Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Doctor Gregg goes to a Metal Concert

So I got a random invitation last month. "Chris would you like to go to see a Heavy Metal Concert?"

Now I'm by no means a big fan of heavy metal music, but I was intrigued. And in the interest of trying something new and spending time with a friend I became very interested and excited by the prospect of going to this concert, part of the Pagan Knights tour.

I have to admit some of the music has a good beat and though lots of the songs seem to blend together to me, there are some that stuck. But the music isn't what interests me most about heavy metal concert. It's everything that surrounds it. First of all the attire is pretty surprising. Everyone's dressed in black and kind of gloomy. I looked someone out of place in my blue and grey hoodie, I was told it had a kind of 80's retro feel to it.

One band, Suidakra, was a group of Germans. The guy's banter got away from him as he started swearing. "This is going to be ... the best... f**king... ummm... THING!!!" Ever.

What was this best thing he spoke of? Something called a "Wall of Death" apparently. I was already familiar with moshing, which as far as I can tell is white people's answer to dancing. They just kind of, run into each other and start shoving one another... It's very odd. So when one band mentionned a wall of death I was very apprehensive. At least they're polite enough to ask. One band was french, "Est-ce que ca vous tente un, "Wall of Death?""

Then the second band and then a third band asked the same question. "How about we have a WALL OF DEATH!!!" The "Wall of Death" part said in a Batman from the Dark Knight voice.

The crowd answered with an enthusiastic: "RAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Me: "No?"

Well I learned that a Wall of Death is when the crowd segregates to opposite sides of the... dance/death floor and then runs into each other like a bunch of psychopath. Moshing ensues.

Anyway, the BEST part of the concert was the band I was anticipating; Alestorm. When I was invited to the concert my friend emphasized that there was a Pirate Metal Band she was dying to see, and yes, pirate metal is exactly what it sounds like. The music has a Gaelic feel to it and they sing about sailing the high and finding treasure. The lead singer declared, "This song is about Mead and Wenches... It's called... Mead and Wenches!!!"

The entire crowd got pretty excited about a song called Huntmaster which to me was probably the catchiest song of the night. But what's great is, people in the crowd were dressed as pirates. No joke, they were decked out in full pirate attire, jack sparrow bandannas and big feathery captain's hats, boots and vests. They were brandishing foam pirate swords and daggers and the cherry on top was the giant inflatible parrot that emerged from the crowd.

People were really excited about Alestorm and jumped up on stage to skip and prance. This made it necessary for one of the security guards, a large and brooding black man, to lurk on stage. When someone would jump on stage, he would pick them up like dolls and toss them into the crowd, a job he took to with great relish. You can almost hear him saying, "Go back from whence you came!!!" But even this seemed to be part of the fun as the intruders would surf the crowd yelling and screaming in pure MetalHead elation.

A good time. If ever I go again I feel the need to dress a little more metalish... spikes... links of chains... tall boots with buckles and what not.