Photo of the Week – Concert Shirt
Back in 2006, I got a call from a friend that asked if I wanted to go to a concert in Boston, over at the Paradise Rock Club. I asked her who was playing, and she told me Apocalyptica. I asked her if she meant those guys that had that album where they played Metallica songs on cellos, and she told me yes, and then lent me their album Cult. So I listened to it, got really into them, and went to the concert.
Fast forward four years. As of Monday, Apocalyptica had released six albums, every single one of which is fantastic. The only one I took issue with was Worlds Collide, where they collaborated with a whole bunch of other musicians to create an album that was much more commercial (although, honestly, no less packed full of talent) than their previous efforts. You see, Apocalyptica is a group of Finnish cello players, that use their cellos (and one drum set) to create a classical/metal blend that sits up there with some of the greatest music out there. They’re finally getting the recognition they deserve (thanks to Worlds Collide), and just released their 7th album on Tuesday, titled 7th Symphony. It has all the raw energy and refined playing of their other six albums, and is worth every penny.
On Thursday, I went with one of those two friends that took me to the first concert (along with a few new people, including Brandon), and saw them on the new tour, this time at the Royale Boston. The venue, in case you’ve never been there, is a good three times bigger than Paradise, and they still filled the place really well. Dir En Grey, the opening act, was solid but, honestly, not my cup of tea (or, I guess, my pint of beer. This is a metal show, after all). When Apocalyptica took the stage, the crowd went nuts, and didn’t stop going nuts until the second encore (their rendition of “Hall of the Mountain King”) ended and the band finally walked off stage admist cheers and rollicking applause. It was an awesome show.
Naturally, I bought a t-shirt (because I am a consumer whore). I took a picture of the front of it and posted it as my Thursday Photo of the Day. According to some notice that was hanging up at the merch booth, this was a limited edition tour shirt that was only being sold no more than 35 times at each show. When you have hundreds of kids, 35 is not a high number. Luckily, I was able to grab one in my size, and now I can proudly show the world that I’m a fan of a group of Finnish metal cellists that went on tour with a Japanese metal band that features a tiny screaming shirtless Japanese man.
Life is a wonderful thing.
Tom
Imagine a cross between Neil Patrick Harris and Chris Martin of Coldplay. Now add skinny jeans and put him him in that “You Are Here” Milky Way Galaxy shirt. Then let him tell jokes inbetween rapping about American history. Now you have an idea of what Astronautalis was like. The crowd obviously had no idea what to make of him at first, especially since his rapping involved a lot of singing, but by the time he was nearing his halfway point he was winning everyone over. Telling us things like “I’ like talking shit like I didn’t like I didn’t go to a private liberal arts college for theater. I’m so street. That’s right, I have a liberal arts degree. That’s about as hip hop as it gets.” didn’t hurt, either. Then there was the free style.
Dessa is a female rapper, and apparently a rather new one. She also sounds nothing like what I was expecting. She stepped on stage to a lot of cheering – and a lot of screaming from girls in the crowd – and was a rather unassuming looking tall girl in a hoodie. Then she began to sing. Her first song was a sonic fog that catches you unaware and sneaks under your skin before you have a chance to insulate yourself. It was a soulful song, and it was the start of a set that had most of the crowd eating out of her hand. At least, the female portions of the crowd. Most of Dessa’s songs were about breakups and ex-boyfriends. They were excellent songs to listen to, and even though those of us that don’t find themselves dating (and breakup up with) guys could identify with the feelings and emotions in them. Dessa’s style apparently is mixing singing and rapping in her songs, giving me the impression at one point of a no-frills, hoodie-clad rapper counterpart to Amanda Palmer. Dessa returned to stage before Astronautalis for a rapping duet with POS, and I’m not sure if the crowd knew who they wanted to cheer louder for. But they were cheering none the less.
The headliner for the night was POS. Black t-shirt, jeans, and a black baseball cap was the uniform. Whereas Astronautalis won the part-hipster crowd over with his humor and nerd rap, and Dessa insinuated herself under your skin and got you before you knew it, POS was a full auditory attack. His songs hit the ears fast and hard, grabbing on and not letting you go until they said you could go. When POS told the crowd he wanted to see their hands, a forest of hands went up (many of which had large black Xs on them). When he told them he wanted a mosh pit, HP and I got shoved out of the way fast, and a writhing, jumping, crashing mass of humanity overtook the front of the floor. It happened so quickly that POS even remarked, “Damn, I forgot this was Boston.” Damn. Straight.