Concert Review: Lamb of God/Decapitated/Anciients at the Hub 06/06/13

I've been going to live shows and hitting up every meet and greet or autograph signing I can for three years now, and at this point I've mostly gotten past being starstruck. I can't say it doesn't happen, when I met Korn last year I was mostly unable to speak and got an obnoxious case of the nervous giggles once they were no longer around, but I've largely gotten myself to a point where I'm not the obnoxious fanboy and I'm able to be normal and even have normal discussions with these people in addition to getting my booklets signed.

I had a full out panic attack right before I met Lamb of God. I'm talking hands shaking, unable to speak properly, yelling at my companion, whatever symptoms you usually associate with a panic attack. So, you know, I clearly was more than a little nervous.

Part of it was my fault. I chose to lay down when we got to the hotel. Part of it was the fact that I'd never had to go up to the box office, say I was on the guest list, and get taken backstage before. Part of it was holy crap, I was about to meet Lamb of God. Either way, by the time I was in the backstage corridor at the Hub I was a sweaty mess and not in any kind of presentable shape to be meeting people I admire.

Luckily, they were all nice guys. 

The fact that Randy wasn't there can't be ignored. Lindsey, not as into Lamb of God as I am, was mostly coming for him and was visibly disappointed by it. I can't deny that I was disappointed too, but the way I look at it is this: I met four more famous musicians that day than some if not most people meet in their whole lives. I have no right to complain. Whether it was security, or not feeling up to being social with fans due to recent events, Randy wouldn't skip out without a good reason. I had a great time talking with Mark Morton about racing, John Campbell about his sense of humor, and barely managed to stop from squealing when I met the Adler brothers.

Oh, and I saw a pretty awesome concert too. I should probably talk about that.

The first band on the bill were a late addition, a fact that became very obvious within the first song. California's Terror, originally slated to be opening on this leg, were forced to drop off the tour within less than a week of it being due to begin due to unspecified health issues. I've never listened to Terror, but I've heard their music described as somewhere between hardcore and moshcore. You know, the kind of music you expect to see on a Lamb of God bill. The band chosen to replace them was Anciients, a band from British Columbia. Their location was the only fact I knew about them before the show began, so imagine my surprise when they hit the stage and they were of all things a prog metal band. Opening a Lamb show with a prog band is like opening a Cannibal Corpse show with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The real shame of it is that despite some technical difficulties, they were very good! I went straight back to the merch table and bought their CD right after their set. The band shows a lot of similarities to Mastodon in terms of their sound and the way they utilize all four band members as vocalists, a comparison I was happy to see backed up by the "BUY IF YOU LIKE MASTODON" sticker on the jewel case of the CD. I would be more than happy to see them again under better circumstances, but I can't deny that they were on the wrong tour, and by the time they left the stage I felt as though the next band was going to have to really step things up in order to build up momentum and win over the crowd.

Luckily, as one could tell by their name, the members of Decapitated were not lacking in terms of brutal energy. These guys were the kind of band I expected to see opening for Lamb of God. The singer's accent occasionally got in the way, I swear he was saying LAMP of God the entire set, but in reality the vocals were the least interesting part of the music for me. The guitars and in particular the bass kept me and the crowd pumping our fists and joining the circle pit for the duration of the set.

I haven't been to a gig yet where I felt that the breaks in between sets were worth noting, but Lamb of God must've had me in mind, because I could've watched their preshow all day. Starting roughly ten minutes before Lamb took the stage, the newly uncovered video screens began showing vintage advertisements, mostly from movie theaters. As a film buff with an interest in the medium's history, I was thrilled to get to see so many vintage spots. The one bump was the fact that they were showing animations in between the ads counting down the ten minutes until showtime, and then once they hit zero it was another two or three minutes before the set intro started.

Within the first ten notes of Desolation, nobody cared about the delay anymore.

My father and I have constant debates about whether it is more important for a band to sound good on record or sound good live. With Lamb of God, the difference was minimal at best. If Randy's microphone had been a little bit louder, that difference may have been eliminated. Theirs was an incredible set, one that brought a new appreciation to songs I've heard time and time again (basically all of the songs off of Ashes of the Wake) and gave me a chance to finally jump into a mosh pit during Black Label, even if said mosh pit did not form a wall of death during the intro. The set was not a nonstop ride, there were breaks that proved excellent examples of the goofy side of Lamb of God that I've always appreciated. Anybody who has seen Killadelphia or Walk with Me in Hell knows that this band is far more capable of making people laugh than the average joe would assume. An extended break during the encore saw the world's first Lamb of God bass solo, which lasted all of one note, the Adler brothers failing to successfully play a death metal tribute to Decapitated, and Randy throwing the single best local reference I've ever heard an entertainer say about the Dakotas out there. I can't for a hundred percent certain say theirs was the best set I've seen, there's too much of me that's arguing Kiss over them, but it was for certain up there, and served as a fitting celebration of Randy's freedom.