Lamb Of God, Trivium, Machine Head, & Gojira – Beaumont Club – Kansas City, MO – March 10, 2007
Posted by Brandon Ratliff on 04.10.2007
Some bands are better off on record…
I got to the Beaumont club very early as my interview with Willie Adler of Lamb Of God was at 2:30pm that day. I got there after somehow getting lost (because it’s not like I’m at this place seemingly every week) on the highway, barely making it in time for that first interview. I met up with Adler, and after he showed me the Cars (yeah, the Disney movie from last year) pillows on the couches that the band specifically requested, we sat down and did the interview. You’ll be able to read that here on the site soon.
After sitting around for what seemed like forever and having a nice little phone chat with the awesome girl I am as of last night dating (sorry, I had to throw that in there), I went and met up with Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel for my second interview. Again, you can read that here later, but allow me to say that this man is by far the most open and down to earth musician I have met in the three years I’ve written for this website. Right around 6:00pm the interview ended, so I stood outside the entrance and talked with a few people. Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe at this point was walking around by the doors greeting fans and just casually chatting, which is always cool. Soon after the doors opened, and it was time for the show.
First of all, I apologize for no pictures this time around, but my camera wasn’t wanting to cooperate with me, and thus I was unable to get any. They will be returning with my next show review however (Killswitch Engage), so to my three loyal readers, fret not.
Anyhow, on with the show. Gojira was set up and ready to go basically as soon as the doors opened, and much to my surprise, most of the crowd were already there to see them play. Thus, they got a pretty positive pop from the crowd. For those of you unfamiliar, Gojira are a French metal band that sound something like an amalgamation of Unearth and Demanufacture era Fear Factory. But for being a pretty young band they definitely had their stuff together on stage, so I’d look for them to go pretty far. I can just see a solid Unearth/All That Remains/Gojira tour brewing now. Remember when it happens, you heard it here first. Throw Killswitch Engage and Chimaira in there and I’d die a happy man.
Next up, surprisingly, was Machine Head. I expected them to get main support, but that role was given to Trivium. Ugh. That’s something I’ll get into later. Machine Head played a solid, albeit slightly short set, clocking in at six songs. To be fair however, they only played stuff from Burn My Eyes, Through The Ashes Of Empires, and The Blackening, which is their material that clocks in at five minutes a pop and over. As for the performance itself, all four band members, including Dave McClain, were very active on the limited amount of the stage they had to work with. Even despite how long he’s been at it, every single little bit of Robert Flynn’s vocals were perfectly in pitch and on timing. And I mean everything: the growls, the signing, the screaming, everything. I don’t know exactly how old Flynn is, but looking at him up on that stage, you’d think he were in his early twenties based off of that performance. Even so, the rest of the band kept up very well also. Bassist Adam Duce’s backing vocals were sharp and ear piercing, and he and McClain provided a heavy canvas for the guitar work of Flynn and Demmel. If you haven't already, you really need to pick up a copy of Machine Head’s The Blackening album, and check out Demmel’s guitar work. Though Demmel did write a few select parts of Ashes and played on the U.S. bonus track “Seasons Wither,” he actually wasn’t a full band member during the recording of that album. Well this time around he was there through every aspect of the progression, all the way from the initial playing around with ideas to the final release, and it definitely shows. If anyone had any doubt about Flynn and Demmel’s ability to work together after the Vio-Lence days, this album will put that to rest. And while The Blackening wasn’t quite out at the time of the show, the band tore through the two songs from that album like they had been playing them for years. Overall, I think despite not having a whole lot of time to play, Machine Head easily stole this show. I’m personally hoping to see them headline sometime within the next year, so if they do be sure to check that out.
After an excruciatingly long setup time, Trivium finally came on…kind of. When they came on, someone apparently forgot to turn on Matt Heafy’s guitar and microphone. The band opened with “Entrance To The Conflagration,” but when they started, all you heard was drums and bass for about five seconds, with Heafy and Corey Beaulieu standing on stage looking like they didn’t know what’s going on. The weird thing was that they didn’t even appear to be trying to play. So…I honestly don’t know if they just missed their cue or their instruments really weren’t on. Anyhow, after a few seconds they started playing, but pretty much all of “Entrance” was wrought with various sound problems: one of the amps died suddenly, the microphone kept cutting out, the drum volumes were uneven, and so on. Eventually these problems were fixed, but the set didn’t get much better. See…as much as I (or any critic for that matter) may praise this band’s technical abilities and songwriting on record, no band, and I mean absolutely no band will ever last for more than two or three albums if they don’t have a live show to back up their recorded material. Unfortunately, Trivium, at this point, does not. I won’t even go into the recurring technical issues that mired the set, but honestly, Heafy’s voice is absolutely terrible without the studio effects on it. Or, at least his Hetfield voice is anyways. He can still do his normal singing and screaming and sound just fine. But you know what the problem with that was?
