sábado, mayo 31, 2008

Concerts of Skyclad in Galicia (2008-05-26 & 27)

I saw you in a magazine,
they're calling you messiah.
They must be living in a dream -
they couldn't be more wrong.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

Last monday and tuesday were stressful days but worth. 2 concerts in 2 days, one in my city and one in another one, and with school in the middle can make you to be tired the rest of the week, believe me.
Anyway I'm happy I've done this and I would make it again if there is the future possibility.
So, first of all, sorry about the dark of the videos, my cam is not so good, but I hope I can put some more recorded with a better one from my friend. I will upload as soon as I can to this post other pics I wasn't given yet.

Monday, may 26th 2008 - concert of Skyclad in Santiago de Compostela

After classes I almost didn't have more time than to eat and go to Santiago de Compostela (1 hour far from here by car). We arrived and after some drink we went to the place, a very small one called TNT.
There weren't supporters, so Skyclad started. The concert had limited capacity of 70 tickets, and though the place couldn't stand much more, they weren't totally sold (I was told 62). It was understandable being monday.. but still... 62 people for one myth which made a total revolution of the Folk Metal worldwide like Skyclad is too few under my point of view. There are other ridiculous teenager-pseudo-folk-rock-metal like Mägo de Oz which are able to get even more than one thousand of people to attend to their concerts. Hopefully just in Spain, other countries have more taste in music. Anyway, each to his own.
Skyclad started with a electric show, playing their most known songs.. "The Widdershins Jig", "Spinning Jenny", "No Deposit No Return", "Penny Dreadful", "Earth Mother, The Sun And The Furious Host", the coversong "Swords Of A Thousand Men", the catchy "Another Drinking Song" and so on.. (sorry that I cannot remember, it was already days ago and I can mix it with the show of the next day).
I have to say at the beginning we were almost alone cheering. People stayed mostly behind and not very talkative...


Skyclad - The Widdershins Jig

Here I have to say, maybe it's a nonsense, but in that side I really missed a supporter band, starting so suddenly with the classical folk metal band was a bit sharp.
After those first songs, and finishing the first part of the electric part, people started to move a bit more. But it was something strange that people jumped to the first lines with the starting of the second acoustic part, cause it was supposed to be the calm part of the show, at least a bit more than the electric one (which we enjoyed completely, with few people around and jumping and making headbanging with not too much pushing and enough space :P:P). Maybe some drinks before can help...? XDD



Funny pic and funny moment when the micro didn't stay stuck and Mr. English was trying to put it right XDD




Skyclad - Spinning Jenny in Acoustic

The second part made us to get back cause people moved in front of the musicians, and started cheering much more than before. It was a good ambient indeed.
In the acoustic show in Santiago de Compostela, Skyclad played songs like "History Lessens", "Bury Me", which I enjoyed a lot, I didn't expect they would play that song, but it was even more surprising "Land of the Rising Slum", from one of my favourite albums from them: "Prince Of The Proverty Line", and which they totally forgot in the last visit to Vigo 4 years ago.
The bad point of this was that they played 3 times in the concert "Spinning Jenny"!! 1 in the electric part and twice in the acoustic show (in the middle and in the end). I think they have lots of songs for choosing between! Spinning Jenny is a strong one, but it would be enough to play that in the electric part (I liked it much more than unplugged).
Great show, people warmed up finally and good party, sound wasn't truly good, but it was ok.
Skyclad - Bury Me in Acoustic








Tuesday, may 27th 2008 - concert of The Travellers and Skyclad in Vigo

Back home and 4 hours slept... and back to school. My eyes were red, my neck hurting a bit, and my hair made a disaster, but I was ready to another assault :P. So again... faculty, rest a bit in the afternoon, and going to the second show in 2 days of Skyclad.
Here we had supporters, a band called The Travellers, folk metal from Vigo, they warmed up the show of the Tuesday making a mix of galician folk with electric guitars. They were not bad, they had 2 good guitarists and a good drummer (also drummer of Fallen Sentinel, another band of Gothic Black Metal from Vigo). Bassist and bagpiper were also ok, but the girl with the flute was totally out of tune, making sometimes it sounded really like "hey that flute is not tuned!!!"
Some moments of the band were actually not a good memory. But others, like guitar solos and drum solo were very good. The mix of galician songs and electric stuff could sound much better, I am sure if they have a better inspiration for creating songs they can reach a higher level like band.
Anyway it was a good warming for Skyclad.



They surprised us with a coversong from the last album of Nightwish with "The Last of the Wilds" wich sounded not very well, but it was a nice trying.
The Travellers - Last Of the Wilds

They did another cover song from a traditional galician folk melody.

Skyclad jumped quite fast over the scenary and they did even a better show for my taste than the previous day, sound was muuuuuch better than I expected for another small place like "La Fábrica De Chocolate" (once they had some noise with the output connector of some instrument quite harmful for our auditive capacity, but it was just a moment).



Skyclad - The Song Of No-Involvement

So better sound than Santiago, really powerful, but ... I'd rather to be again in Santiago.. why? public! they were soo silent and dull!!, just some few people in our part were jumping and singing, others just looking and clapping at the end of the songs. Just with the last 5 songs they started to wake up a bit... and I guess it was normal... Skyclad was doing an excellent party which was screaming "Join or Die" ;)



Skyclad - Another Drinking Song

Skyclad - Still Small Beer (new song from the upcoming album!) (thanks for the name, matze74yt ;) )

So they didn't have a acoustic time, just electric, and with some changes comparing to Santiago, of course Another Drinking Song, Spinning Jenny, No Deposit No Return, or Penny Dreadful were there, but they introduced other songs like "Emerald" or "Thinking Allowed", which the band played thanks to few people... (ese Palomo! ;) ) who were shouting for that. Kevin Ridley and the others noticed that and didn't have any problem in playing it. It rocked like hell, I have to say!
It was another great show, but it could be better if public here were not so boring.
Kevin, a good wine taster with a nice cup :P


Thanks for reading ;)