The Scream Queen's Blog!
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Date: October 23, 2010 9:30PM
Now playing: Demonoir by 1349
It's definitely been a while since I've updated this. It's been incredibly busy for me ever since I uploaded the first blog post (click here to read!)... Since then, my voice did come back for a week or two (it's currently out again) and I was finally able to get my interview in with Chris Adler of Lamb of God, as some of you have probably already seen and read... If not, click here to read! :-)
I've
had so many interviews lately, especially over October! It's definitely been an
amazing ride! I did Airbourne about a month ago, which I'll
have that interview uploaded by the weekend. I also interviewed singer Warrel Dane of Nevermore earlier this month,
who by the way, is an incredibly cool guy. One of the coolest I've ever
interviewed! He's very down to earth and has a hilarious sense of humor. He also
put on an incredible performance!! He had the crowd captivated. Later that week,
I interviewed vocalist/guitarist Dave Timnick from Intronaut. That show was a lot of fun! A much more laid back
feel and vibe than some of the recent bands I've seen! It was a nice change of
pace.
This
week has been awesome, yet extremely tiring! Tuesday night (19th) I was able to
interview Victor (lead guitarist) from Triptykon. I was kind of thrown off guard because I was
initially supposed to interview Tom G. Warrior (vocalist/guitarist, formerly from Celtic
Frost). I had almost ALL of my questions directed towards Tom, then as I'm on my way to the Marquis Theatre (which was
HARD to find, by the way!! Partly because when I googled the address, it said it
was on Welton Street... Come to find out it was on Larimer. Either way, it still
was hard to find, even with the right address! Way too many confusing streets
that curve and split. Not to mention all the annoying one-way streets! Why can't
Denver be like Los Angeles, and have a grid system!?!? ...Ok, end rant!) I find
out that they switched it on me since Tom backed out of all
press that day.
From
what I was told, it was because too many journalists were asking about Celtic Frost instead of Triptykon. Funny
thing, I only had one question about Celtic Frost and the rest
were about Triptykon, just only ones he'd be able to answer...
So, I had to think quick... I had to take out several questions, alter a couple,
and come up with new ones as I went along with the interview. I have to say
that Victor was a very nice guy, gave me an interview I'm very
happy with, and he put on an amazing performance with Triptykon later that night!
After my interview with Victor, I then was getting ready for my interview with Frost from 1349 (also in Satyricon). As many of you know, I interviewed him back in May when they were on the Cannibal Corpse tour. That interview turned out to be my favorite one I've ever done before. I found him to be very intriguing with the way he articulated his words with metaphors. (Read my first interview with Frost here!!) So, the moment I saw that 1349 was coming to Denver, I definitely HAD to get an interview with him again! He's the only person I've ever interviewed twice before. Now, I've interviewed a couple of other bands more than once (Lamb of God and All That Remains), but each time with a different member.
My second
encounter interviewing Frost went as amazing as the first! The
way he speaks is very compelling, in a way, it's hard to explain. Maybe it's
because some of what he says reminds me of Dante's Inferno/The Divine
Comedy, which is one of my favorite books. I'm very excited for
everyone to read it when I upload it!
After I interviewed Frost, my mom, who was with me because of my voice being out (whenever it's out, she usually comes with me just in case the bands have a hard time understanding me), we went out to eat, met up with one of my friends, then headed back to the show as my mom went back home.
When my
friend and I got there, Triptykon was getting ready to play.
All I can say is Tom G. Warrior is an amazing front man. Triptykon in general has a lot of energy, despite their music
being more doomy/melodic, they still worked the crowd well! They had a few
technical difficulties, I believe at one point their bass drum went out, but
nothing too major, they got through it and put on an incredible performance!
Now it was time for 1349 to come out! I was hearing several people talking about how they saw 1349 at their previous concert earlier this year in Denver with Cannibal Corpse. Everyone I heard talking were anxiously awaiting for them to hurry up and come out.
As 15 minutes passed, the lights finally dimmed, and here comes Archaon, Seidemann, Frost,
and Ravn! Everyone in the venue immediately started screaming.
It was extremely loud for a small venue! You'd think there were 1000+ people in
it!! I believe they opened their set with Beyond the 
Apocalypse, it hard to
hear the guitars at the beginning of their set, so it was a bit hard to
recognize some of the songs. Half way through, it got better though, I think the
person behind the soundboard definitely heard all of the people yelling and
complaining about not being able to hear the guitars. Despite the minor
technical difficulty, everyone was still going insane! Everyone around me was
headbanging, there was a violent moshpit going on behind me, my friend and I got
squashed against the amps a few times from it. But I kept on headbanging, I know
I bumped heads with someone a few times, and at one point someone's elbow nailed
me right in the back of the head too! Haha, I felt like I was in my MMA class at American Top Team Altitude (check out their site here and if you live in
Denver, tell them The Scream Queen sent you!) getting
knocked dizzy from someone punching me in the head repeatedly.
