The Cult @ The Fillmore, 06/12/2012

I went with my buddy Tony to see The Cult @ The Fillmore in Silver Spring. We got there around 8:30 or so. We noticed The Cult would be on at 10:15 (clearly posted). I thought closer to 10, because of the 2 openers. Well we had 0 interest seeing either opener, so we went to the pub for a bit. It looked like a LOT of people were there, which surprised me. I forgot to get Steel Panther tickets.
I hadn't seen The Cult before, and Tony hadn't been to the Fillmore before. I obviously like their hard rock and metal stuff, but their ...mystic Indian whatever you wanna call it stuff is pretty good too. In a different way. So I went in with the setlist, and some lowered expectations (based on songs picked).

At around 10 we rolled in, checked out the merch (see pix), which was pretty expensive. I didn't get anything. There was merch for the openers too, but I was mainly concerned about what The Cult offered. It was really crowded when we stepped in, and we had to be at the back of the venue. I mean I knew they had a ...cult... following, but this seemed like an almost sold out show (see photos). I think people were still buying at the door, but talk about a healthy crowd...in terms of attendance.

I thought the crowd was pretty weak. Barely moving except during Fire Woman and maybe She Sells Sanctuary (and even then just a few groups of people near the front and a couple cute girls in the balcony). The crowd cheered a lot and loud after each song, so go figure. I'm used to more... interactive ...crowd experiences :3 Interesting was that you expectedly  saw people from all scenes and walks of life- metalheads, jocks, indie kids, old rockers, normal looking people, a couple lesbians, some bros, that big guy from 930 club with the gauges, couples, etc. So that was pretty cool.

Personally I was moving, nodding head and the like...and def was banging my head during the best song/heaviest song of the night: Rise. I wish they had played more off of Beyond Good and Evil, but the setlists before this date revealed only one other tour stop had Rise included. So we were lucky.  Some old timer was hoping they were going to play Horse Nation instead of Rise. I told him he was crazy.

Sonically, they sounded solid, no complaints. I woulda def had a different set list, of course. Their new stuff sounded the best I think (a pretty solid album, IMO). At one point Ian started singing some part (maybe 40 seconds) of what he said was a White Stripes/Jack White song. And I think he had some pejorative things to say about it. I couldn't quite tell what he was trying to do. It was not a good song. I think Ian kind of phoned in Fire Woman. It was lacking something. Such a great song...that he's probably sung a million times and is sick of it. Other than that and the setlist, no real complaints. I would def go see 'em again.  Ian was wearing some ridiculous fur lined jacket and what looked like warm up pants. I think they had Tempesta (of Robert Zombie fame)


Pictures:
http://metalcowboy.tumblr.com/post/25183744011/the-cult-the-fillmore-silver-spring-6-12-2012-i
http://metalcowboy.tumblr.com/post/25183864842/the-cult-the-fillmore-silver-spring-6-12-2012
http://metalcowboy.tumblr.com/post/25183995368/the-cult-the-fillmore-silver-spring-6-12-2012



Setlist

Lil' Devil
Honey From a Knife
Rain
Lucifer
Nirvana
Embers
Fire Woman
The Wolf
Wild Flower
The Phoenix
For the Animals
Spiritwalker
She Sells Sanctuary
------
Rise
Love Removal Machine

Aesthetic Perfection @ Ottobar 6/10/2012

 Went with John n Kate to Ottobar to see Industrial band Aesthetic Perfection. They had X-RX from Germany with them, too. Got there around 9, paid my $12, and X-RX took the stage about 5 minutes later. There was a decent crowd there, not too packed, but decently attended. about 50 or so people? Ottobar seemed smaller than I remembered for Winger years ago. The parking lot seemed way easier and less sketchy this time, too. There was someone sitting out there, monitoring it too.

X-RX I was only familiar with maybe a couple songs (Stage 2), but I thought they sounded great. they played mostly from their new CD ($17- purchased). Songs "Push it" and "Blood On the Dance Floor" were not covers, much to our dismay/chagrin.  Crowd was getting into it, a lot of crowd participation (hey! hey!)  but not as energetic when Aesthetic Perfection came on. X-RX was 2 guys doing live vox over their computers playing the music. They were also good at saying what the song titles were :3

Aesthetic Perfection I also only recognized a couple songs, also played a bit from their album ($13, purchased). I thought X-RX sounded heavier and better, but they were still good. They had a couple plastic flamingos on stage for some reason. Aesthetic Perfection was a vocalist and some live drummer. Pretty cool, the live drums augmented the sound. Their set started out slow, IMO, but picked up speed. People were moving a lot during their set, so I guess they were a hit? I enjoyed their set. The vocalist also had a sweet tattoo of the Universal Studios monsters (Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein's Monster, etc.) on one arm. So badass.


