[Portland
OR] This may be the most genre-specific club I’ve been to in Portland,
excepting Dante’s: pop bands Never play here. And even though the bartenders
were committed scenesters, there was no attitude – they were even friendly – always
appreciated. Ninth Circle were drama metal – prog metal – classical metal,
whatever WestTexanMexiWhite was a huge fan of. Definitely not my favorite metal
style. But I do enjoy a crowd of solid metalheads – who are they? what
motivates them? Rockboy and I’s lengthy fandom of VH1’s That Metal Show forever
altered me – it’s really one of the best shows ever. I think sociological
research finds metal’s more popular among the working class – just like punk,
but the latter gets credit for being politically motivated and intellectual in
ways metal never does. I always kind of position myself as as only a semi-metal
fan but I might be a liar. Speed metal’s astounding. Death metal, or the
head-nodding drone metal, is soothing – I get it – I get the angry metal too.
Black Sabbath! Iron Maiden! Anyway, this crowd was sparse and drab – really too
bad for two international headliners. Fresh off the Texas shooting, I got to
thinking this crowd was probably the sort who like guns and are pissed enough
to go off. >< And then their sound ended up being totally eclipsed by
this obnoxious staccato machine gun beat… a little psychologically unpleasant
but mostly, I’ve come to really dislike when the bass takes over my heartbeat. Ultimately,
despite all my complaints, they were a pretty good band, extensive intricate
string fingering – do metal guitarists top classical guitarists? The lead
vocalist was all drama, sometimes screamo – he even maintained dark-voice
persona in the interludes. It was all a little cheesy (lights shooting up at
the sides of the stage to mimic flames) but drama was kind of the point.
He invoked Dante’s Inferno & the Ninth Circle of Hell like a satanic
pastor. He made irreverent comments: “Whiskey comes before all of you.” Of
importance, I’m pretty sure I saw an actual hunch-backed witch lurching through
the crowd… can never be too careful where the dark one is concerned ;)
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