Well I've had a reasonably busy couple of days as far as gigs go. On Sunday I saw Evaescence at the Cardiff International Arena (CIA), and today I saw the Kerrang Roadrage Tour, where Chimaira, Ill Nino and Spineshank played.

Well here is a quick round up of those two nights.

Evanescence: The only reason that the average age of this gig was as high as it was, was because a lot of the little kids that came to see the band had to have their parents with them. :lol: There were a lot of little kiddies around, and at the back and a few interspersed around the crowd there were older parents. I don't doubt for a second that some of them were there on their own accord, as Evanescence do have appeal to a lot of age groups, but I could tell a lot of them were there cause they brought their kids.

Anyway the gig: First support were Appartment 26... ok. not great, not bad... nothing else.

Next up: Finger 11... what is it with numbers at the end of the band's name!?!??! Anyway like the above, they were decent enough, but nothing special about them that would make me want to go out and buy anything of theirs.

Lastly Evanescence: Ok, headlining are a band that have released one album, and an EP or two prior to that. So on record they have about 70 minutes tops of songs. A lot of those are piano and vocal tracks, a couple of which they could easily get away with playing, but all of them... no. So how can a band that has maybe 50 minutes or so worth of songs headline? By putting in lots of pauses, and taking their time between tracks!! Yes some songs did flow one into another, but there were a couple where the gap in between was a little too long. Their encore was only one song as well, probably because that was the only song intheir catalogue that they hadn't played!! Anyway, while their set was a little brief, it was good enough. I still think Amy Lee is pretty hot, although I don't think her dress sense does her justice. Their music was good, and Amy's voice is quite simply stunning. She sounds just as good live as she does recorded. For me, it is easily the best female voice in music just now. Whether the whole music experience works for you is down to opinion, but you cannot deny her voice is superb. All in all, it wasn't worth the money. £16 for a ticket?!?!? That for a band that had only 1 hit single at the time the gig was announced?!?! And playing somewhere as big as the CIA?!?!?!? The CIA is a big gig. For those that know, picture that Glasgow Barrowlands as a gig. Reasonably big, yes? Double it. That is the CIA. While I am glad I've seen them, I think the gig wold have been far better, had more atmosphere, and had a much better feeling had they been playing to a smaller crowd. Evanescence have been thrown into the limelight with no solid roots, so have missed the smaller venues in the process... something I think they need to cover before they can become a good arena band.


Next up: Kerrang Road Rage Tour

Chimaira
These guys are pretty heavy!!! In a good way. None of this nu-metal nonsesnse here. Chimaira are a good throw back to proper no holds barred heavy metal. Long hair, head banging and hair spinning, black T-shirts (ripped as well)... it's all there. Was good to see that proper metal isn't dead. They were loud, and had a good few songs in their set. Hadn't heard of them prior to this, but will keep an eye out for their stuff.

Ill Nino
I had heard of this lot, but not heard them before. I was impressed. Their music was good, they seemed to have a good rapport with the crowd, and the band had a good stage presence. For me the most impressive thing, though, was that througout the entire set tehy had 2 drummers playing indepentandtly!! At times, they also had a 3rd person playing some drums!! Most bands are more than happy to play with one drummer, but at points Ill Nino had 3!!! Drums is the most timing critical of all the instruments (IMO) so having three playing at the same time and keeping the beat and timing going, I thought was very impressive. Again, I'm going to make an effort to track down some of their stuff, as some of the songs were bloody good and heavy!!

Spineshank
I'll state this first, Spineshank are one of my favourite recorded artists. I have all three of their albums, and each of them has some class moments. Before the gig I was picking out my highlights from each album, and I noticed that all the main highlights made up about 13 songs, or thereabouts... i.e. about an hour or so worth of tracks... i.e. about a gigs worth of songs. I was hoping for so much. Inevitibly, they didn't play some of the songs I was really hoping for, which left me with a little disappointed feeling, but what they did play was really good. I remember seeing them years ago when they were just regarded as a Fear Factory clone, and indeed were supporting Fear Factory... well they have moved on since those days and can quite rightly stand on their own now. They can handle a crowd well, and should try to get their own headlining show, where they can play a longer set. While quite a few songs I really wanted to hear weren't played, I can't complain really. £10 for all 3 bands is a bit of a bargain really, as they were all good. Spineshank focussed mainly on their most recent album, not a surprise really that, but as I think their 2nd album is their best I had hoped that would be the focus.

In sum up, if you like good metal music, and the Kerrang Road Rage Tour is coming your way, I recommend you go and see it. Good bands, good and loud music... can't complain really can you!!

Oh my god!! You might actually have to read more than 4 or 5 words in a post!?!??! What sort of thing was I thinking! I should have known that people's attention span wasn't that long!!!!