Behemoth @ Ram's Head Live - 5/5/2012

Behemoth and Watain (and some other bands too but we got there after they got off stage) came to Ram's Head Live in Baltimore. I would have liked to hear the retro Devil's Blood, but it was fine- better not to rush rush.

We were putting on corpsepaint, which was fun. However, I noticed that NO ONE else was sporting any paint. Which, after see Turisas where a good number of people had facepaint. The actual bands were the only ones with paint besides us LOLZ.  I opted for a variation on Immortal (with some Zartan looking eye makeup), Milla went for a Behemoth look, and Kate  had some crazy stuff.

After we finished applying corpsepaint, we went to the venue, got patted down, and entered. Watain's roadies brought in a bunch of candles/candlesticks/etc. and we knew they would start soon. A pretty good crowd for Behemoth- the floor was pretty crowded. Balcony was not open tho. Chicken suit guy was there too. Some people around us remarked that he should have something more metal than a chicken suit.

Watain came on (I was not very familiar with any of their songs, apart from a bunch of yubtub listens in the background) to some mood setting strings. They were pretty energetic and definitely entertaining, but ultimately unintelligible. The crowd seemed pretty pumped for them. The bass player in particular was very animated and GRIM.The vocalist seemed to have some sort of what looked like a dead bird strapped to the back of his vest. Not sure tho.

Behemoth came on a bit after- to a very enthusiastic crowd. Their sound was like as it should be- Heavy Metal Thunder \m/ Nergal vox were, as expected, a bit muddy- but the power of everything together made that perfectly fine. The lights were pretty well done- except for the strobe lights (see below). The band was pretty tight and no one screwed anything  up as far as I could tell

Crowd was a bit rowdy at times, until the wheelchair guy entered the pit. He was also hoisted up at a couple points. Wow. I did not like the combination of a wheelchair that can run people over, a couple shorter people in the pit, and strobe lights blinding me combination. I did not get run over, so that was good. There were a couple parts that I thought would be played live, but they were piped in. Odd. Behemoth only played about an hour. That was a bit disappointing, but I think Nergal's  still not feeling fully 100%, so that makes sense.



Note:  Pretty much all songs I got from selist reports from other places- I had no idea any of Watain's songs names, but why would they play anything different?

Watain

1. Malfeitor
2. Reaping Death
3. The Serpent's Chalice
4. Total Funeral
5. Waters of Ain

Behemoth

1. Ov Fire and the Void
2. Demigod
3. Moonspell Rites
4. Conquer All
5. The Thousand Plagues I Witness
6. Alas, the Lord is Upon Me
7. The Seed ov I
8. Decade of Therion
9. At the Left Hand ov God
10. Slaves Shall Serve
11. Chant for Eschaton 2000
    ---
12. 23 (The Youth Manifesto)
13. Lucifer

Paganfest @ Sonar 3/29/2012

Went with Milla, Ulrich, and Trigger to see Paganfest North America. This was the first stop on the tour. And the first time that Turisas has done/is doing a headling tour in North America. Pretty cool. Angie, one of Milla's friends from a bit ago, was also there. I recall saying something like "Angie, like the Rolling Stones song?" and "Steve, like Stevie Nicks...but different." Milla and Ulrich had Turisas facepaint. I might do some for Behemoth or 1349.

We parked near city hall (seemed same) and walked over. Actually was the easiest time I've had going to Sonar, somehow. When we got there some band was playing, I was thinking it was the last localish opener. It was actually the 2nd. We later learned for some reason everything was 1.5 hours late. That's right, we arrive around 8 and only one band has been on. It was a LONG night.

There were a lot of interesting people including

• People in Turisas facepaint
• really fat guy with bunny ears
• girl in white booty shorts getting groped by the guy she was with
• someone with some sort of spear
• kilted people
• various armoured people (including a dude in chain mail
• some chick with a short sword
• some guy with a batman tattoo on his chest and some DIRTY ass sweatpants with stains

Second opener was Deranged Theory , they were alright, the vocalist was in a kilt and a wrestling type belt. He had a polearm, a sword, some God of War blades, and maybe a dagger at various points during their set. They kept on mentioning different video games (Castlevania, God of War, etc.)


