Ba'lakor and From Winters Grace (7/08/09)

Wow, I had such a whirlwind of a long weekend! My two best friends from Toowoomba flew down to visit me. It was Lindy's bday, so it involved cake, and other fun stuff. I will probably blog about that at my other blog LOL But the reason I am writting this is that I kidnapped them and we went to a metal gig at the Bald Stag in Leichardt... I had heard on The Racket that Ba'lakor would be in Sydney and I really liked the song of theirs I heard... So I dragged them along with me... Its been ages since I've been to a metal gig... god i love it!! it gets in your blood... the wall of sound, the frenetic mosh pit (and metallers leaning on the walls with their BnCs), the METAL!! god the metal... I have an addiction... I havent had that much fun in ages... I really enjoyed the Morbid Angel gig, but I went stag, and I really feel that metal gigs are more fun when you have a friend or two with you...

The line up was:
From Winters Grace
Darker Half
Be'lakor
Switchblade
Dreadnaught

We REALLY enjoyed From Winters Grace. It was fronted with a female lead, and her voice was awesome.. and she seemed to be having a lot of fun up there LOL Darker Half didnt really stand out for me... Just seemed like most other metal I have seen live... but Ba'lakor was AWESOME! We all loved them... their set was terrific! I couldnt even tell you why, because I drank a lot of tequila before we got to the Bald Stag, and then started on BnCs, so my recollection is a bit hazy.. But I loved their sound, loved their guitar, loved their singer (boy did we love the singer - such a hottie LOL) and loved moshing in the crowd... brilliant! I think I will be checking out their myspace for cds... also want to suss out From Winters Grace, because I really liked them also. I have to stress, we didnt know which bands were which, besides Ba'lakor. I didnt have time to research like I normally do before I hit a gig... I knew there would be about 4 or 5 bands, and that it was Ba'lakor's first time in Sydney, and Dreadnaught's cd launch... thats about it LOL My friends really couldnt get into Switchblade... it was just too heavy for them. I had a deal that we could leave any time - because they arent metal chickies like me. Linda likes a lot of metal, but doesnt listen to it all that much these days, and Lil is into bands like Metallica and Linkin Park. So I basically said anything that they weren't comfortable, or didnt enjoy the music we could head home.. so we did. Switchblade was too heavy for them (I liked them, but they werent anything too special...) so we headed home. I wish we could have stayed for Dreadnaught, but they didnt start until midnight.. another time!! I know how much it costs for a taxi there now, so I think I may go back for other gigs by myself.. I am kinda sick of missing out because my sydney friends arent into metal... SAMI I MISS YOU! and I have to say a big thankyou to Lindy and Lil for humouring me and accompaning me to this gig! you guys rock!!

From Winters Grace

Darker Half

Ba'lakor

My other impression from this weekend, is maybe I should listen to mother for once. She is deaf as a post these days and partly blames it on a Skyhooks gig she went to as a teen. That is rot, she needs more harm than that to fuck up her hearing, but maybe she does have a point. I love live LOUD music.. With a passion. I dont see myself giving it up, and I do tend to hang out as close to the speakers as I can.. and its taking longer (?) for my hearing to get back to normal. Normally I stay home the day after in bed all day, so it really isnt so obvious, aside from some ringing.. but yesterday I headed into the city.... and my hearing was so senstive... I couldnt hear sounds close to me (lots of "eh?!" and "what?!"'s taking place!!) but the background sounds were so frickin loud!!! traffic sounded like every car was a frackin road train!! So maybe mum is right (OMG, did I really say that?!) and I need to start wearing earplugs... I see a lot of the older metallers wearing them.. by older, I mean guys who have been doing this for 20 odd years... I guess after a while it really does fuck up your hearing.. Does anyone know what earplugs do the quality of the sound at gigs? oh, i wonder if there are any cool ear plugs you can get... like red ones, or little skulls or something?!!? The two things I am concerned about are a) sound quality - is it going to make the sound so filtered that it effects the metal experience, and b) yes, i know I am being such a girl, but the earplugs ive seen are either fluro green or yellow... eek! I'd want something in a darker colour... yes, i know, it seems silly to worry about fashion when my hearing may one day be in jepoardy, but I really cant change who I am. Colour matters... So i guess I should do some online shopping before the Australian Metal Awards in November.. hey, I wonder if they sell any at the metal store Utopia? haha if anyone knows of any, i totally want skull earplugs! wouldnt they be awesome!!??!!