Last saturday I was in a concert 50 km far from Vigo. That was a small town I have never been before called Cambados. A nice place with good seaside sight.
The previous night I went to a erasmus party. It was the first one of this semester, and people were quite shy at the beginning, most of them didnt know each other, but with a bit of time and alcohol all got better :P
There I met some new and funny international students. Occassions like this one make me to question what I should really do about the erasmus help, cause it's really funny and interesting for me to meet new people and help in every chance I can (the thing that annoys me more is the organization itself, the International Relations Office of Vigo). So, in spite of not going out with them, I had a nice time in that party in the flat. I tell this because I have found there one guy that just said to me... "hey you seem to like rock or metal.." :)
And I told "yes.. mostly this kind..", so after that, he asked me to tell him about concerts and I just told him "come tomorrow! you will see 3 of the best galician bands together!", and inmediately he joined :)
So, saturday evening, we went road to Cambados, until that, unknown place.
After hanging out for a while and eating something, we arrived to the place, a little pub called Esmorga.
Some people outside dressed in black.. not too many.. (maybe around 50 or 60 in the concert)
And after waiting drinking some beer, the concert got started.
Unreal Overflows
A band that drinks influence straight from Death (the band). Sound, composing, even lyrics, I think. All is so so copied from that great band, that they could be the new "Death" ones (since that band had splited up when the death of their creator and songwriter Chuck Schuldiner).
I have seen them for first time 1 year ago in a summer fest in a place near Vigo. They do a great job, but they should find to reach a bit originality.
They did maybe the best show in that festival, but inside this little pub, they were quite insipid. They seemed too shy or I dont know...
Playing part was ok, though sound wasnt very good. They are good musicians, but, I guess that place is not the best to do a concert, I mean, not very prepared.
Fallen Sentinel
Fallen is a band of Gothic Black Progressive Metal. Sorry that I cannot define them with less words XD. They are becoming a bigger band since they made "Eternity & Before", an album that put them in the scene of even national metal.
At the present they are about to take out their new album, that I just listened already many times some songs just in concerts, and I have to say that I am really excited with getting that new one. New songs sound great.
Fallen is definitely one of the best bands of Galicia. I have seen them quite a lot of times, and most of them I enjoyed it. But this time wasnt the best. They had bad sound, I couldnt almost listen keyboards, and I missed one guitar. It wasnt the best place for making a memorable concert, but I saw some people really enthusiastic with their show, and they tried to cheer up the public, matter that Unreal Overflows forgot completely.
Kathaarsys
This band is probably the most international galician band of the moment in reference to Metal. They just came few time ago from doing a international touring around Europe!
Atmospheric Black Metal; Lots of calm passages and technical moments in quite long songs. I have to say, I got bored with their albums, it's difficult for me to stand them at once. I usually stop in the middle when I tried to listen to them. In fact I think I didnt listen the last whole album at once XDD
But Kathaarsys in live... it's unbeliavable. They are only 3, but they sound intense, exciting, full of force. They seemed quite shy also, but people there, mostly friends of them and us, cheered them up until the limit, maybe spreading our enthusiasm to some of the rest of public.
Really technical songs, as I said, and the guitarist is quite good, he sang, played all the guitar stuff, and it was quite obvious he couldnt cheer up at the same time XD There are very few ones they can do it, like Nergal of Behemoth :P
Girl bassist has presence and drummer is quite good either.
But just time... like Fallen or Unreal... Kathaarsys, with a good promotion can reach to be a good band at the level of the best national ones.
So we had a great time there, in spite of the small of the place and the not very good sound for the 2 first bands... but now I will talk about public.
I already talked a lot about public from Galicia in the post of Behemoth's concert. And this time I wanted to see how they behave with bands from our region. Well, I have found there the most palpable sign of what I call "frienship fans". I mean, we were all time almost there in front of the band, but with every band we could see different fans, that for sure were the friends, couples, or whatever of someone playing in the corresponding band. We were not fans of anyone (and the french erasmus guy even less XDD), we were just there attending to one concert, and trying to cheer up the band, if we saw they did it with motivation and we liked the show,whoever they were.
But it seemed to us that people there just cheered their friends up. In every band we found different people around us, until the point that we were joking between us.. "oh this band has 4 friends, that one 7.." and so on.
When one band left, people who were standing next to us left, and went out the pub having some fresh air or drinking one beer at the bottom of the pub. Then some new ones joined us, sometimes making space in front of us when we were the nearest to the band... hmm I really think they should cheer up all bands, not only the one whose friends are playing in. I have also some friend in one of these 3 bands, but I supported all, my neck and my voice is suffering still after 4 days, and my friends like me.
Apart from this, in every band we were just 10 people cheering.. sometimes I looked at behind and saw what you see in this pic. Public shutted up, standing with beers or not doing anything. Just like mummies.
In the last band, Kathaarsys, which did a excelent show, I looked few times behind me .. and I think if there wasnt a wall there, people would fall down. I still do not get the point of being in a concert just standing doing nothing. And I repeat here, public of rock and metal from Galicia, they have what they deserve. But then they shouldnt complain if the show is short or the band doesnt do a bis...
Here I thought it would be different, most of the public knew personally members of the bands. I thought they would shout and make headbanging and move some finger. But just the respective very friends of the respective bands did. And I guess, we 5 did more than all public there, "who had a lot of fun, and saw a great party" (what they are saying). Even musicians between themselves, most of them didnt support too much others. If they finished, they just left to the bottom or went out the pub.
Funny case of the members of Unreal Overflows, who were standing somewhere far the scenary when Kathaarsys were playing.. maybe drinking some beer or having a conversation far from the show. When Kathaarsys finished, public asked for more, mostly moved by their 4 (were they 4 or 5, guys? XDD) friends, and us, that transmited to some others. They decided to play a cover song of the band Death. Suddenly, fast like the wind, I guess just hearing the name Death, those members of Unreal Overflows made space coming almost running to the front of all people (and just in front of us) and started to scream, making headbanging and so on... It sounds funny at first, but it's not that much under my sight, I would like they had this reaction not only when that band played one song of their favourite musicians of all times.
I will just say that we have different views of what is a great show-concert, because I think I cannot stay just standing up if I like one band, and moreover if the band is asking for participation. I want to think that musicians also want to see that people are enjoying, and this is the best way to show them that, the best way to get they play more, and the best way to get bands to go out from the city with happy feeling and will of returning... Yes! I still think about the concert of Behemoth or After Forever or Catamenia or Skyclad or Corvus Corax... I also would like to know where were most of those people who were attending to this concert, musicians or public (I know some of them really follow the scene and concerts, I use to meet them there, but ... there were more people in this concert that I didnt see in those I ment...)
Come on! attend to concerts! and cheer up! If you dont do that, then dont complain about the few concerts, or that the bands are going away not very happy, seeing that even few, these few ones dont make noise. (This is general about public, I am not talking about someone in particular).
And maybe I will win some enemies with these words... but it's my point of view, and also was the thinking of my friends who were in that concert. And I think we have a quite objective point of view since we are not from the places of the bands, not friends, just in my case with one band, (hope you guys dont bother with this :)) and we have been in already some concerts abroad and here and saw how the ambient is in different places.
We have what we have...