The venue was The Royal Grove, which apparently started doing concerts again fairly recently. It was the site of a couple of nu-metal concerts I attended with my friend back in early college (Sevendust and Static-X), but I have not been there since. It looked quite a bit different than I remembered. For one thing, you could actually see the entire bar. Back when I had attended the previous concerts, the bar still allowed smoking and it was so thick you could not see across the bar. As a non-smoker myself, I hated that aspect, so this was much better.
The first band was a fairly new Canadian band called Gone in April. The band is sort of a Nightwish knockoff but with more of a melodic death metal foundation. The band utilized two singers, a male growler (who my wife made sure to mention looked like a creeper at times, sorry) and an operatic female singer. The female singer also played the violin, which was a very interesting element to their sound. Apparently she has also played live in Eluveitie, which is likely the connection that got the band on the bill. What was really interesting though is that the bass player was none other than the legendary Steve DiGiorgio. The songs were decent, especially the last two of the show. I will probably check them out, especially since I love checking out the work of DiGiorgio.
There was originally supposed to be a local band called The Carbon Cycle that was going to open the show. But instead of having a shorter concert, apparently Korpiklaani decided to take up the time slot. I have never checked anything out by the Finnish folk metal band before, but may decide to change that soon because they put on an electrifying show during their 90 minute set. Korpiklaani features an accordion and a violin prominently in their music and the two musicians were probably the stars of their set. They even performed numerous solos, which is not something frequently seen at heavy metal concerts. Korpiklaani was energetic and exciting to watch. And of course the drinking songs like "Vodka" and "Beer Beer" were big hits. My wife seemed to enjoy their show, other than its length, and also said that the singer looked like a cross between Thor and current Vince Neil. It was probably the most upbeat performance at a metal show that I have seen.
Eluveitie was the headliner and the band I was the most familiar with by far. Their brand of melodic death metal and Celtic folk influences is extremely well-done, most of the time. I love their album Slania, though I have never been quite as impressed with any of their subsequent albums. That being said, their show was incredible. There were nine people on stage. The band leader is the male vocalist and also played a mandolin and various wind instruments. There were three female members playing various folk instruments and providing backing vocals. One played a violin, another a harp and the last played something called a hurdy gurdy. The harpist also took on lead vocals on a few songs and her voice was amazing, easily the highlights of Eluveitie's show. They played a number of songs I expected, but did not play "Blood Stained Ground", which is still my favorite song by the band. They did close out with "Inis Mona" which is another of my favorites.
It was an entertaining, if slightly long, concert. My wife was unhappy with the length of it, but other than Korpiklaani's set, everything was right in line with what I would expect. And honestly I quite enjoyed the lengthier Korpiklaani set because it gave me a chance to hear more of their material, which I have not had the chance to do before. She was cold as well, which made her more miserable. It was a different kind of concert than I am used to, but it was a lot of fun. All three bands put on impressive performances.
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