So Huntress finally came on and I was pumped to hear them live. Their singer, Jill Janus aka DJ Tusedae aka Penelope Tuesdae, was def working her um...sexy angle. After 30 seconds into their set I was convinced that she had to be a stripper or something previously. She reminded me of a thinner, bustier Doro (not a bad thing). I liked their slightly thrashier more classic sound. Some sort of Wiccan or witch theme, and Jill drank some 'blood' at one point...that sloppily dripped down her mouth and onto her ample cleavage.

I got a photo with Huntress (but had not turned on the flash WTF) and then Arkona came on. They sounded alright, about as good as last time I saw them (with Kamelot), but maybe better since I was a bit more familiar with their songs. I still don't think their songs are really good to mosh to. They sound better on the album, but it is still nice seeing them live. <3 Russian chicks. The crowd was pretty receptive to them, despite some resistance to moshing (and a reported ignoring the request for a wall of death).

Alestorm creeped on around... 11 I think. They came on to some amazing 8bit version of Wenches and Mead. The crowd got a bit more rowdy here. They sounded really good, but their setlist order was kind of odd- it didn't flow as well as last time (again, with Kamelot). I would have rather heard "HUNTMASTER" or "Captain Morgan's Revenge" instead of "Midget Saw," but it was nice to hear that live (hadn't been played before live here). I enjoyed their set the best of the night.

Finally, Turisas came on at like 12:30. Yeah, it was a ridiculously late night- so late that it felt like a Jaxx show. They sounded really good, but a combination of factors (tired, anxious about work, anxious about car, violins lulling factors, not THAT familiar with their songs) had me a bit underwhelmed. The violin parts sounded beautiful, especially when it was their solos. However, I really was in the mood for something less epic and more um...brutal maybe. Too many strings and synth strings too late. Epic is a good word to describe Turisas and their grandiose vision (reminded me of Rhapsody, but less narration). The songs I did recognize sounded good, but just lacked a bit of umph, IMO. They were very professional and tight (and all in facepaint :3 ), which I totes appreciated. The frontman was talking about Pabst blue ribbon and we all booed when he joked about judging Baltimore by this beer. I really wanted to hear Rasputin :(

Picture wise I realized I didn't get any of Arkona somehow. I got a bunch of Huntress (tho I coulda used a damn flash...). Alestorm's ones came out blurry and unusable. And then my phone died right when Turisas came on. Like what happened at damn Iced Earth.

Overall, this was probably my second 'worst' concert of the year so far. First worst being Deicide, so far. But I still enjoyed it for the most part. Just the whole lateness thing killed a lot of enjoyment X_X,
ALSO EX DEO was supposed to be on this tour, but they were not, for some reason :/

Facepaint hyjinx
Huntress photos
me and Huntres

Setlists






Deranged Theory

• song about the Headless horseman
• song about Darksiders
• song about Castelvania
• song that sounded like Powerslave
• song about God of War ("Abandoned by god"?)

Huntress

• ?
• ?
• Aradia
• Spelleater
• 8 of Swords

Arkona

• Pokrovy Nebesnogo Startsa
• Goi, Rode, Goi
• Yarilo
• Stenku Na Stenku
• ?
• ?

Alestorm

• 8bit intro
• Shipwrecked
• Wenches and Mead
• Sunken Norweigen
• Nancy the Tavern Wench
• Back Thru Time
• Keelhauled
• Midget Saw
• Rum

Turisas

• Intro
• The March of the Varangian Guard
• Take the Day
• To Holmgard and Beyond
• Violin Break
• The Dnieper Rapids
• One More
• The Great Escape
• Violin interlude 2
• Five Hundred and One
• Rex Regi Rebellis (Finnish version)
• Hunting Pirates
• Stand Up and Fight
• Battle Metal

 Originally posted: http://www.metalsetlists.com/showthread.php?t=19974