Aside from getting
knocked dizzy a few times, 1349 put on one of the best
performances I had ever seen live, definitely one of the best this year, by far! Ravn, again like Tom G. Warrior, knew how to
work the crowd. Ravn fed off of each person's energy and even
gave back all of his own. I hadn't witnessed a crowd go that crazy in quite some
time! Not to mention, I hadn't been compelled to headbang and go crazy like I
did since 2006 at the Unholy Alliance Tour with Slayer and Lamb of God! Frost's drumming skills are purely amazing, he can destroy one's soul
with how fast and aggressive he plays! It seriously sounded like 1349 was going on a violent and murderous rampage on
stage. Their live shows are so intense, it's something EVERY metal fan needs to
see!
When I saw them back in May, when they were on the Cannibal Corpse tour, the crowd wasn't very into them at first, but as they kept on playing, they definitely won them over. That probably has something to do with why the fans went as crazy as they did at this show!
They closed their
set with Atomic Chapel, which happens to be one of my
most favorite songs by them. Everyone kept getting progressively more insane as
the song continued; my friend and I got squashed up against the stage/amps again
and again! It felt awesome to me, just to see how everyone was reacting to such
an amazing performance. Definitely a show I will NEVER ever forget!
After they finished with Atomic Chapel, the fans kept going more insane... Everyone began chanting "1349, 1349, 1349" VERY loudly, they were screaming for them to come back out and play one more song, they were stomping their feet on the floor, making as much noise as they possibly could. This went on for at least 5 minutes, if not 10! It was something I had also never seen before, not even with Slayer! I mean a few chants here and there for them to come back out, but never anything this extreme! It was so cool to see how their music captivated everyone. This show has made it into my top 5 favorite concerts I've ever seen, and I've seen too many to even count!
After I got
home from that show, the next day, I had an interview to do with Oli
Herbert of All That Remains. That was definitely a
great interview! He answered my questions exactly how I imagined him to. It's an
awesome feeling when an interview goes that way! (Read my 2008 interview with vocalist Phil
Labonte/All That Remains here!) After the interview, my mom and I killed
some time (mainly getting lost again in Downtown Denver, grrrr!!), we found a
vegetarian restaurant to go to (City O' City), I ordered an
awesome vegan pizza with cashew ricotta "cheese". It was so good, best vegan
pizza I ever had! Usually vegan pizzas with the vegan cheese taste
like rubber, but this was so good, it tasted almost like the real
thing, from what I remember anyway! (I've been vegan for 10 years). I
had to order another one just to eat for later! Which I ended up eating another
two slices before I even got home, haha. People don't ever believe how much I
can really eat, it's always a surprise to them! But what do you expect, I train
4-5 days a week for 2-3 hours at a time, so I'm always hungry!!
So, after
that, we went back to our place to take a little break and get ready for the
show... We got back there around 9:30PM, found out that All That
Remains didn't go on until 10:30PM. So we watched the band Asking Alexandria, which they had the crowd going crazy for
them. I personally wasn't into their music, but I'll admit, they did put on a
good performance!
Then it was time for All That Remains! The second Phil Labonte (vocalist) came out, all of the hundreds of girls in the audience started screaming to the top of their lungs, even louder when he took his shirt off a few songs later. I went in the photo pit to take some pictures to go along with the interview. I definitely had the best view in the entire venue, I was so close that Phil's sweat was dripping on me! Haha
I can't
remember which song they opened with, but they closed with Two
Weeks. They also played This Calling, Six, Become the Catalyst, Hold On, Forever in Your
Hands, and a few others that I didn't really recognize. Phil is an awesome frontman, he definitely knows how to work
the crowd. He puts all of his energy and passion into what he does. You can tell
just by looking at some of the pictures I took.
All in all, I had an amazing week! It was a bit tiring, I lived off of Rockstar Energy drinks for 3 days solid. I have no idea how I even made it standing to my MMA and Jiu Jitsu classes on Thursday night! I was so tired to the point I was yawning in the class, haha. My neck was also VERY sore from all the headbanging during the 1349 show, so that made it a little difficult to throw punches and kicks, and not to mention, do all of the Jiu Jitsu warm ups right after MMA, where my trainer made us do a bunch of cardio exercises!
So between
the MMA cardio exercises and the Jiu Jitsu warmups (running, bear crawls,
shrimping, etc), I was nearly dead! I also ended up with some new bruises!
I have a gigantic bruise from that night on my left leg from someone
kicking me repeatedly in the same spot while we were sparring. I think it's the
biggest one I've gotten thus far!
Anyway, I'm getting ready to eat dinner and then transcribe some more interviews so you all will have at least one new one to read tomorrow! :-) I hope you all have enjoyed reading my blog and THANK YOU for reading!! :-) If you want to send me any questions/commens/feedback/etc, e-mail me here: Jenna@TheScreamQueen.com.
Love,
Jenna
The Scream Queen
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