Metal Monday: Live Metal Moments

posted in: Features • Rock

More so than most genres of music, jazz and classical aside, metal holds bands with technical prowess in the highest regards. Bands have been both immortalized and condemned based on the nature of  their live performances. If you can’t play something from your album live, you’re likely to get boos and lose some fans. But, if your music is better in a live setting, you will garner more respect from fans and critics alike.

A perfect example of how a live setting can further solidify a metal band’s greatness is a video posted on MetalSucks featuring the band Machine Head. During the show, one   fan held a sign with a simple message that read: “Let me play ‘Aesthetics of Hate.’ I can play it.” And that’s just what frontman Robb Flynn let the fan do. He pulled the guy up on stage, gave him his guitar, and the band went at it. Imagine being that fan. That’s a story you pass on to your grandchildren.

Doing the unexpected is one way to make a show remarkable. Another key feature to a good metal show is making the audience feel like they’re a part of the event. Bruce Dickinson explains, “My intention, as the frontman, is to find the guy who’s at the back of this 30,000 person festival and go ‘Yeah, you’ and the guy goes ‘Me? Me?!?!’ and you can do that. You can actually do that.” Dickinson also goes on to say that, when you’ve done it right, it should feel like the venue has gotten smaller since the show began, like the “size of your thumb.” As a fan at a metal show, there is a clear distinction of where you actually are, and where you feel like you are ”all based on how good the band on stage is. As Dickinson said, when you nail it, everyone feels like they’re front and center.

Not only does a band have to have brilliant stage antics and be able to control the size of the room, they have to be ready to make the show perfect by any means necessary, no matter whatever struggle comes their way. A prime example of this comes courtesy of a Razormaze show I attended at Great Scott in Allston, MA last fall. In the middle of the band’s set, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Alex Citrone’s guitar broke. Without missing a beat he looked to his lead guitarist and bassist on his left and right, then to his drummer, and the band immediately broke into a cover of “Ace of Spades” (since it requires one guitar). The room felt like it was going to explode. Clutching the microphone in his grip, the vocalist began to crowd surf on a boogie board that had mysteriously appeared during the show. The most vivid moment I’ve ever experienced at a show was being in the vocalist’s face, singing the chorus to “Ace of Spades” while he was boogie boarding in the crowd.

So, if you’re in a metal band, make sure you get out there and rock crowds’ faces off. Bad stage jokes do not count.