View Single Post
Old 04-25-2010, 05:21 PM
Onioner Onioner is offline
One who onions things
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Everywhere, CA
Posts: 2,195
Overkill -- San Francisco, CA -- April 18th, 2010

I have a very, very mixed feeling about this show as a whole. Read on and find out.

Woe of Tyrants was up first and I really didn't enjoy their set too much. They seemed like a combo of modern death metal and power metal guitars. Can't really provide a setlist since whenever their singer would talk and announce the song he would sort of mumble it. One of the guitarists seemed like a better frontman than the singer! He'd yell "AAAAAUGGHHHH!!" at random times to get us to make some noise and we'd all respond to it more than their music. They left and no one seemed to really miss them.

Evile came on next and jumpstarted the crowd. And man, were they great. Ol Drake's clean yet nuts solos, Matt Drake's badass shouts and Ben Parker's spot on drumming really gave a solid thrash experience. They didn't move on stage too much, but having Drake joke with the audience and him really putting some effort into the vocals made up for it. They played the same set as they did at the Kreator show last month without Bathe in Blood though.

1. Infected Nation
2. We Who Are About to Die
3. Thrasher
4. Time No More
5. Enter the Grave

Warbringer was simply WOW. When it comes to the music, I tend to like Evile a bit better, but my expectations were blown and Warbringer blew them away in terms of energy and sheer over-the-top thrashness. The singer was jumping all over the stage, flailing his arms and legs everywhere and actually stage dived at the end of their set and made sure to high five everyone in the front row and who he could reach. Basically he was a total badass. I would definitely love to see them headline sometime soon. I'm not completely sure about their setlist, but I believe this is it.

1. Jackal
2. Living in a Whirlwind
3. Severed Reality
4. Total War
5. Pray For Death
6. Senseless Life
7. Combat Shock

God Dethroned was well, not very good. They didn't put much effort into getting the crowd moving and everyone was more or less still during their set. I don't know the band, so I can't put up a setlist for them. Their performances were locked in I guess, but there was just no energy in terms of the music or their enthusiasm. I mentioned earlier about Evile being similarly stoic on stage, but God Dethroned seemed bored to be there.

Vader was entertaining, but again I came in knowing nothing about them other than that they were a death metal band. They didn't move too much either, but the audience loved them and really got the pit going. They at least got me headbanging, but being more of a thrash fan than a death fan I couldn't appreciate them nearly as much as the thrash bands on the bill. I only know they played a song called Impure because some douche kid next to me kept yelling "IMPURE! PLAY IMPURE!" and when they played it he freaked out. This same douche kid left after Vader because he came only for them. The poor guy doesn't know what he missed.

Overkill played just about as perfect a thrash show as one could want. You can't go into a thrash metal show expecting 3 hours of jammed out songs and laser shows, you go in expecting tight, ferocious performances that make you want to jump around and slam into a few people. Overkill did just that and more. And seeing Bobby Blitz on stage for the first time was surreal because I've been used to seeing only YouTube videos for so long, and now here he was, 6 feet away from me nailing every note. There wasn't a single bad song played during their set, and if there was a flaw, it was that Wrecking Crew was played too early on. In my mind, they matched if not bettered Kreator in terms of performance. It was the same setlist as the last few shows. When it comes to my experience, I was having just an absolute blast the whole time, except during Rotten to the Core and Wrecking Crew when I was being fondled and clutched by this crazy old lady until she got into a fight with a Mexican lady was kicked out of the venue. That was easily one of the creepiest experiences I can remember.

1. The Green And Black
2. Rotten To The Core
3. Wrecking Crew
4. Battle
5. Hello From The Gutter
6. Feel The Fire
7. Coma
8. Bare Bones
9. Ironbound
10. Gasoline Dream
11. Overkill
12. Bring Me The Night
13. Elimination
14. Necroshine
15. Old School
16. Fuck You/Overkill/Fuck You

So basically for me, the thrash bands made the show great, and the death bands made the show not so great. However, Overkill's performance alone made the show worth it completely (minus the pedophile old lady of course).
Reply With Quote