lovely sound after the show. I literally couldn’t hear a thing! It’s a shame when good music has to be raped and killed by a sound system guy who doesn’t know what he was doing. Even though it was great to meet and interview a guitarist of a band I really like, I gotta tell you the venue made the music unenjoyable. I hope to be able to see all the bands at another show with a better sound system and a better sound person. Thanks for reading and we will hopefully have that interview put up soon!
Have a brutal day,
Love Gabriel
Have any question or comments about the show
Shoot me an email at gabe@dermetalkrieger.com
