Meridian, in Houston TX, saw the visit of the "Radio Rebellion" tour with Beneath The Massacre, Gojira. and co-headliners Behemoth and Job For A Cowboy. Anybody who read my rant on why I think JFAC are eminently unworthy of this status knows how I feel about how Behemoth deserved to headline this tour above that sorry bunch of scene kids. Anyway, that aside, Meridian is a really good place to go see bands with a big stage and a powerful sound system (that Behemoth soundman Malta was grumbling about and said was a terrible system to work with, more on that later), and the crowd for a weeknight was quite large. Of course, it was also composed of a goodly number of stupid emo scene kids, more on that later too.
Canadians Beneath The Massacre opened the proceedings with minimal stage banter given the tight schedule the bands were on and while they were skilled players they bored me ultimately. Seems they've listened to Cryptopsy a time or three and I don't really care for tha sort of hyper-technical approach that favors riffs and riffs and more riffs over coherent song structure. Even Nile have structure no matter how tech they get, which is one of the reasons I still admire them even though I think "Ithyphallic" is not one of their better releases. And their image was a bit offputting; four large shaven-headed lunks, especially the vocalist, who looked and sounded like a angered gorilla. Not my thing, ultimately. They didn't suck as badly as JFAC, mind you, they certainly can play, but they just were flailing around in an effort to seem "br00tul" and I don't hang with that too well.
Gojira, on the other hand, were damn good. Very Strapping Young Lad in feel and sound, with long and involved soundscapes that exploded into furious blasts and a confident and powerful stage presence. Their short-haired bassist in particular was a madman, flailing around and both headbanging and windmilling furiously, throwing his Fender bass around and somehow not missing a note. No solos, but they would've been out of place in Gojira's sound and I found myself not missing them terribly. Very nice guys post set, too--my friends and I got to chat with their guitarist and drummer outside the venue and they were very friendly and very approachable. Limited English (they're French) aside they were fun to talk to and they were very happy to be touring the US. Overall, they were powerful and aggressive and I wouldn't mind seeing them again or buying their CDs.
Imagine my annoyance when I found out that Behemoth were up next instead of JFAC who I could've gone outside for to save my energy for the Polski boys. But nonetheless, it was business as usual for Behemoth, which is to say that they annihilated all in their path! It was at this time that my friends on the left side of the stage noted that by the end of their set the monitors and PA speakers on stage left started cutting out badly, which didn't stop them too much at all, thankfully. A variety of tunes were shot out like deadly shrapnel to the audience, even going as far back as their first demos from 1992. The usual suspects like "Decade ov Therion" and "As Above, So Below" were played as well as newer material like set starter "Slaying The Prophets ov Isa" and "Prometherion", and all were blasted out at inhuman velocity with furious conviction as per usual. I expect no less from Behemoth in the live setting other than total annihilation and they have yet to disappoint me. They're early in the tour as well, so we got an especially potent set from them. Malta post set was explaining to me in his limited English that while Meridian's sound system looks good on the outside it really was terrible and hard to work with, as well, and he was far from pleased. In fact, he was aggravated and while they ultimately did end up sounding good, kudos to Malta for his hard work to that end!
SIDE NOTE: Stupid emo scene kids who are too busy ecstatically flailing to watch where they're fucking going in the pit at risk of injuring others need to stay the hell away from these shows. Us real fans don't need to do such things. We go to the shows to enjoy the music, not to get possibly kicked in the head by stupid crowd surfers and dragged unwillingly into the pit or crashed into by idiots who aren't watching where they're going. My glasses flew off of my head at one point (I was down front by the barricade as close as the stupid emo kids who refused to move would allow) when a swell of idiots crashed into those of us on the outskirts. I'm amazed that not only did somebody pick them up and hand them to me after a few moments' mad scrambling on my part, but that they were still intact. It got so bad at several points that a buddy of mine and I were seriously contemplating busting heads to restore order. Not that it would have helped much, alas. Long story short, I left the venue when their set was over and ended up hanging out with them afterward well into the night, but that's a story for another time.
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