[108] Lecherous Gaze, Christian Mistress, Danava (2011)

This is going to be really short but there's a good reason behind the brevity.

I had to catch a flight the next morning. Despite altogether skipping Danava intending to get some sleep, I didn't get to sleep til shortly before 4am, leaving me an hour's nap to last me for the next full day. You can imagine how I felt. You can imagine how I felt knowing that this was so likely to be the case whether or not I actually went to the show.

It was so worth it in the end, but ugh.

My boss and I arrived to Lecherous Gaze a little late. While this was already known before arriving, the crowdedness of the venue was sure to be a reminder. East End was PACKED. I have never seen so many people in that room before. There was NO view for us late arrivals as every spot already had a person in it.

With my preference for that "all-encompassing" sound one normally gets out of loud metal bands and not even being able to see, I gave up after a song or two and left. I could still mostly hear them where I went, and they sounded decent either way. Not 100% my kind of thing, but cool, and it would have been nice to see them (literally) at another place. Considering the crowd, I'm sure there will be a next time.

I ended up people-watching and getting a smirk out of counting how many girls walked by wearing animal print. I counted three or four before I was distracted. Weird coincidence or shitty trend I hadn't yet noticed?

I've seen Christian Mistress once before. At the time I'd only heard them a little bit and it had been established that I wasn't really into their sound - the live experience more or less confirmed my feeling. It wasn't that they sucked, but I grew up on and grew to love different breeds of hard rock and metal. I don't have the right frame of reference to judge what they do. Still, I respect them as best I can, and with the band being a client and partially affording me the next 36 hours of awesome, I wanted to give them another sincere attempt.

Once Lecherous Gaze was fully off-"stage", I made my way to the front. Ultimately I didn't end up with a great view - I could see their tallest guitarist and some of their drummer - but after seeing absolutely nothing of Lecherous Gaze, I was grateful. The guitarist alone turned out to be interesting enough for me.

For not being "into it" before, I didn't mentally crap out or get irritated on their set, so that's good. They started with a mellow sort of song, leading into a set that felt different - more current? - than what the previous show had been. Maybe that was just my perception having changed over the previous months. Either way, only a few songs were familiar to me, and the novelty part of their performance definitely helped me stay focused.

I would have traded the other two bands in a heartbeat for a full set of anything Danava felt like throwing at us, but with the crowd and already being able to tell I was getting nervy and over-stimulated when I needed to be in bed soon, I left soon after Christian Mistress finished.

I am very jealous of anyone who got to see Danava with Red Fang, or Danava with Lord Dying, or even Lord Dying with Saviours, this last month. All of you are jerks. But, some of you will be saying I'm a spoiled asshole after the next show 'view writing I post... rightfully so.

Edit: 3/29 @ The Know: Lecherous Gaze, Ripper, Fast Talkers