I wrote this when I got home, but when I went to post it here, my site was completely down. Apparently there was some "network failure" beyond my host. It gave me time to work on some photos and videos, and I even went to bed earlier than usual after concerts, so hey... It was sort of a good thing.

 
[67] Sweet Cobra, Black Cobra, Pelican (2009)

I showed up with time to spare, and the room was pretty empty. While it's normally expected that people don't really show up until the bands actually start playing, I found it a little weird over the course of the night. The venue never filled. The all-ages side of the room was pretty sparse until Pelican started, and even then it seemed that the place was only half full at best.

Nevertheless, Sweet Cobra started their set shortly after 9. I've only given them a sample listen so far, so I had the general idea but not the full picture. I wasn't feeling analytical enough today, so I don't have much to say about them... They're somewhere in the realm of sludge metal, they were an effective opener, and the singer's general appearance in combination with their sound reminded me of Big Business. As far as I know, they sounded good.

Here's a photo. The guitarist was just off camera. He was standing right in front of me most of the time, so I couldn't see much of what was going on with the bassist/singer... Actually, I couldn't see him most of the time, either, since he was facing the other direction.

My camera likes blues and greens a hell of a lot more than reds...

Next up was Black Cobra. I've been wondering what their new material was going to sound like live, and it was perfect. They played an even mixture of brand new and older songs, and the set itself was pieced together just right. Hawthorne also treated their sound a little better, as I thought it might. Here's hoping they play Berbati's next.

As always, I struggle with their songs versus the names of the songs since I tend to setlist music by lyrics, and I don't have a damn clue what their lyrics are. I'm 80% sure they played "Negative Reversal", "Catalyst", "Chronosphere", "Storm Shadow", and I think possibly "Lightning In His Hand" because there was one new song that seemed to go on longer than the standard 3 minutes, but it could have been another. As for old songs, "The Saphire Falcon", probably "Below The Cusp", "Omniscient"... and I fucking give up. They played at least ten songs, and it still didn't feel like they'd been on stage long enough when they said thanks and waved.

"Chronosphere" was more awesome than I could have hoped for. I've been loving that song since my shitty review a few weeks ago. I'm glad they played it.

The few people in the very front seemed to actually have heard Black Cobra's new one even though it only just came out, and - to me - the new material blended in really, really well with the older material. Also, I was right - people did lose their shit to a couple of the quicker new songs. (Un?)Fortunately, they petered off.

And then there was Pelican. I wasn't sure I was going to stick around because they don't really fit my listening habits, but I decided to give them a proper chance. They played about an hour and fifteen minutes, almost every song 4-7+ minutes long, and they only announced "Ephemeral". The sound of the room treated them well, but aside from that they didn't really make an impact on me. I thought they might be boring, but they were alright... I just don't have much patience for their "slowly enveloping" sort of music.

All in all, a good show.

Lastly, since I had time to work on it, my only video of the night: