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Friday September 21, 2007 - 12:27 AM
Laughs at the editing done to the reviews over the last few weeks. Wonders if it has anything to do with the news that Andy of Combichrist was a bad boy on tour via vampirefreaks.com/journal_com...&a=0?
T'was a good night all in all. All the bands were good but the best was saved for last. Combichrist put on a great, highly energetic show that got our sorry asses dancing away. Andy was absolutely off his face drunk onstage and for 4 or 5 hours beforehand. My friend Dave (olmanraver) and I were joking about how the backing vocals helped him get through his set. And how he was incomprehensible while talking to the audience in between songs. "GABBA GABBA GABBA!" "What did just say?" "ALRIGHT TORONTO!" "He just said Alright Toronto!" "Yeah, I got that part, smartass" *cue in music and we flail around in glee to even yet another killer song*
Much as I seem to rag on it, it really was a great night. It was more than worth the money paid to get in and we can't wait to see them again if they are ever in this area again! *grin*
Saturday September 08, 2007 - 1:27 AM
*** Anyone who captured video clips from this concert (the bald guy with the Canon S3 I.S or S5 I.S with the welders goggles, front row? Anyone?) --- Drop me a line if I can snag those clips from you! If they're of decent quality, and want to trade for anything, drop me a line: blayne@bungie.org
******REVIEW:
The bass response for Imperative Reaction's set sounded much better in a smaller venue like The Funhaus, compared to when I last saw them open for Covenant. The crowd seemed to received them well. After they finished their set - the headline act took the stage.
Amidst smoke and eerie lights, the 4 band members of Combichrist (two live drummers, a keyboardist [Shaun], and the vocalist [Andy]) took the stage by leaping/crawling into sight over equipment. Andy began his first song swinging, one handed from the rafters above. Dressed like post-apocalyptic road warriors, with makeup reminiscent of the replicants of Blade Runner, the bands' stage presence was palatable.
Then came the music - Combichrist's performance was like a machine-bender on our collective skulls. Furious, driving, and ground my perception into a fine, pleasant dust. Damn, that concert made my year.
Andy (vocalist) really knew how to work the crowd - right down to peeling off each 4-fingered latex glove and tossing them into the crowd as they became too sweaty to wear. Other instances of working everyone into a frenzy involved throwing himself into the crowd to body surf (right on top of me - the man's heavy!), constantly touching people, kissing (female) members of the crowd, and multiple A / B lyric fill-In's (A:''How Do you Want Me [...]'' / B:''This Sh** Will F**k You Up!''). This makes twice that I've got to shout/scream a lyric into the mic during a concert - the first time was during Rotersand's performance of "Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy". Simple, but it really enhances the concert experience.
Knowing full well what kind of atmosphere would occur front and center, I was hesitant to bring my camera to Toronto to attend Combichrist: I with good reason: There wasn't exactly moshing, but a general, energetic crowd-swaying was in effect. Somehow I wound up with multiple, circular bruises on my left shoulder from someones cyber-goth shoulder decorations. Another reason why the camera stayed at home was 1/2 an hour into Combichrist's set, I was soaked by a combination of my own sweat, other peoples sweat, and the consistant water bottles/beer emptied on the audience by the band. It was so murky at one point, I couldn't understand how the three guys wearing filter mask-style gas masks could bear to keep them on. Fashion before comfort seemed to be the motto of the day. That, and I have never seen so many non-standard bangs in my life.
By far the most impressive stage-show element of night was the live-percussion. The basic song structure (Combichrist's driving bass) was still prerecorded, but everything else was live. The exaggerated, and mechanist motions used by both drummers was hypnotic. Introduce the stage-strobe lights and it goes well beyond anything I've ever seen.
* Odd story: While getting an Ice tea across from the Funhaus at 2:30am, I noticed the lead singer from Imperative Reaction wander in and order pizza. I chatted with him for a bit, and saw his keyboard player wander over too. I went to the front tables and finished off my coffee. In the meantime, the guy from Mindfield (aka, Combichrist's roadie) came in, the merch girl, and one of Combichrist's live ('hired guns') drummers. Since they were immediately behind me, I turned around and struck up a conversation with them about the tour, who to talk to about booking Combichrist (Andy, via his myspace, and they do like playing small venues), their experiences, etc. It was really great running into them after the show.
I also learned way more than I probably needed to about the inner-drama of bands on a tour from Modulate. I'd thought the trashing of the drum kit between the first and second encore was part of the show. Apparently... not.
My only complaint was that even after two encores, they didn't play 'Get Your Body Beat'. Odd, since virtually every other of their hit tracks was worked into the show.
Thursday September 06, 2007 - 6:19 PM
IT WAS FUCKING ASTOUNDING!! I couldn't have had a better night.
Every band did fucking amazing and the crowd just went right into the music. I'm surprised the floor didn't cave in with that much energy.
Mindfield was so sweet.. I wish I had the extra money, because I would have bought his CD; he's going to go pretty far with his music. He started the night off perfectly... 'cept for that stupid computer glitch.  lol
Ayria did pretty well, i like her music and everything, and although they played that well, they're stage presence wasnt as good as I expected. But, they still did a great job.
