18-09-2009 Dragonforce

Supports: Sonata Arctica, Taking Dawn; Venue: House of Blues, Los Angeles (USA)
By: Nina Mende

Tonight at House of Blues there were five bands playing, more or less metal bands. The audience’s average age was quite young, at least in the center of the venue. Everybody else lingered around the bars watching the show from there. The venue was very crowded.

The first band was a local support band, therefore personally known by many of the kids in the audience. So it happened that they chatted with them during sound check while waiting to get ready to perform. Unfortunately I didn’t catch their band’s name and it was stated nowhere, so it remains unnamed during this review. Mainly the drummer was singing, but the rest of the band supported him every once in a while. The guitar and bass players were running around playing with the audience a lot. There was a lot of action going on during the show. Nobody ever stood still. The music was mostly rock with some metal elements. Their performance lasted for about half an hour and the audience cheered a lot after each song, sang along and had a great interaction going with the band.

The second band was Taking Dawn, another band with a singing drummer. But this time the drummer only sang backing vocals and not the main vocals. Taking Dawn is a metal/rock band from Las Vegas/Nevada. They were not as close to the audience as the band before, but were still accepted big time. The kids rocked along to the band and enjoyed it a lot. Their performance lasted a little longer but still not too long. Taking dawn were moving around all the time as well and using the time wisely by performing their songs instead of long talks.

Up next was the Finnish band Sonata Arctica from Kemi. Originally Sonata Arctica was assembled in 1995. Their later works (most notably The Days of Grays, Unia and a few tracks on Reckoning Night) contain some elements typical of progressive metal. Now the kids went crazy, moshed and jumped around, singing along loudly to most of the songs. Sonata Arctica looked a little exhausted but still gave everything on stage. They enjoyed the huge fan base that here at House Of Blues tonight. They played old and new song, always thanked the audience and their fans, talked little but performed even more. The light was amazing, so was the atmosphere. The show didn’t feel much different from a European show. And the kids here were just as excited about seeing Sonata Arctica like they are in Europe. The audience clapped along when the singer asked them too. Their performance lasted for about an hour.

Last band of the night was Dragonforce. They were considered metal as well, but I would more consider it 80s metal, that’s also what they looked like. DragonForce are a power metal band from London, England, formed in 1999. They are known for fast guitar solos, fantasy-based lyrics, and electronic sounds in their music to add to their retro video game influenced sound. And they look just as odd as they sound. The music is like no other because of all the special elements they add to the music and the looks of each member as well as their attitudes during the performance are just as unique. But the band really connected to everybody in the room. If you didn’t go along to the music they personally addressed you and asked you to f***ing join. So it happened that the entire House Of Blues did as they commanded. Their performance was intense and each member participated equally in the performance. Nobody on stage stayed still on their spot but moved around, jumped and had a blast. Their performance lasted for about an hour, no encore but many happy people in the audience.