This show had sold-out within days of the show announcement and that was over a month ago. Apparently "The Hottest Chicks in Metal" tour was something that metalheads could relate to. I sure as fuck could!
The night opened up with a band called Stolen Babies. They were an odd arrangement of people, with a penchant for looking like the Addams Family. The look and sound of the band was as if they were straight from the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas". The dainty female singer was dressed all goth-cutsie-like and she performed most of the show gripping an accordian. Yup, an accordian. The squeezebox she was holding seemed to keep her pinned down, as she didn't move around too much, but when she finally put it down for the last two songs she became a lot more animated. Once unhampered, her stage moves were somewhat Bjorkish and theatrical. Her vocals when just about everywhere from singing sweetly, to screaming and growling. The band was pretty catatonic to watch with the exception of a song or two. The best musician by far was their drummer. I dug him a lot. He was a very inventive fellow. I also thought it was cool that the bass player propped up an upright bass for a song, but I wish he would have used it more. He also was wicked at popping and slapping out the funk, which is something you don't get to hear that much anymore in the metal world. The music itself is hard to explain. Mix up Mr. Bungle, old No Doubt, and Kittie and thats the best way I could describe it. Stolen Babies were good at their gimmick and were worth seeing if you want to see something a 'lil different. I rate em 7 out of 10.
Up next was In This Moment, which is one of this years Ozzfest bands. They were fronted by a bleached blonde who was had her shit together. She was pretty badass. The sound of the band was harder than Kittie, but softer than Arch Enemy. They had an Otep vibe to them, minus the rapping that the Otep chick seems to like. None of the band members really stood out too much, but with their naughty looking leading lady it really didn't matter too much. The band as a whole was a solid headbanging unit and they were very chummy with the fans. One thing that annoyed me was the use of lots of delays and reverbs on the singers voice, because at times it became distracting. I spent a lot of time wondering if there was something wrong with the sound system. Of all four bands that played, this was by far the heaviest of them. They were the ones who made me make a metal face, as opposed to smiling. My favorite move of the night goes to their singer, who liked to thrash her head around like a pitbull tearing up a cat. Like the previous band, I rate 'em as a 7 out of 10. Their aggression paid off.
Within Temptation from the Netherlands was up next. This band was a happy bunch, which had songs that could have probably been used for fight scenes in fantasy movies like "Lord of the Rings" and other flicks of that ilk. The music was keyboard heavy, epic type stuff in which their vocalist sang in an operatic style. They reminded me of a European version of Evanescence. The singer was more a damsel than a chick but the music was metal enough to be waranted on this tour. The signer sang brilliantly and she danced around all hippie like, acting out her vocals with her moves and expressed her feelings with her hands. Her look reminded me of Crystal Gayle (who?). Crystal is/was a country/pop singer from the 70's and I have no idea how I know that, okay?! Anyway, the music was very moving to say the least. The range of the vocalist was incredible and the band was probably the tightest of the evening. Between songs the singer spoke in a very humble manner and was very happy with everything around her. She even let a dude in the crowd sing during one of the songs in which she announced that she loved his voice and that he should really consider doing something with it. I bet that made his night! All in all, while it took half of the set for this band to get me engaged, when it was over I had really enjoyed seeing them. They were a nice change of pace from my usual thrashy surroundings. I rate Within Temptation as an 8 out of 10. They sure do grow on ya!
Finally, it was time for the "big dog". Lacuna Coil. And more importantly, the reigning "chick" of metal, Cristina Scabbia. The intro began. The lights pulsed down to blackness. The band appeared and began. Andrea Ferro (the male vocalist) appeared and began his hip-hopping. Then the crowd waited for the "Chick Supreme" to appear. I looked around the stage and noticed that she was already out there! Holy crap she was little! I don't know how long she had been out on stage before I had noticed. Then began my madness. See, My #1 focus at a show is to get great photos, because I'm sure you fine people would prefer to look at my pix instead of reading my dribble. Well to my chagrine, Lacuna Coil was using a hazer, which is a fog machine type thing. Fog machines and flash photography don't mix. It turns out that a hazer makes it even worse. Needless to say, I had no time to write down notes for this article because I spent the entire set, 2 battery packs, and 3 flash cards trying to get ONE good shot of Ms. Scabbia. She never left the center area of the stage the whole show and getting into there was impossible. So here is what little bit i can say about LC. They played all of their "hits", from what I understand were voted for on their website, then LC made their setlist from the votes. The one thing I didn't know about Cristina was that in the albums they mix and effect her to sound like a very strong and powerful singer. Nope. While she sounded right, she kinda sounded wrong. She hit the notes and sounded great, but she isn't powerful. It's hard to explain. Imagine being somewhere with her (don't we all wish), and you are standing across a room from her. She yells at you from across the room and you go, "What?!" because you couldn't hear her. Hopefully that gives you a clue what I mean. She's just not very loud I guess. Even though I didn't have lots of notes to write about, I will admit that LC was most of what I expected as a live band. Rating? 9 out of 10. Sorry guys and gals, wish I could tell you more about the details of the show.
Thinking that my night was a bust because of the hazer thing, I decided to chill out in the club to "get over it". After about an hour of mingling, I walked out and around the side of the building on my way to the car. That's where the busses were parked. Guess who I ran into. Yup, Christina... And guess what. I finally got that photo of her that I tried all night to get. She was as small, quiet, and as gorgeous as I had seen on stage. Should you ever run into her, say hello. She's an absolute sweetheart.
This tour was billed as "The Hottest Chicks in Metal". On my way home last night and all day today I wracked my brain to try and think of a metal chick that was hotter than any of the ladies in these bands. I couldn't think of a single one, so in the end the tour is exactly what they promised.
In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the Soil show TONIGHT! Stay tuned.
Go to the BGR gallery (CLICK HERE) and check out my pics from last night's the show.
BE SURE to check out our friends at JAXX NIGHTCLUB! www.jaxxroxx.com
If you would like to attend a Jaxx show please let me know. I might be able to drag you along with me.
Comments Questions or Concerns? Hit me up! berube@braingell.com
And oh yeah...
Peace and Metal Grease!
berube
