• Gibson Firebird I’m just into the Hawk’s head;

To that selection, I would probably add an ES and a Telecaster kinds of guitars, if I were to settle on a particular model. I could also possibly wish for either an Music Man Axis or an EVH Wolfgang.

So, I forgot they were playing last night, but I still was able to catch Paradise City live before heading to youtube to check how it went.

First, the conditions were almost extreme, the rain was pouring in all night, and the stage looked dangerous (not even talking about using electrical instruments and equipments)
DJ Ashba may be a good guitar player, but I wish he could spend less time wearing tshirts of the band and doing mods to the bodies of his guitars and more time learning how to bend correctly the notes in his solos.
Bumblefoot may have fucked up on Welcome (hey, not everyone can solo and wear a buck^H^H^H^Hhelmet at the same time) but he did more than necessary to redeem himself. He probably improvised (because the timing was a bit off) but the ending solo on November rain was a killer, leaving behind what Slash did and using more of the song melodies. And the RATM/Van Halen teases ? But did something happen during the concert ? At some point, on some videos it sounds like he’s playing through a POD or something…
Axl, as usual, was on and off. His voices was changing at times, sounding like the early 00’s. And he missed chords and verses during November rain, but it seems like he saw something that threw him off. But overall, he was almost in a good mood and it was a good performance.

Electric Wizard plays a dark stoner metal which can be enjoyable (if you’re into that kind of things), but I wasn’t really in the proper mood and the voice turned me off. During the second song, the singer/guitar player broke a string: it turns out that he didn’t have a backup guitar (what?!) and left the stage while the rest of the band kept on playing the full song (to their credit — although I couldn’t hear the second guitar, not that I would imply that it was just figuration, but…) (and then, the guitar player came back and tuned his guitar live — dude, we have silent tuners nowadays, you know?). Apart from the voice, the other big turn off of the night was its length: 1 hour for the main set, that’s short!
(and the turn on was the pr0n movie playing in the back of the stage).

First, to give something to those whose heart is not strong enough to endure loud metal, I should point out to the John Mayer Trio as a bluesy, funky, hendrix kind of music that expressed itself quite nicely on its live Try! album. And in the jazz section, I would highly recommend Hiromi (with, for example, Place to be) with a lot of piano (and no wind instruments, kthxbye).

To get a bit harder, there’s Baroness Blue Record which is quite nicely in the continuation of their previous opus Red Album. There’s also Danko Jones’ Below the belt, but I was a bit disappointed on this one as it sounded less fun than Sleep Is The Enemy. Speaking of fun, some would have guessed by now, but I highly recommend also the Women and Children last from Murderdolls, straight hard rock to enjoy.

Getting even harder, Periphery self-titled opus is an interesting technical metal album (I’ll be a bit neutral there). But regarding After the Burial’s latest output, In Dreams, I was clearly bummed. Emo chorus? Guitar solos? And far less disruptive rhythm changes? Bleh! There are a few good touches anyway here and there, but to me it isn’t nearly as good as Rareform.

Second band was a swedish one, that would have been good if they would put as much in their music as they do in their hairdo and clothing. The mix was bad, the synth didn’t fit and one of the two guitars players not only sounded a bit off but his singing hurt too (well, when he wasn’t doing grunt style stuff). I’m afraid to say that even though I tried hard, I didn’t like it that much and that I cringed a few times during the set.

Murderdolls played before Guns n’ Roses a few months ago and maybe they took some lessons in being late from them because they didn’t show up before 22:45, but maybe there was another reason soon to be discovered. In fact, after playing a few songs, we could see the singer and guitar player talk to the drummer. And later, he disappeared for a short time, but only to disappear for a longer time. It turned out that this poor guy was sick and throwing up all night (way to party!). Luckily the band has a guitar player who was also playing a bit drums on his time off (that’s irony for you), so they were able to switch drummers for a few songs to let the real one recover a bit. Although they lost a bit of texture by only having a guitar player, they weren’t really losing anything drumwise (and I feel sorry for dissing this way the sick one).

Anyway, this was a fun concert, with a lot of young people in the crowd, moshing around, it sounded good, they played a lot of good hard rock stuff, and even Joey Jordisson (who is the part-time-drummer guitar player) had a hard time not cracking up a smile. And this distribution of picks at the end of the concert? Not thrown at large, given by hand in the pit. Wow.

Murderdolls is joining this little club o’ mine of bands that I have seen more than once in concert (and that includes Nine Inch Nails, Guns n’ Roses, Tool and Napalm Death) and that I would gladly see again on stage.

The second band was Macaber. I was first impressed by their equipment: 6 string bass, V 7 string (schecter?). Well, ok, of their songs talk about murders and stuff. But in between 2 metal songs, playing bluegrass finger picking style on a 7: Woh. A lot of fun listening to this band.

Third band was Immolation who tried to earn the title of most nicest band of the night, thanking everybody on every side. And I love the way one of the two guitar players moved, especially his picking hand, with a lot of energy.

Last but not least was Napalm Death itself, playing even some old songs (I got Greed Killing). Nothing much to say, except that I still love the singer, not really for his singing abilities but for the contrast with his talking voice and his accent.

Overall, a good and fun (!) concert, with bands that fit a bit better together compared to the concert I saw 2 years ago and with a crowd full of energy (I was glad to stand in the back as usual).

At first, I was a bit afraid, plenty of rain before reaching the Zénith, and the opener wasn’t even on time (or maybe having only a 1 hour set didn’t fit with the usual 22:30 start for G&R). I was a bit afraid also because given their name and the (really) little research I had done about them, I thought we would have to endure a thrash metal band of some kind. But far from it! Imperial State Electric is a good ol’ (hard) Rock band that nicely fit the bill (unlike bands opening 4 years ago) and reminding me, somehow, of fellow scandinavian band Turbonegro. Nobody complained and they were cleaner than the murderdolls, but maybe also a tad less crowd movers.

And so, yada, yada, after a 1 hour set and your usual 1 hour wait, the house lights went off again. Compared to Bercy 3 weeks ago, the sound was far better (but it may also be due to my use of earplugs this time) and not much technical difficulties: Franck Ferrer missed (or had to stop) the intro to Rocket Queen, Axl Rose was a bit late on IRS intro (making DJ Ashba look lost) and that’s about it, I guess. Guns & Roses may not be the most dangerous and unpredictable band anymore and the setlist hasn’t changed much: Exit Shackler’s, welcome back IRS and a full-blown Don’t cry (even though I feel like Bumblefoot should have played the solo instead of DJ Ashba). Still nothing from Lies. No reggae intro to Paradise City either.

If I had a complain about the band, that would be against Franck Ferrer’s drums playing. Many intros are butchered: You could be mine is the first that comes to mind, but Rocket Queen wasn’t that great and Paradise City was clearly missing something. I don’t know if that’s a conscious change but it hurts a bit the old timer in me (and I was lost when clapping during this ending song)

If I had a complain about something else, that would be the crowd. I know, I was once again at the wrong spot (well, I was 20 mins in earlier, but everybody seemed to be in 30 mins before the start time) between couples, girls, smoking midgets that want to put their camera in my face and assholes waving a flag. But what’s wrong with these people? Late G&R comers asking for their radio best of? I mean, rocking on ballads like SCOM, KOHD and November Rain but staying put on rockers such as YCBM, Better and so on? Damned!

Well, doesn’t matter, I enjoyed it!