I’ve been trying to figure out what was nagging me at the show last night. My last post was a desperate attempt to explain how I felt about the show. It ended up being a mindless narrative chronicling the standard events that always accompany a concert. I attempted to reason through what other possibilities could be. I claimed that I didn’t think that the audience was intense enough. I also lamented how I didn’t like the idea that the cartoon footage on the screen eliminated any possibility for variation in the music. It was pointed out to me that it would be impossible for musical variation due to the incredible amount of complexity in the music which, by categorical definition, must be present in that style of metal. I’ve been to other metal shows and greatly enjoyed them. This clearly was not a viable explanation.
What it probably came down to is that I was excessively rehearsed for the show. The Dethalbum found its way into my cd player last November. It stayed there until a few weeks ago when I came into possession of The Dethalbum II. There is a large amount of time in between those two dates. I was therefore able to become quite familiar with each note from the first album. My disappointment was simply that they didn’t play for longer and that I didn’t get thrown around by the crowd the entire time in order to reflect the overall brutality associated with the cartoon band.
These were ludicrous and sensational expectations. I had no actual belief that they would play all of the songs that I wanted to hear. I was disappointed with a few of the selections that I felt were below par for a band of their skill. I refer specifically to Birthday Dethday and Dethsupport. I would have been much more satisfied had they played Castratikon and Go Forth and Die (best idea for an encore ever). It isn’t that I didn’t enjoy enjoy listening to the songs that they did play. I like listening to Dethklok. It really makes little difference what they play. I like just listening to the voice from my favorite cartoon singing awesome shit. I just knew that they would have a sorter than preferable set because of how long Mastodon was entitled to play. They were co-headliners after all. And Mastodon puts on a hell of a show.
Fuck, I know what it was that I didn’t like about it. It had nothing to do with Mastodon or Dethklok. Both were stellar performances. I could have asked for little more. Rather, it was the god damn openers. I can’t believe that with two great headlining bands they would have two openers and give them 40 minute sets. Converge was one of the worst acts I’ve ever seen. The sound quality of Jacob Bannon’s mic made it impossible to even guess what he was screaming except during the title track of Axe to Fall. He ran out of stage antics almost immediately and just kind of scampered around on stage throwing up his arms at “pivotal” moments in the music and just generally pissing me off. When he announced that they had four more songs to play there was an audible break in the crowd’s mood as most of the energy shifted from reasonable tolerance to outright displeasure. I was not the only one audibly voicing their disapproval of the stage manager’s schedule for the evening. By the time Mastodon arrived I was so thoroughly pissed off that I couldn’t enjoy their performance. By the time Dethklok came on I had been forced to stand through several hours of shitty music after having driven from Lansing to Detroit on a day where I had been up since 7 that morning for class knowing all the while that I wasn’t going to get home until 12:30 and then have to be up for class the following morning.
“It was pointed out to me that it would be impossible for musical variation due to the incredible amount of complexity in the music which”
Punch whoever pointed this out in the mouth. If you’re talented enough to write complex music (and by complex I mean more than fast and/or technically demanding) altering a song to fit a show (even on the spot) should be no problem. I get pretty irked when I go to a concert and the band plays songs exactly the same as the album. If I wanted to hear the album, I’d stay home where the sound quality is better.
I actually felt the same way when I was told this. I would have liked to have spent more time addressing it in the post itself, but I was still digging for what the underlying objective of it was. So, I didn’t spend any more time thinking about it after writing that paragraph. I absolutely expected some variation in the music. I’ve spent months and months listening to the album. I wanted to get rocked. Tool didn’t let me down with live variation and Tool is complex as fuck.
I blame Adult Swim for standing so close behind the show’s production and not letting them just be a band.