07.13.06 Unholy Alliance Tour

Well Slayer is back in town. Another packaged tour starting relatively early. So after rushing from work got to the uh... queues to get in. The floors entrance was suprisingly empty. No wands, metal detectors. phew. got in just in time for the last little bit of Thine Eyes bleed. Who are apparently Canadian. I could swear, they were messing up their solos... Oh did I mention. The whole show was being filmed for the Unholy Alliance DVD. hrmmm.

Next band up was Children of Bodom. Not bad, I expected worse to tell you the truth. Had a heavier Dream Theater feel to them. Well solely on the fact they have a keyboard player. They played a bit under 40 minutes. Could really hear the European influence in their music. Nice opening set I suppose.

Mastodon followed. Wasn't really too impressed. Could never really get into their albums. Don't get me wrong they're a technically proficient band. Maybe their Isis like vocals don't work for me. They played about 40 minutes with 1 or 2 new songs.
I'm pretty sure they cranked the mains after this set too.

Lamb of God followed. I've seen them before and this time they looked a lot tighter for whatever reason. Had a nice Mesa wall of sound. Crowd (whom I abhore) was really into them. Played mostly what you would expect them to play. Did a new song 'redneck'. How fitting. Did I mention that probably 2 out of 3 people were smoking something?

Slayer was next. Did I also mention how I hate people who go Whoooo yeaaa and sing along to songs throughout the show. Not even during between songs, but during songs and solos. ugh. Slayer was impressive as usual. Their stage show now has stacks that are setup to resemble upside-down crosses. Setlist didn't vary too much from when I saw them the last two times. They did open with South of Heaven which was interesting. Played a couple of new songs. Both which were kinda bleh. not even as good as Disciple. Setlist (more or less, no order): South of Heaven, War Ensemble, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warefare, Disciple, Cult, Criminally Insane, Cult, Dead Skin Mask, Raining Blood, Angel of Death. Interestingly enough, Tom sounded like he was going to introduce Payback, but the crowd reaction wasn't all that great. Maybe they did an audible and switched to Mandatory Suicide? The end of the song on the screens, had the word payback on it.

I hate arena shows.