Vektor/ Earthling/ Borracho/ Midnight Eye @ the Fillmore, Silver Spring 9/26/2013

We went to see DC Heavy Metal's 4th anniversary show at the Fillmore. There were a number of people there- Sean, Nick and Dan, Amanda, ms Nicole, Kris, Heavy Metal Chris, Tom, Ms Lindsey, ChrisWolf, and MAYBE someone else.

I got there as Asthma Castle was on, cause I could hear them as I got my ticket... and tickets for like 4 other shows. As I was telling the lady the shows I could tell this would take a minute. And then the line queued up. Long story short, I didn't get to hear any more of this Castle, and heard only that one member had a crown or something.

As I got in, there was a decent crowd. Better than some Bang Tango and Blackguard shows I've been to- there were about 80 or so people there eventually. Not a bad turnout!

Midnight Eye would be the first band that I got to see, and I was hoping they would be better this time, than their last show. Their first song sounded better than their entire previous set! The Fillmore's superior sound system certainly helped I'm sure, making their sound way closer to their album/tracks. Their sometimes proggy, sometimes doomy sound was clearly felt, tho there was still not enough proggyness for me.  I watched from the middle back of the floor, and enjoyed their set, probably the second best of the night. They sound like they are going for a Mastodon vibe.

Borracho was on next. Somehow I thought it was a good idea to hang out with Nick and Dan and 2 cuties near the front. By near the front I mean 2nd or 3rd row. These guys, stoner rock/metal, were not really the kind of stuff I usually dig, so I was wondering how they would be. They sounded very fuzzy, and heavy. I liked maybe one of their songs, the rest were forgettable to me.  They did, however, had more guitar work than I had anticipated, so that was a welcome breaking of my expectations. They were well received by the crowd, and several patrons were jumping around. I don't know what they played except the one song I caught some lyrics to (and was the first song I happened to play when doing a little investigating)- thanks guys for like 0 lyrics online :/  In the end, they were better than I had expected, but nothing that I would go out of my way to see again.

The also hard to google Earthling was on next. I had never heard of them before, but have heard of the other bands, so I don't know how they worked the billings. These guys had a more 'serious' tone and look to them, and I didn't have much time to look them up, so I was curious as to how they would be. They sounded like a thrashy and doomy Death. That was pretty cool, but would have been better if the vocalist had been a little less unintelligible. Along with the vocal issues, the lead guitarist had some technical difficulties with his guitar, which was unfortunate.  Despite these issues, they put on a  reasonable entertaining performance even if it was a bit too raw sounding for me at some times.

Vektor finally came on around 11, and their brand of  'sci-fi thrash' was rather interesting - thrashy with progressive passages, pierced with screeches that would probably blow out your ear if you were too close. The frontman had hair and style that looked like it stepped out of 1989 onto this stage, which was not a problem, because he brought some shredding music with him! Their shredding mad a bit more people moving, but overall the crowd wasn't *that* rowdy. Their thrashyness was complemented by lengthy solos and even some ambient parts (passages thru space?).    

Want another opinion?

Photos:
Midnight Eye
Borracho
Earthling
Vektor

Midnight Eye (8:20 -8:54)

• MTLMTN
• ? (older riff)
• Outsider
• Basilisk
• ?

Borracho 9:13 -9:50

• ?
• ?
• I've Come for it All
• ?

 Earthling (10:05 -10:40)

• ?
• Losing Sight
• ?
• ? (slowish song)
• ?

Vektor (11:01-11:56) (http://www.metalsetlists.com/showthread.php?t=23927&highlight=Vektor)

• Destroying the Cosmos
• Tetrastructural minds
• Hunger for Violence
• Fast paced Society
• Outer Isolation
• Black Future
• Accelerating Universe