Date: Monday, June 14th, 2010
Venue: Reggie's Rock Club, Chicago, IL. Despite so many shows being here, and them being at the most inconvenient times for me, this was my first time seeing one at this venue, and it's a pretty good venue. It's not too small, but not big, a little bigger than the Bottom Lounge. The sound was decent and it could hold a lot more people than who was there that night.
Possibly one of the most bullshit moments of my life happened when going in, though. I had ordered a ticket online the day they went on sale at enterthevault.com, so it gave me a number to show at the door, so it was basically will call. I showed them the number and they were confused to what it was, and I wasn't even on the will call list. So I had to pay the $20 I was going to use for merch to get into the show. It was fucking stupid. That's the last time I use will call for Reggie's. I may as well buy at the door there from now on, the place is in the ghetto, and no one wants to be there!
Bands (from opener to headliner): Sacrificial Slaughter, Enfold Darkness, Vital Remains, Warbringer, Pestilence
Sacrificial Slaughter: I had never heard of these guys before, but they were pretty good. They had lots of energy on stage and performed well. The one thing that bugged me though was that their drummer was god awful. It was just a slow double bass beat with no special tom or cymbal work, despite him having a decent sized kit. He used his entire arm to blast, so his technique was shit as well. Other than him, the rest of the band played great. They were giving out stickers for free so I took one on the way out. I may put it on my car, I'm not sure though.
Enfold Darkness: This was my second time seeing them, the first being at Chicago Deathfest back in November. Because of so many bands being at Deathfest, and me not even hearing of Enfold Darkness then, I couldn't remember what they sounded like, all I knew was that the singer had an epic mustache. Seeing them now with only 4 other bands, they were really good. They play a blackened death metal type of music, with clean interludes in the songs, which sound amazing. I'm definitely looking up more of their music soon and hoping to see them again sometime soon. And as opposed to Sacrificial Slaughter, their drummer is a fucking beast!
Vital Remains: Like Enfold Darkness, this was my second time seeing them, the first being at Deathfest, except this time, I knew of them back then. Like last time, they were amazing! Incredible stage presence, brutal sound, and the singer knew how to get the people moving. There were a ton of stage divers and crowd surfers halfway into their set, and security was getting pissed. Like last time, they played about 4 to 5 songs, but each one was five to seven minutes long. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys at Summer Slaughter in August, despite that they're only gonna be playing a 25 minute set because they're opening, and I still don't know how that happened, considering they're the oldest band on the lineup.
Warbringer: They weren't even headlining and everyone was there to see them, some not even for Pestilence! This was my third time seeing them, and like the past two times, they prove more why they are the best band I've seen live. Incredible energy and stage presence is an understatement, and getting the crowd moving is an easy task for them. They opened up with Jackal, Living in a Whirlwind, Severed Reality, and Total War, like the other two times I saw them, and played some different ones after. I can't remember the order for sure, but they played Prey for Death, Systematic Genocide, At the Crack of Doom, Beneath the Waves, and closed with Combat Shock. Before they played At the Crack of Doom, they decided to get a wall of death going! There had to be at least 50 people in that, because it was crazy! At the Crack of Doom was a very good song to have a wall of death going on. For 45 minutes straight, I was moshing, headbanging like crazy, or catching a breath from the stomach cramp I got by the time Severed Reality came on. It was basically my second workout of the day. After they finished, a significant amount of people left. Warbringer really needs to do a headlining tour, possibly with Gama Bomb or Evile. I really want to see these guys again when they come back with Nevermore, not just because they are incredible live, but because after this tour, they're going to be working on their third album, and are gonna play some new songs in the fall. Unfortunately, they are coming to Chicago on October 29th, my dad's 50th birthday, so there's a very good chance I'm not going to be able to go. Oh well, there's always the next tour, hopefully a headlining show.
Pestilence: I had heard that they were awful at Maryland Deathfest, but when they played here, they weren't bad at all. I was up front for the first half of their set list, before getting shoved against the front railing and nearly getting my rib cage crushed. Their sound was good, and their stage presence wasn't bad at all. One thing I really liked was that the bass guitar was turned up very high, because Jeroen Paul Thesseling is a monster on that 6-string fretless. Mother of God, that amazed me. There's not much more to say about them, other than they were better than I thought they would be. It was good to see them back in the states after nearly 20 years, and it'd be cool if they came back again.
Overall, it was a great show. I hung out with cool people the whole night, got a Warbringer sticker to put on my car, and had a very fun time. Too bad that this is the only show in June that I'm going to.
Next show: Municipal Waste on July 10th? It's a huge maybe. If not, then Iron Maiden on July 18th for sure!
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