Artists : Agnostic Front – LionHeart – Providence – Danforth
Hall : Le Nouveau Casino
Date : 04-08-2009
Audience : around 400 people
Let’s start by having a round of applause for the sound. « Let there be sound » : tonight there was. A heavy set and definite music quality, which is always nice. Let’s go on with another round for the organization: four bands that go on without any breaks, which is great. We can now get to the heart of the concert.
Danforth opens the fight to defend his opus No Fear 2 Bleed in front of an audience that’s more than sparse. Indeed there arn’t many people to put up with the mocking face of Sly and his harcore band. Too bad the singer put his heart into the scuffle and Danforth offers an efficient set. Coming down from the stage to sing in front of the few « violent dancers » that are here, the frontman carries out a good show – although a bit alone, as the other musicians are more subdued. Maybe too subdued. Cap screws on his head, the singer rants at the audience and it becomes apparent he’s a good frontman. The band offers a good start and then the concert ends, Sly can finally get a few swigs of well deserved Jack . Cheers buddy!
Danforth – Sly
The stage becomes quickly deserted and Providence is already there… with light-hearted festive music amongst an angry crowd thirsting for heavy tracks. Actually, even if you came from the seedy areas of Paris, you would still be cheerful. You can even appreciate the song « Eye Of The Tiger » of which some notes were played during the show! With their first album Far Beyond Our Depth under their belt, the band are on the spot, with some very efficient music and a powerful sound. The musicians carry out the show in a distinct imposing manner. We’ve gone up a notch with the band and with the audience. The crowd has swollen, the moshes are even more violent and the audience is even more responsive. TonR will even take off his sweater, his cap and his shirt ending up stripped down to his waist; he was probably happy with the Providence show. As were we. Thanks to these Frenchies : we got to see a great opening set.
Providence – Djamel
Just enough time to set up their backdrop and the Americans from LionHeart turn up. A bit of background info for those of you who missed the start, their only album The Will To Survive was first released in the States in 2007 under Jamey Jasta’s label (Hatebreed’s label) before being released in the old continent almost a year and half later! On a musical level, the sound is pure and hard, propelling riffs without any breaks. The growing audience offer a warm welcome to the band that will continuously ask them to make more noise for the other bands. Nice. It’s balanced, professional yet a dash of originality and an extra pinch of charisma would make it even better…
LionHeart – Travis
The room is now almost full and the audience seems consumed with impatience to see the headliners. It seems that this early in August not everyone has gone off on vacation. All the better! For starters, Joseph James makes the audience laugh with a multilingual soundcheck of the mics, in English, German and Spanish. Badass guy!
Here we go, Roger Miret, Vinnie Stigma, both members who have been there since the beginning of the adventure (impressing, huh!) and the rest of the band (including Pokey the new drummer) load up the stage. We then understand that what happened before was only small game, because Agnostic Front on stage: it’s hot, it’s boiling hot, it’s a blast. according to observation, the New Casino is no longer a concert hall anymore but a blaze. Moshes, circle pits and stage dives are compulsory, more intense and more violent than before. A fan even accidentally gets caught in the bass cable thus unhooking the instrument to Mike Gallo’s great annoyance….
Agnostic Front – Mike
Even if the band are touring to support the special edition of their opus Warrior, they don’t forget to play oldies. Some very fast paced titles to keep the pressure going and « For My Family », « Gotta Go » or « Crucified » get a hearty welcome with no restraints from the audience who are rocking all the way with these hardcore Godfathers. They hit it hard on stage and seem to be having have a freaking blast. A teasing Roger challenges the audience by reminding them that he has seen better pits in Paris and that he wouldn’t like to leave with this image of a « tiny circle pit »…
Needless to say more and instantly something comes up. Gentleman, time for him to pay tribute to the ladies now, encouraging them to get on stage and prompting the audience to respect the ladies. An act of kindness to add to the frontman’s credit. Let us say that the guy seems happier since he’s just had a baby son. Yes, dear Reader, you’ll know everything!
Agnostic Front – Roger
After an hour and ten minutes, the party stops. Roger then encourages us to go see MadBall, his bro’s band, who’s playing in the same hall on the 14th of August… and to go and buy his merch. Even if the low point of having four bands play is that their shows are pretty short – there will always be some people to moan, and at 20 bucks the ticket, it’s not worth it! – it was a nice summer evening. Even more so because it was in a hall where shows like this are way beyond anything thinkable, where the bands really get in touch with their fans, without any flourishes, without any safety nets, face to face.
For my Family, For my Friends…
