Hi friends,

I don't mean to gloat, but I just had to share this with you because I have never had a run this good before, in terms of seeing such quality acts so close together in time. In about 11 days, it begins. 3 of the most awesome gigs I can imagine. All in Melbourne. All in the space of 4 days. If you don't believe me, check out the dates on the tickets I scanned below! To make this absolutely perfect, I have just resigned from a really shit desk-job to try and take my chances again in a better field of work. I will finish up at work next Tuesday, and then the following Sunday - unadulterated mayhem begins without limits for 4 crushing metal days. Hell, even if they offered me a massive pay rise tomorrow and begged me to stay, it'd be worth still quitting just to enjoy those 3 gigs without having to drag my ass into work each morning after!
Anyone else in Melbourne coming to any of these?

Enjoy. Meshuggah were epic when I saw them a few weeks ago.

Dude I can't wait. For me, Meshuggah are the headline act of those 3 gigs. They have never been to Australia. Not even once. I've been a hardcore fan of theirs since 1994 when they released 'None'. Every album since then, I'd think: "Surely this time they'll come out!" - and they never did! Until now. And I have to say, I think ObZen is probably their best album, so it's fitting that they're finally coming here on such a triumphant record

i shall see you at meshuggah sir. ill be with a fat asian and a hybrid white/black guy if you wanna say hi

LOL. Awesome. I will keep an eye out for you guys! Never been to this venue before so it's going to be an all-round new experience this time. Fuck - I just realised it's exactly 2 weeks from tonight!! What's that - 13 sleeps? I'm going to bed right now

November:

14 - Enslaved, Stonegard, Krakow
21 - Soilwork, Zimmer's Hole
23 - Textures, or Ane Brun
25 - Opeth, Cynic, The Ocean
27 - Triggerfinger




(And Katie Melua, October 18)

November:

14 - Enslaved, Stonegard, Krakow
21 - Soilwork, Zimmer's Hole
23 - Textures, or Ane Brun
25 - Opeth, Cynic, The Ocean
27 - Triggerfinger




(And Katie Melua, October 18)

*hates Biert*

Opeth is the 21st of Oct for me
Soilwork/Darkane is in Feb.
Textures will HOPEFULLY be sometime in early 09 (if they dont play Florida I dont know if I will be as big a fan anymore...)
Enslaved...have they ever played the US?

LOL. Awesome. I will keep an eye out for you guys! Never been to this venue before so it's going to be an all-round new experience this time. Fuck - I just realised it's exactly 2 weeks from tonight!! What's that - 13 sleeps? I'm going to bed right now

its got a great sound. NIN played there and i went there aaaages ago when it was "The Metro"... ugh

Textures will HOPEFULLY be sometime in early 09 (if they dont play Florida I dont know if I will be as big a fan anymore...)

Well they're touring The Netherlands for the rest of this year (Damn they must play just about every venue out here...)

But seeing they released Silhouettes in the US this week, I'd say they'll tour your ass too.

Haha! Nice one Social Enemy! Good to see another 'Down' ticket up there
Down is a big one for me because I haven't seen a single member of Pantera since they last toured as a band in 2000 on the 'Reinventing' tour. Obviously Phil is in a very different place now than where he was back then, and I am really keen to see how he performs and what the vibe is like. I have also really grown to like Down, especially with 'Over the Under'. I think that's a seminal record.
Btw, Opeth will surely rock too

Textures will HOPEFULLY be sometime in early 09 (if they dont play Florida I dont know if I will be as big a fan anymore...)

Well they're touring The Netherlands for the rest of this year (Damn they must play just about every venue out here...)

But seeing they released Silhouettes in the US this week, I'd say they'll tour your ass too.

Wow...i need to buy that if it is out here

Gotta go get my ticket for Apocalyptica tomorrow night anyways, so i will check for Textures! wooo

Well folks,

Just thought I'd report in after day 1 of the metal extravaganza here in Melbourne at the moment. Down played last night. It was a show that I will treasure for a long time. They played a 2 and a half hour set and really covered the gamut of material from all 3 albums. Phil dedicated 2 songs to Dimebag, and Pepper was actually wearing an RIP Dimebag sleeveless top. I think this was an important signal of respect that a lot of fans appreciated. Phil was in absolute top-notch form. Never seen him this great before, and I saw Pantera on 3 separate album tours. He didn't go into long-winded speeches or tell boring stories. He was gracious and professional, and his voice kicked ass, even after 2.5 hours! There was an unexpected song that they played in there, for me anyway - 'Jail', from NOLA. I never in my wildest dreams thought they'd pull this one out because it's so tranquil, but I love the song and it went down so damn well. Funny moment occurred during 'Nothing in Return' when Jimmy Bower (drummer) skipped a verse and went straight into the chorus during the song, which the band followed for a few seconds until Phil halted the song, turned to Jimmy (who looked genuinely confused about why they were stopping) and said "there's 2 verses there, man", and within 2 seconds they started exactly from the beginning of that verse and continued on with the song! Haha! It was awesome. They also played a kind of rockumentary before the show on a big screen over the stage (as there was no support act, which was good) which consisted of candid moments from backstage over the last few years spliced between some classic old-school live rock performances from the likes of Black Sabbath, ACDC, Scorpions, Metallica and others. It actually went for about an hour, and ended with the video of 'On March the Saints', before Down themselves took to the stage and began their show. They really were amazing, and I would recommend to anyone outside of Australia that if you are deliberating on whether to see them or not, buy the ticket - you won't be disappointed. Best performance of the night for me was probably 'Learn From This Mistake' - lot of feeling in that one. \m/

Well folks,
...
\m/

Thanks for the narrative, sounds like an awesome show! The ticket says "With Special Guests", but there was no support?

Words can't express how jealous I am that you're seeing Carcass today I saw them in June, and it was personally probably the most important gig I've been to, since they've been a huge influence on me, and I was too young to understand their greatness back when they were active....

Hi again friends,

I'm going to start by responding to Grrrv from Finland about Down - unfortunately, there were no special guests at the Down show. But I actually didn't mind that. The movie they played went for at least an hour, so it was kind of like a support act, and it was something different - which is cool.

Now, to the almighty Carcass (which I have just seen).

I have mixed feelings about this show. I have been a fan of theirs since 1993, which was the last time they actually came to Australia but I was too young to be able to go. So it was a lifelong dream of mine to see them. What was great about the show is that they, as musicians, were absolutely top-notch. They played and sounded amazing. They played songs from across their whole career (very little from 'Swansong' though, which was a good idea) and even did some tricky merges from one song to another, which was fantastic. So that part was great. What wasn't so great was that Jeff Walker was a bit of an arrogant prick. He didn't seem all that happy to be playing the show, and he seemed to have the attitude that it was our privelege to be seeing them, rather than theirs to be playing to us - to the point where he actually said "You'd better make the most of this cause we're about to finish and we don't do encores. This will be something to tell your grandkids about, and this will probably be the last song Carcass ever play in Australia." I think he was trying to be funny, but there were many comments like this that came off as pretty rude and for me it was just a bit of a downer because the music sounded so fucking great when they played and the audience was really receptive to it. And btw, they didn't do an encore either.
So, overall, Down was a far superior show compared to Carcass, which I never would have guessed would be the case!
But the big one is still yet to come, and I suspect it will probably be the best of this series of gigs. The almighty Meshuggah. I will report back on Wednesday when I have seen them!
Cheers! \m/
P.S. I hope you guys don't mind me indulging my experience here on the forum, but both shows I have been to alone and don't really have anyone to share how cool these gigs were with!