Satyricon Live Experiences – 2/25 and 3/1 2009 Norfolk (The Norva) and Springfield (Jaxx) VA With 1349, Cradle of Filth, and Others – How I Almost Died For Metal
(pics will be added when they are uploaded)
I am not a big Satyricon fan. Or a fan at all. My mom, however, is a diehard devotee. They were her introduction to black metal a few years back (long before I got into it) and remain among her top 5 or so favorite bands. Satyricon hasn’t been able to play in the States for some 6 years because the drummer, Frost, wasn’t allowed in the country, so my mom’s been very looking forward to seeing them. They finally got to do an east coast tour with Cradle of Filth playing all the mid-large venues as the secondary band, and they did a few headlining shows here and there in smaller venues, one of which was Springfield VA where they brought along 1349, which Frost used to be the drummer for.
I really did not want to go to either show, however my mom was not allowed to go alone. Therefor, she literally dragged me to both. The first time, my cousin came along, and the second a friend of mine. Reluctant as I was, I don’t dislike Satyricon, and knew it would be worth it to see Frost, since any black metal fan can tell you he’s one of the greatest black metal drummers there is. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by their performances, even if I could have died.
The first show was at the Norva in Norfolk, which is my personal favorite venue and seems to be the same for a lot of bands that perform there. It’s set up well, the sound quality is fucking superb, and the crowds are usually great, considering that it’s a larger venue. The first band to perform was Septic Flesh. I have to say, this band was totally fucking worthless. They pretty much just played chugging riffs the entire time and most of the sound was just reverb. All of their songs were predictable and sounded exactly the same. They had a lot of symphonic background noise, all played through the speakers on a track, and that shit produced more meaningful sound than they were. My cousin noted that they sounded exactly like Behemoth, but worse.
Satyricon went on next, and they were much more enjoyable than I would have expected. All of the songs they performed were from their last 3 albums: Volcano, Now. Diabolical, and The Age of Nero, none of which they’ve been able to promote in the US yet. It’s worth mentioning that Volcano was the album where Satyricon left behind their black metal sound for a more commercial sound that lost them a lot of old fans, but also gained some new ones. The sound works for them, so a lot of people don’t really care about it.
For those who don’t know, Satyricon’s songs are entirely written by Satyr, vocalist and string instrumentalist, with drums by Frost. However, live, Satyr just does vocals (occasionally bringing out a guitar for himself) while 2 guitarists, a bassist, and a keyboardist play alongside them. Satyr’s voice is very excellent live, coming through clear and evil as hell. He’s a cool guy and very nice/polite. It was kind of funny how uncomfortable he seemed without a guitar, though. He did various stage acting, but kind of seemed like he was bored or confused during instrumental parts and sometimes started air guitaring. He was much more comfortable when he had his guitar.
Frost was as amazing as anyone would guess. He played like a madman and headbanged nonstop through the entire show. One thing that was very disappointing was the crowd. Pretty much everyone there was a scene kid or hipster who only came to see Cradle of Filth and most didn’t even know who Satyricon was. They were the most unresponsive crowd I’ve seen at the Norva, and nothing pisses me off more than an unresponsive crowd, so I had to go nuts in their stead. If nothing else, when Satyricon played Fuel for Hatred as their last song, they beckoned a ‘legendary moshpit’ and they got a great one which my cousin participated in. Once Cradle got on stage, Frost was signing autographs near the merchandise counter, and my mom and cousin got pictures with him and autographs. He was very shy and quiet, a short dude who was literally 100% muscle.
Now, as for Cradle, I have only a little experience with the band which many, many metal fans hate. Their cover of “Hallowed be Thy Name” by Iron Maiden is one of my favorite songs ever and is amazing. However, other songs I’ve heard by them pretty much sucked, so I never knew what to think of them. Let me say, after hearing half of their live performance, Cradle of Filth is the single worst band I have EVER heard in my life. What they create cannot be called music. The guitarists and bassist would all play one shitty riff while the drummer played something totally unrelated and Danny Filth jizzed all over the whole thing with his intolerable shrill voice. I won’t even do them the honor of going into detail – we walked out halfway through their show. Worst thing ever.
Somewhere in that show, someone I guess passed a bug onto me (probably thanks to Cradle’s shitty music) and I caught a harsh fever which seemed to be compounded into an ear infection. This was along with my neck hurting already from headbanging so I pretty much felt half dead for a few days. The fever and ear ache only got worse over the coming days, however my mom still needed me to go with her to Springfield for the headlining show. I carried my already half-dead ass into the SUV with my friend for the 4-hour drive to where we’d be staying overnight. The hotel had no mini-fridge, which should be punishable by death. We took a cab to the show (since my mom planned to get wasted) – my first time in a cab (I know, right?)
