The rumors seem to be that the guy jumped off running from security. Definitely not alive. Ever since that video of the person jumping off a cruise and potentially swimming near some sharks a few months back, I keep getting tiktoks showing people throwing some food off a cruise to show all the sealife coming to eat it up immediately. Add in no life vest, and the chance is 0 that someone survives that. Of course I feel bad, but sadly, this seems entirely preventable.
Anyway, I went to a big power metal concert in NYC last Friday
Show started off with a band I wasn't familiar with called Edge of Paradise. They were not power metal, not sure exactly what they were, a bit poppy, but had some good guitar work. I just couldn't handle the singers vocals. She sounds like she uses an effect on her voice that makes it incredibly annoying (although in my videos, it doesn't seem so noticeable). Either way, her vocals kind of hurt my ears a bit. I wouldn't say they were bad, just not the greatest. Some of the songs were decent, just hard to listen to after 15 minutes. Luckily they only played 30. The band would hang out at their merch for most of the night, but since i dind't love them, I didn't bother to say hi or take a picture.
Next up was Nanowar of Steel which is a power metal parody band. They were incredible! Wow, what a surpise. I thought they were going to be fun just because the music is meant to be fun, but being an opener who I'm not too familiar with, I wasn't sure what to expect. First off, the crowd was wild for them. It seemed a lot of people knew their songs and did all the hand/arm dances for the songs. Specifically the two girls directly in front of us in the pit looked like choreographed dancers
Second, while playing to a backing track, you could clearly tell the band on stage was totally live and totally owning the mistakes. it felt incredibly raw, and I think that added to the energy in the room for them. The band was also dressed up (I think this is their normal attire, but it's basically all goofy outfits). Sadly their set was super short. Felt like it was 15 minutes, but it was likely closer to 30. Before the last song, the singer made a joke about ikea, and so then during the song, he started building an ikea table
then threw it into the crowd once he finished. Such a funny and unique set! The band actually retweeted my video of this moment if anyone is curious to see what that was like
https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1721278114326610369Amaranthe was next and the band I wanted to see the most. So between bands we stepped outside for a smoke, and by the time we got back in, the place was basically packed to the max. It wasn't a sell out, but it was very very close. So close to 2k people with 1.5 in GA. Basically I couldn't get a good view (not that my view was great for the openers, but it was MUCH better). Anyway so we started the set trying to get back to where we were but eventually called it quits a few songs in and went all the way to the back unsold last two rows in the venue. The sound was TERRIBLE back there. My videos still came out fine, but in person, it was hard to hear int he back. Either way, Amaranthe were fine, but nothing impressive. They played the new single and another new song they released last year, and neither were very good. I feel like the crowd was into it for the older songs, but some of the newer stuff just felt flat, including "That Song" which i felt like completely killed the crowd. That song sucks. I thought the new screamer was fine. Elize sounded pretty rough. Nils was clearly the best vocalist on stage, probably out of all the bands. Glad I finalyl got to see him live, but Amaranthe were kind of a dissapointment for me.
The place emptied out slightly for Dragonforce which was nice as we were able to get back to the spot we spent the rest of the night for their set. I can only take so much Dragonforce in one sitting. I do enjoy their music, but the over the top soloing gets a bit much. So it was hard for me to love their set. They were VERY fun though. The stage was awesome with two old school arcages (one Galaga, the other Rampage) and a huge screen with the videos in the back. They did their new song which is about
Zelda so they threw some (fake) chickens into the crowd to be thrown around. They also brought out a special guest guitarist from Revocation (I'm not familiar with them) and the singer from Nanowar of Steel and did their own Sabaton parody song (which they did live on twitch back during the Pandemic). That was easily the highlihgt of their set for me as I knew that song and it was so stupid with the marching, but hilarious and fun. They also did a new unreleased Taylor Swift cover during the encore. Then as they were about to start their last song, Through the Fire and the Flames we left as it was already 11:15 and we had a train to catch. Very fun concert!
Dragonforce, Amaranthe, Nanowar of Steel, and Edge of Paradise LIVE @ Palladium Times Square New York City NY 11/3/2023Next up:
November 8th - Hollywood Undead & Tech N9NE @ Terminal 5, New York City NY
ALSO, a surprise album release pop up concert was announced today for this coming sunday. So I was able to scoop up a couple tickets before it sold out in 4 minutes as this arena band is playing a club show!
November 12th - AJR @ Irving Plaza, New York City NY