He didn’t do either…at all.
Now, of the seven songs Trivium played, they only played two from Ascendancy and five from The Crusade. Okay, talk about neglecting your old material. But that wasn’t the worst part. You know how a lot of people kind of didn’t like the new vocal style Heafy took on The Crusade (I'm basing this information off of various polls)? Well, Heafy apparently either doesn’t realize this, or doesn’t care, because he used this exact vocal style on both “Like Light To The Flies” and “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr.” This honestly leads me to believe had something similar to what happened to Avenged Sevenfold singer Matt Shadows happened to Heafy and he basically blew out his voice screaming. Even the few times he screams on The Crusade, it doesn’t seem nearly as intense and sounds heavily processed. Maybe this is the case, but if it was, I can’t help but to wonder why they didn’t just say this. It sucks when it happens, but instead of saying “Uhh, screaming isn’t our style, I don’t know why we ever did it…”, give a straight and honest answer. Of course, this is all speculation, but it seems to be a good possibility. Add to this that both Heafy and Beaulieu screwed up their guitar parts more than once each, Trivium did not play a very good set at all. I’m hoping for their sake that it was just an off night or something because I will give them the benefit of the doubt and see them one more time when I get the chance, but as it stands I really am going to have to tell you to avoid seeing them live because they really need a lot of work.
Next up was the band everyone came to see: Lamb Of God. I could go on about them making a name for themselves in the American metal scene recently, but you knew that already didn’t you? I thought so. So let’s get right to it shall we?
They were mostly set up by the time Trivium basically got rushed off…err…left the stage, so there was only about ten minutes of downtime between the two. Initially the drums were a little too low, but that was quickly fixed. The odd thing though was Lamb Of God really weren’t that loud live. I would usually attribute this to being by the speakers and losing some hearing because of that over the course of the show, but I stuck near the back the whole time. They just seemed like their overall volume level was lower than the other bands. Perhaps there was a reason for this, so who knows? But aside from that the only real complain I had with Lamb Of God’s set was the lights they had set up would often come off timing and contrasting colors would blend and make it very difficult to see much of anything up on stage. Besides that (and the fact that they kind of didn’t take breaks between most of their songs, which made it hard to tell the difference between some of their similar material), there’s really nothing to complain about with Lamb Of God’s set. They played for a little over an hour, and sounded very good live. The crowd responded very well as you’d probably expect, but the band were very deserving of it.
I will say that I think Machine Head stole the spotlight from Lamb Of God, but the two were very close in terms of quality. Gojira were very good as well and got a very positive reaction from the crowd, but Trivium…not so much. I won’t go into that again as to not relive the horrid taste in my mouth that their pathetic excuse for a stage show left me with, though, so re-read the sixth paragraph if you want.
Overall, it was a good show, and Gojira, Lamb Of God, and especially Machine Head definitely make it worth your money to check each of them out, so go do that if you have any interest in doing so. Trivium, as I said before, I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and see them live again one more time before I completely write them off, but they really need to pick their stuff up if they want to make it past album number three.
And now, to kind of help put a perspective on things a little better, I’m going to start ranking each band in my show reviews, and writing a little blurb on them as well. Let me know what you think.
Gojira: Still could use a little work, but very tight and solid as a live band for being pretty young. Check them out if they tour with one of your favorite metal bands. Watch out for them in the future. 7/10
Machine Head: One of the best older metal bands still around today, and their new stuff proves that. Live, they put on an amazing show. See them as soon as possible. 9/10
Trivium: Technical diffficulties, multiple mistakes in the music, Heafy’s vocals are very weak live, and most of the band just stands there like statues. They really need to pick up their game if they’re going to stick around much longer. 3/10
Lamb Of God: Very solid live, but a couple of leveling issues and the lights off their preset pattern hurt them a bit. They were intense, but the volume was too low. If I go to see a metal band, I want it loud, and I want my ears to ring in the morning. If I wanted to not leave with a headache and/or drunk, I’d go see Liza Minnelli. Though I'd probably still be drunk just to bear the horrible assault on my senses that a Liza show would be. 8/10
The 411: A solid show, despite Trivium's lackluster set. Machine Head completely stole the show, but Lamb Of God are definitely a formidable live act on their own. Look for Gojira to be making waves soon too. Those three bands are certainly worth checking out, and made the show one I can recommend.
