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My ears need a break after this weekend……had earplugs in my pocket for both shows and didn’t use them once cuz “It sounds fucking great in here!”
Armored Saint and Ryche was Saturday, poor John Bush had to pick one side of the kit or the other because both band’s drummers have ridiculous sized kits.
Their set was fun, good energy and Bush is one of the most consistent frontmen I’ve ever seen. Both guys had Kemper’s into live cabs, nothing mic’d. This show made a great example of the stereo PA discussion, my buddy runs sound there and was babysitting that night since both bands had their own FOH, during AS I couldn’t hear stage left at all, went back to the FOH stand to talk to my buddy, it sounded GREAT right there at FOH, walk 10 feet to either side of FOH and you lose the other side of the stage. Overall, I didn’t enjoy their guitar tones at all, even in the best spot they sounded like they were recording-ready presets, with all the warts EQ’d out already and no balls.
I didn’t take much for pics/video, I was too busy rockin’ out. This was the first weekend I’ve had the chance to cut loose and throw a few drinks back and I wasn’t wasting any time on that front.
I figured this being Ryche’s 2nd to last show of the tour they’d be a little ragged, but man they delivered. The EP and Warning in their entirety, they did 2 encore songs, can’t remember the first but I think they closed with “The Needle Lies”. Anytime I get to hear “Roads To Madness” live I’m a happy boy!!!
They were on Kemper’s as well, but I can’t say I felt a lot lacking. They’ve used the same FOH guy for a while and they’ve been on Kemper’s for about a decade, maybe they’ve just learned to dial things in better. I didn’t really think about the tones at all after the first couple songs, I just went into Ryche fan land.
Last night was Intervals and Mammoth, I considered bailing on this as my Saturday night didn’t end until about 7AM Sunday morning, but a good nap and half gallon of ice coffee got me there! I had to chuckle when I walked around the 2nd level, the stage was lit up with Fractal-
Intervals was great, can’t say a bad thing about their performance. Aaron is pretty good at engaging with the audience and keeping their attention for being an instrumental band. The music isn’t my thing and they aren’t the band to make the case for digital replacing amps because they aren’t going for traditional guitar tones, there’s lots of synth-y/chorused/harmonized tones.
The biggest surprise here was an audience of around 1000 people being THAT entertained by instrumental guitar. There was no one particular demographic there, you could see the teenage guitar nerds to the VH fans that were there just because of Wolf’s last name that are in their 60’s. A surprising amount of women. He had no problem getting applause after the songs or even during spots throughout the songs. I was trippin’ out on just that aspect alone.
Wolf came out and man, that dude is the real deal. His FOH guys are GREAT, they’re legit mixing the show based off the song and one guy was just focused on vocals, that’s the best I’ve ever heard someone mix live vocals before. There’s almost always too much delay mixed in or not enough, this guy had it down and was active the entire time. They were both rocking out, too, cool to see them enjoying their job as if they were onstage.
Wolf’s pretty humorous onstage, he’s still getting his headliner legs under him but does pretty well at engaging with the audience. Didn’t hear a bum note from the guy’s voice or guitar all night. He did a solo acoustic rendition of “Distance” that was pretty great, when that dude starts belting it out he can really deliver.
Everything sounded great with their set, guitars, drums, vocals, everything. Songs are quite a bit heavier live, that was like a Fooshuggah show. They don’t play to a click and they don’t use backing tracks, just the feel of their set was refreshing from that aspect alone. It’s a straight up rock band with loud amps just delivering. I’ll go see that dude any time he’s nearby.
Armored Saint and Ryche was Saturday, poor John Bush had to pick one side of the kit or the other because both band’s drummers have ridiculous sized kits.
Their set was fun, good energy and Bush is one of the most consistent frontmen I’ve ever seen. Both guys had Kemper’s into live cabs, nothing mic’d. This show made a great example of the stereo PA discussion, my buddy runs sound there and was babysitting that night since both bands had their own FOH, during AS I couldn’t hear stage left at all, went back to the FOH stand to talk to my buddy, it sounded GREAT right there at FOH, walk 10 feet to either side of FOH and you lose the other side of the stage. Overall, I didn’t enjoy their guitar tones at all, even in the best spot they sounded like they were recording-ready presets, with all the warts EQ’d out already and no balls.
I didn’t take much for pics/video, I was too busy rockin’ out. This was the first weekend I’ve had the chance to cut loose and throw a few drinks back and I wasn’t wasting any time on that front.
I figured this being Ryche’s 2nd to last show of the tour they’d be a little ragged, but man they delivered. The EP and Warning in their entirety, they did 2 encore songs, can’t remember the first but I think they closed with “The Needle Lies”. Anytime I get to hear “Roads To Madness” live I’m a happy boy!!!
They were on Kemper’s as well, but I can’t say I felt a lot lacking. They’ve used the same FOH guy for a while and they’ve been on Kemper’s for about a decade, maybe they’ve just learned to dial things in better. I didn’t really think about the tones at all after the first couple songs, I just went into Ryche fan land.
Last night was Intervals and Mammoth, I considered bailing on this as my Saturday night didn’t end until about 7AM Sunday morning, but a good nap and half gallon of ice coffee got me there! I had to chuckle when I walked around the 2nd level, the stage was lit up with Fractal-
Intervals was great, can’t say a bad thing about their performance. Aaron is pretty good at engaging with the audience and keeping their attention for being an instrumental band. The music isn’t my thing and they aren’t the band to make the case for digital replacing amps because they aren’t going for traditional guitar tones, there’s lots of synth-y/chorused/harmonized tones.
The biggest surprise here was an audience of around 1000 people being THAT entertained by instrumental guitar. There was no one particular demographic there, you could see the teenage guitar nerds to the VH fans that were there just because of Wolf’s last name that are in their 60’s. A surprising amount of women. He had no problem getting applause after the songs or even during spots throughout the songs. I was trippin’ out on just that aspect alone.
Wolf came out and man, that dude is the real deal. His FOH guys are GREAT, they’re legit mixing the show based off the song and one guy was just focused on vocals, that’s the best I’ve ever heard someone mix live vocals before. There’s almost always too much delay mixed in or not enough, this guy had it down and was active the entire time. They were both rocking out, too, cool to see them enjoying their job as if they were onstage.
Wolf’s pretty humorous onstage, he’s still getting his headliner legs under him but does pretty well at engaging with the audience. Didn’t hear a bum note from the guy’s voice or guitar all night. He did a solo acoustic rendition of “Distance” that was pretty great, when that dude starts belting it out he can really deliver.
Everything sounded great with their set, guitars, drums, vocals, everything. Songs are quite a bit heavier live, that was like a Fooshuggah show. They don’t play to a click and they don’t use backing tracks, just the feel of their set was refreshing from that aspect alone. It’s a straight up rock band with loud amps just delivering. I’ll go see that dude any time he’s nearby.