I. R. Did fucking amazing! They're music was so different live than on cd. It was so much better than I expected and I'm definitely going to go see them next time they come around for a show.
AND, OH MY FUCKING GOD, DID COMBICHRIST PUT ON A FUCKING FANTASTIC SHOW!!!!!!
I got to fucking grope Andy's crotch!! XD
They surpassed my expectations by FAR! I just.. was completely blown away by them. I wanted to do Andy so fucking badly.. He has the most evil, sinister grin that just made me fucking melt... heeh...
Anyways... enough about my school-girl crush on Andy... tee hee...
The show was amazing and I hope they have another one like this soon.
Two thumbs waAAAay up.
Wednesday September 05, 2007 - 5:56 PM
Fucking amazing show!! Andy and everyone that played on that stage blew me away!! It was the best show Ive been to yet. Cant wait to see him again.
Wednesday September 05, 2007 - 5:03 PM
MOST DEFINATLY AMAZING.
Super fabtabulous.
Danced my booty off all night!!
I LOVED Mindfield, he was could play some wicked beats, and he was SUPER nice when I met him after he played.
Ayria, fuck, they just blew me away.
Loved them for 2 years now, and her voice was soo beautiful live. And man she's a hotty
And SUPER freakin nice too, all gigglies and smiles! XD
As well as the keyboardest, he was cool =)
I wasn't digging Imperative Reaction that much though.
They were still good beats to dance to though, so they were just alright.
And COMBICHRIST.
Oh geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez, I definatly cannot find the words within to describe how amazing they were.
I was right up front, gettin pushed around and elbowed by some girls who just didn't know how to control themselves, which was lame cause my camera almost got lost cause of them >=X
But other than that, the dancing was hardcore, and Andy's sweaty arms made me happy XD
Nooo, not in the panties, just happy =P
And I was SUPER glad to see that all the girls I'd run into in the bathroom were very friendly, I even forgot my camera in the bathroom stale, and the chick gave it back to me who went in after me! =)
Seriously amazing concert, I'm still freaking out inside that I got to go, and blaring Combichrist as I type =P
Peace out Combichristers<3
Wednesday September 05, 2007 - 4:13 PM
I definitely couldn't have asked for a better night.
I danced my ass off for Mindfield, a bit of Ayria and all of Imperative Reaction.
But when Combichrist came.. oh fuck. My body is fucking aching right now. I was right up front of the stage.
Even better was that the keyboardist from Imperative Reaction, Nick, came up to me after Combichrist finished and asked if I wanted to go backstage and if my friend wanted to come.. *squeals* I was so.. incredibly happy.
I chilled with them until like 4am.. that's when the tour bus started moving and they were heading to Montreal.
All the guys are so fucking nice. Gabriel, Andy, Joey, Jon, Shaun, Nick.. these guys are fucking bomb.
I don't think I've ever been so stoked to see a show. I've gotten guestlist for Lamb of God before and I wasn't that excited because it was at the Kool Haus. Smaller venues such as Fun Haus or the Bop make for a more personal atmosphere when a band is playing.
Combichrist played all that I wanted to hear except for Get Your Body Beat which has been explained by DarkKodiaK.. haha.
I definitely can't complain about anything that happened that night.
Wednesday September 05, 2007 - 11:05 AM
Surprise!!??!?! MINDFIELD *dies of happiness* definitely made my night - I was slightly disappointed to find that the cd was SOLD OUT t_t
I'm sorry to her fans out there, but I'm sure this isn't just me - - Ayria sounds like a dying cat. Her whiny voice was definitely killing the sexy beats that were being played. That was the lowlight of the evening.
Imperative Reaction played a good set - everyone was getting pumped for Combi 
and then it came - FUCKING AMAZING. Opened with 'Today I Woke to the Rain of Blood' <3
my body still vibrates from the bass.
The crowd was amazing, the band was amazing. Perfect performance.
Wednesday September 05, 2007 - 7:02 AM
Wednesday September 05, 2007 - 5:52 AM
Combichrist were amazing. They couldn't have put on a better show.
Imperative Reaction were good as well.
I missed most of Ayria's set, but I managed to get there just in time for the last song.
I had such an awesome night!
Wednesday September 05, 2007 - 5:05 AM
it was fucking amazing.
that is all.
*edit*
outside of my journal review which is in pretty great detail ill add a little tidbit here:
when i was talkin with one of the drummers after the show i asked him "why the fuck didnt you play get your body beat?!"
answer was that they kinda *cough* broke a chunk of some equipment and couldnt play the track properly.
I blame the psycho keyboarder for jumping up and down and punching the keyboard day in and day out.
lol
i would have liked to hear some more older songs but you cant really argue with what they played.... especially since they played one of my new favorite songs from WTFIWWYP.... Give Head if You Got it... such an awesome funky track... really more or less a scandy sounding track.
Would have been nice to hear stuff like This is TBM live again, or Lying Sack of Shit.
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