yesterday i attended a concert by the seattle based power metal band nevermore. (i’m not going to concerts that often anymore… the last one was opeth‘s 20th anniversary on april 1st in bochum, which i never mentioned in this blog so far it seems, and the one by moonsorrow in helsinki in march.) this one was in calgary, on a thursday evening, a concert with four bands, doors opening at 8 pm. not a good idea, in my opinion. in fact, the first band started somewhen after nine, and nevermore didn’t start until short before midnight. so much for getting up early today (my alarm clock was set to 7 in the morning for cake preparations…).
the bands playing before nevermore were (melodic death/thrash) from denmark, blackguard (folk/melodic death) from montreal and (thrash) from the u.s.
warbringer is not making exactly the kind of music i like, and neither is hatesphere, though i liked the latter more. opposed to that, blackguard was really good. (i have to listen to more of their stuff…) but i didn’t go there for the other bands, but because i finally wanted to see nevermore.
eventually, nevermore entered the stage. once again i got reminded that live versions of song sound often different than the studio versions. the show was very nice, but i would have preferred another selection of songs. i should have made more notes yesterday, then i might be able to recover the setlist they played, but i think now it’s too late to get it correct.
one very nice thing about this concert was that i didn’t notice anyone smoking on the inside. that’s really nice. (and it’s a shame that i have to note this, which means that this is not the case by defaut.)

this friday, metallica held the release party for their newest album, death magnetic, in berlin. the concert was completely paid by metallica; the entrance fee, which was just 10 euros, was completely donated to the german heart center berlin. well, giving money to charity, listening to a good concert, meeting a friend and visiting berlin is always a good idea, so i was there ;-) the party took place in the new-built o₂ world arena, next to the ostbahnhof:

after waiting for a long time outside, we were let inside. we weren’t able to get tickets for the standing area, only seat tickets, but who says you have to stay seated during the concert? here’s a view on the stage including the technical equipment including the speakers, hanging from the top of the hall:

first, the hall seemed quite empty, but as it got later, it filled up. the concert started at 21:30, even though it said 20:00 on the tickets… and i’ve never heard music played soooo loud before the concert, you basically had to scream at each other to make yourself understood. that was a bit annoying. anyway. then the show began, with lots of light effects (though no pyro stuff), loud and heavy music; after some absence (on the album side), back to good old thrash metal.
the setlist was as follows:

1. that was just your life;
2. end of the line;
3. the thing that should not be;
4. of wolf of man;
5. one;
6. broken, beat, and scarred;
7. cyanide;
8. frantic;
9. until it sleeps;
10. wherever i may roam;
11. for whom the bells tolls;
12. the day that never comes;
13. master of puppets;
14. blackened.
    encore:
15. blitzkrieg;
16. jump in the fire;
17. seek and destroy.

my personal favorite from the new tracks is cyanide, as its best suited for head banging :) a cool part was when they released nets, installed at the roof, which contained big air-filled black balls with metallica written on them, which bounced around in the standing area on the hands of the fans. well, until they were more and more captured by some fans and tried to shrink, to make them easier to transport. well, here are some visual impressions: