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| Killswitch at Loud Park 16 |
Last weekend I went and saw a metal concert, and I have not been to a metal concert in about 5 years. It was so amazing, it was called Loud Park and it was held in Tokyo at the Saitama super Area, below are the bands that played:
October 8
| October 9 |
It was so amazing, I had so many memories come rushing back, and I had a epiphany at one moment, a moment of clarity where many things came rushing back at once.
The moment came during Children of Bodom's set, we got to the event pretty late and miss most of the bands on the 8th, but were able to see Queensrÿche, Dokken, Blind Guardian, Bodom and Scorpioins, anyway, back to Bodom's set. I had seen Children of Bodom when I was 16 or 17, I believe it was either 2004 or 2005 and at the time I think "Hate Crew Deathroll," was their big album(they played a lot of stuff of it at Loud Park 16) that had been out for a minute and their new album was "Are You Dead Yet?" Anway, it was in Chicago at the House of Blues, I went with this kid who was lead guitar player in a band I played in that was named Among the Ruins. (it feels so weird saying that as I had not touched a guitar in longer than 5 years and just picked it up again after being inspired by seeing these bands for the first time in years) his older brother drove us and the line up was Trivium, Amon Amarth and Children of Bodom headlining. I am now 28 years old, so that was at least 11 years ago, and all of a sudden during the present while watching Children of Bodom in Tokyo it dawned on me. . .this band that was relatively new when I was in High School, as their first studio album came out in '97 I think and their lead singer Alexi is only 9 years older than me, and now here I am, 11 years later and in my mind I was like these guys are the new thrash/death metal daddies, and I was like. . .NO! THESE GUYS ARE AN OLD BAND TO THE YOUNGER KIDS HERE!
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| Alexi of COB! |
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| Children of Bodom! |
It is so funny to think, I guess because I have been so busy with life, and haven't lived near any locations where major venues roll through in a long while that it was almost as if I had been frozen in time and had just thawed out. I can remember all the concerts from high school so vividly, how much I loved it, how much I loved playing guitar myself! So much so, my buddy who I went to the festival with let me borrow is old acoustic guitar and I have been plinking away after work. it is ridiculous how much my fingers remember. Enough about fingers, lets talk about how concerts in japan work.
Metal concerts in Japan have some pretty striking differences than those in the states. Back home, metal shows are like a congregation of the dregs of society, please don't take offense as that was what I loved and I myself was part of the mob. People are throwing beer, Mosh pits are insane, crowd surfers somehow end up being the most obese people, girls are flashing the bands; in short, it is out of control. The last two shows I went to with my little brother before Loud Park 16 was Mayhem Fest 2011 and I think 2009, anyways, me and my brother would gear up for war; combat boots, mouth pieces, bandannas around our face (out door shows on gravel so dust would mess up your breathing) and our heads (sun) and cargo shorts to carry all the cool t shirts and stuff we would aquire. Anway, at the Japan show everything was much less chaotic and more efficient (as are all things in Japanese culture) moshing was not as big of a thing, although Bodom inspired quite a few and when I saw Nocturnal Bloodlust, the home grown metal, the Japanese also got into the Mosh fever pretty hard. Other than that though, it was few and far between. As well, no beer on the main floor, the floor was covered in plastic stuff for easy clean up if any shit did get on it. Japanese people are mostly small as well, so even when you were caught of guard by a crowd surfer it is like accidently catching falling children. One very unique thing was there was a lot of older people (by older people I mean 50's on upward), and I assumed it was because Scorpions was headlining, but they had on Bodom shirts and other of the more heavy bands merch. I think Metal transcends ages in Japan. You could also buy all kinds of Japanese food and the merch area was arranged like waiting to get on a ride at Disney. Either way, I loved every friggin minute of it, and on the second day I burned over 5,000 calories according to my Fitbit. I am not big into moshing any more, I want to get up front and actually watch the bands and sing along, so it is perfect for me.
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| Doing metal is healthy for your heart |
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| Le GoPro |
Speaking of perfection, all the bands were amazing, and I fell in love with some bands I had never heard of like Dizzy Mizz Lizzy and The Dead Daises who got hardcore into some old school Vietnam era covers with Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival which made me lose my mind. In fact that was the one time that the Japanese fans didn't know the words to one of the songs and looked at me and the few other Americans in confusion as we belted out, 'I ain't no senators son!" Scorpions did a cover of Overkill by Motorhead in honor of Lenny and it was amazing.
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| Scorpions have been touring since the 60's. . .did they invent this genre??? |
On Sunday we were able to see most of the bands and I had a few funny moments during bands like Killswitch where I was confused as the singer was different then the last time I had seen them in 2011 and I found later that who I was seeing at loud park was in fact their original singer. . .I was really bummed out that they didn't play their cover of Holy Diver by Dio which is one of my favorite songs, in fact I screamed, "you ruined my life and you can't come to my birthday parth." Nightwish was amazing, I love their beautiful Valkyrie lead singer, and I also loved Lacuna Coil who the last time I saw was again when I was I think 17, and they opened for Rob Zombie.
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| Look at that babe! |
During all this we met these two Australian dudes, one whose name sounds a lot like Zorn, but it is spelled Zohnm or something like that. Any way, this dude and his friend were really cool and we ended up finding then after the show and they invited us to go drinking with them. So we end up at the legit Loud Park after party at a bar called"from Dusk till Dawn," . . .of course it's called that! Nightwish ended up there and so was the guitar player from SIXX A.M. DJ Ashaba and one of the back up singers was there as well, hell there was probably more of them there but they didn't mix with the peasants too much.
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| Me, my buddy (the guy next to the guy with the bigger bald head) and the Aussies at Dusk till Dawn |
It is so funny we ended up there because me and my buddy were dressed so un-heavy metal it would of made 16 year old me embarrassed. I was wearing a pink, hot weather, hoodie with a black ball cap and a GoPro on my head, olive drab fanny pack and brown shoes. Oh. . .of course I fell asleep sitting in my chair after slamming rum and cokes too. Very un-heavy metal of me.
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| SIXX A.M. |
To conclude, it was so much fun and put me in such high spirits and I hope to make many more trips to Tokyo to get super funky heavy metal crazy and fall in love every time.
-Rod
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