When we got to Jaxx the doors should have opened 15 minutes before and the line was getting long (we already had tickets, though, but we took a cab, so we couldn’t wait in the car). We ended up spending 30 minutes in the snow. We weren’t wearing coats, either, since we knew it’d be all hot and sweaty inside, so we were in T-shirts freezing our nips off (exception of my mom who was in gaudy goth dress). Finally, we got inside. Jaxx is pretty small, and a lot of it was taken up by the bar 21+ area. The floor by the stage was about the size of my room (which is something like 30-35 by 20-25 feet, yes my room is huge) and the stage was about the same size and maybe 2 feet off the floor.
The first 3 bands to perform were Springfield local bands. By the time any of them went on, my feet already hurt since my dad had pressured me into wearing his fucking Doc Martins. He kept saying how they were cool and totally comfortable. These are lies. Do not go to a concert in Doc Martins. Needless to say, 5 hours with a raging fever compounded with an ear infection, freezing, soaked clothes and shitty Doc Martin foot pain was not something I looked forward to. However, I’ve actually had worse/equally bad conditions at metal concerts (I pretty much fainted at Mayhem festival because I was thrashing too hard while suffering heat exhaustion) so I felt I could make it through.
The first band to play was a pretty decent atmospheric black metal band. They were nothing special, and took a lot of cues from every other atmospheric black metal band out there, but weren’t bad. The drummer kind of sucked. The second band I thought was very good. They played a sort of black metal with death metal influence. All of them were very into it and the lead guitarist and drummer both kicked ass. I could see them getting signed. The third band, and only one whose name I caught (Apothys) sucked a fat dick. They played death metal with no direction in the songs whatsoever. Sometimes it just sounded like they were making shit up. The guitarist sucked ass entirely, to the point it seemed like he hadn’t been playing long or didn’t practice. That guy definitely did not deserve to be playing in live shows.
1349 went on next, and to the crowd’s slight disappointment, Frost did not play with them, but their new drummer. He still cracked out blast beats left and right, but it wasn’t quite the same. I had the misfortune of positioning myself right next to a speaker, and the shrill rasps of the singer were like bullets into my eat. 1349 were great for what they are – totally fucking chaotic black metal – but I’ve never been a big fan of that sound. The chaos is too much for me and it can be hard to get into. That said, I still managed to headbang a lot. When I hear a serious blast-beat, I just can’t help myself. Their performance was all-around pretty nice.
Before Satyricon went on, I drank a full can of Mountain Dew and let my hair down, predicting that I’d go totally nuts during the show. They came out ricking hard and the second or third song they played was Now. Diabolical which I went batshit insane during. However, it quickly became evident that I could not handle any more thrashing after that song and immediately but my hair back up and went to the bathroom to pour water all over my head. At this point another thing took effect – everyone in the fucking club was smoking. I am not a smoker or spend time around smokers and my lungs were getting very full of smoke. It was too the point that every time I sang a lyric I would erupt into long fits of coughing. However, I persevered.
Satyricon did another epic performance. They played all the songs from the other show and a lot more, including some classic tracks. The highlight of the show was definitely when they played my favorite Satyricon song, To The Mountains. It was a song I’d never have expected to hear, and I seemed to know it best out of the crowd. They did 2 encores, and the last song they played was Mother North, which the crowd had been asking for all night. Even though at that point I’d been to the bathroom 3 times to poor water on my head, had struggled not to collapse, and had avoided headbanging, I still said ‘fuck it’ and went totally nuts during the epic performance of Mother North, using my last reserves of strength.
After the show, Jaxx’s ATM was broken so we had to run through the snow to 7-11 to get cash and come back. We stuck around and met Frost again, who signed a bunch of stuff and took pictures with us, being as cool as he always is. Afterward, we went back to the hotel. It took me like 3 hours to get to sleep because there were a ton of noises in my head and raging pains and I struggled not to puke all over the place. I wanted to say that it was stupid to but my body through such insane punishment, but… fuck, it’s metal. If I can’t die for the music I love, I’d rather not live!
So yeah, Satyricon is a great live show, and I’ll definitely go and see them on their next tour this October. Preferably in a less shitty medical condition, though!
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