Honestly, I am not much of a Lamb of God fan. There is only one reason I went to this show, and that was to see Napalm Death. I missed a couple of chances to see them recently and determined that I was going to see them the next time. I would have preferred to have seen them as the headliner, but this was fine. Lamb of God was the headliner this time and the show was at Sokol Auditorium in Omaha. My wife declined to go to this one with me again. So I went alone.
Narcotic Self was the opening band, a fact I was unaware of prior to arrival. The band is a local one and this is the second time I have seen them. They are one of the better Omaha-based bands, with a sound rooted in a more modern thrash metal sound. They also put on a terrific show. They were excellent as they were when I saw them opening for Exodus last year. Unfortunately I was a little late to their performance because I honestly had no idea there was a band on stage before 8. Websites need to get a better handle on this.
Napalm Death was next on the stage and they were the only reason I went. I was curious as to what their setlist would consist of as the band has had a number of sound changes over the years. It turns out that most of the setlist was fairly recent, with a few songs from their early grindcore years sprinkled throughout. The band members were fairly entertaining in their performances, Barney Greenway moves around the stage like a five-year old throwing a tantrum, and the other members look like guys you would see passed out at the end of the bar at last call. The highlights of the performance were "Suffer the Children", one of the band's best songs, and of course, "You Suffer", the one-second song that had the band listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. They actually played the song twice, to the delight of the people in the crowd who understood what was happening. They ended with the fantastic cover song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off". As promised by Greenway early in the performance, Napalm Death was unapologetically noisy as fuck.
I stuck around for Lamb of God though I am not the biggest fan of the band. I enjoy Ashes of the Wake quite a bit, but most everything else I have heard from the band was mediocre. They have some great songs, and played most of them: "Omerta", "Walk with Me in Hell", and "Now You've Got Something to Die For", in particular. They were definitely an energetic live band and put on a decent performance, but they did not really play anything that made me want to check out more of their music.
It was definitely worthwhile to see Napalm Death. Had ticket prices been a little lower, I may have skipped on Lamb of God. I'm glad I did not, but the band did not really change my opinion of them that much.