The set times seemed about 15 minutes earlier than the advertized times. ex: Aesthetic Perfection was to go on at 10:30-11:30, but I think they were on around 10:15- 11:15 (def stopped around 11:10 , 11:15). So on a Sunday THAT was nice. I was expecting things to last until like 1 or so.

They had CDs for the opener we missed, shirts ($?) and CD for X-RX ($17 damn), Aesthetic Perfection ($6- single, $13 album, $17 delux album w/ bonus CD of remixes), - a Patch ($5), shirts (?). Small but decent merch selection. Kind of wished they had more CDs, but glad they didn't cause I woulda had to get those too.

Overall a very good show, oddball day for it, but glad I went. My neck was sore the next day from headbanging. Legs fine since they were mostly stationary LOLz

People Uploaded videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6GeL6aEa4E&feature=youtu.be (X-RX)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXmtVQpxcpo&feature=youtu.be (Aesthetic Perfection)
You can see Kate in the shadows on the right on the X-RX one.

Pictures:
http://stevesnack.tumblr.com/post/25183199661/aesthetic-perfection-ottobar-6-10-2012-i-x-rx
http://stevesnack.tumblr.com/post/25183302488/aesthetic-perfection-ottobar-6-10-2012-ii
http://metalcowboy.tumblr.com/post/25183458138/aesthetic-perfection-ottobar-6-10-2012-iii-note

X-RX
Escalate
Activate the machinez
Hard bass hard soundz
Hit the drums
Kein Herz
Blood on dance floor
The Update
Push it
Stage 2


Aesthetic Perfection

All Beauty Destroyed
A Nice Place to Visit
The Devil's in the Details
Inhuman
One and Only
The Little Death
Hit the Streets ( Sounded like La Grange or Spirit in Sky)
The Siren
The Ones
The Great Depression
Spit it out
Living the Wasted Life

Marduk @ Sonar, 6/02/2012

Milla and I went to see 1349 and Marduk last night at Sonar in Baltimore, MD. I was not terribly familiar with either band, but thought it would be a good show from what I heard about the shows and from youtube. I don't go to many black metal shows either, so I wanted to expand a bit :3 I believe this was the first night of the tour (at least in the continental US, I think they played Puerto Rico the night before).

Got there around 9:20 or so, got the advertized free drink ticket for corpsepaint (there were about 7 people in corpsepaint, including me). Just as we entered the room, Weapon played their last note X___X; OH WELL. We made our way to redeem the free drinks and checked out the merch.

Merch: A bunch of stuff, 1349 had a bunch of CDs, $15@, 3 or 4 shirts (I got one) ($20), a beanie ($15), a DVD, LP. Marduk had a few shirts ($20), their new album, and I think an LP. Withered and Weapon had various shirts, CDs, and LPs.

Crowd: It was pretty packed, Sonar had them on some sort of side stage instead of the big warehouse stage I've seen. About 150 or so people. There was a guy in a polo shirt and plaid bro shorts in the pit X__X; A good number of Spanish/Mexican/Latin fans too. My cousins?

Withered looked like some generic dudes, but had a good atmospheric sound going for them. I couldn't make out anything in the vocals, and their crowd communication was limited to THANK YOU BALTIMORE \m/! I don't know why the bassist was in the middle of the stage, and the 2 guitarists/vocalists were on the sides. Odd. I thought they sounded good, and they set the tone well. The pits, I thought, would only get crazier for 1349 and Marduk!

1349 came on around 11, and the crowd got a bit more lively for them :3 They had a bit of a different sound, more of a galloping or the like to them. Whatever the case, I really enjoyed them. I again could not make out any words, and couldn't remember which songs I had previewed on youtube. I assume they played "Aural Hellfire." Their stage presence was pretty strong. I liked the bassist in his sith robe, and all the corpsepaints.


Marduk came on about 12:15 and we left around 1, so there were def more songs played. The crowd got really rowdy for them, and the pits got intense- almost all the way back to the merch tables. I was nearly caught in a mosh, and later discovered that my shirt had ripped. Ripped in that there was a chunk missing of it from the back Perhaps to be converted to a back patch? At one point some chap who was an uberfan was headbanging and generally enjoying the show and trying to get us a bit more pumped. Fun times \m/ I regret not knowing a single lyric X__X; Marduk, sonically, sounded a lot clearer than the other bands on the bill. I noticed a few songs where the BASS was clearly heard. I thought that was a bit different.

CorpsePaint
Withered
1349
Marduk


Horribly incomplete setlist (please let me know if you were there and know more detail)

Marduk

• on darkened wings
• Nowhere, No-One, Nothing
• The Black Tormentor of Satan
• Serpent Ceremony
• Still Fucking Dead (Here's No Peace)
• Souls for Belial
• ? (left around this time)
• materialized in stone
• baptism by fire
• azrael
• womb of perishableness
• the sun has failed
• panzer division marduk
• with satan and victorious weapons