Into The Mouth of Hell We Tour: Trivium Concert and Meet ‘n Greet Review

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First, let me say this is an UNofficial review.  I am totally biased because I'm a huge Trivium fan and I have no credentials to “review” a concert.  However, if you just want my opinion and see pictures – read on!  Second, some of the language is NSFW in this post.  Just an FYI. 😉

Tickets and Venue

Last night's concert was held at The Rave.  We've gone to several concerts there, but most are held in the Eagle's Ballroom, which is the upper most hall.  They also have a few other smaller stages downstairs in the bar area.  Apparently not enough tickets sold for them to hold it in the Ballroom as originally planned. I must say, this saddened me a bit.

1 – Because it reminds me that Trivium is not as huge as I think they are (but they are/should be!)

2 – Because we didn't get to be in the VIP balcony that we paid for

Honestly, if you like metal and aren't familiar with Trivium, I highly recommend you check them out. On the plus side of them moving the concert to a smaller stage, it was even more intimate and high energy packed.  The room we were in was pretty full, but yeah, certainly not enough to fill the Ballroom.

Even in the Ballroom, I don't usually get to be as close to the stage as I was for this concert, so that was awesome.  But, like I said, we paid extra for the VIP balcony and meet and greet.  Apparently only a handful of people bought the VIP package as well.  When we went to buy shirts, we saw meet and greet passes available for sale for only $20, which was cheaper than what we had paid.

At first, that kinda bummed me out too.  But, our passes looked different and certainly made good souvenirs.  I figured the band would appreciate seeing the difference in our pass… knowing we had purchased tickets AND the VIP package to meet them ahead of time.  We also got the tour poster for our passes.  The other meet and greet passes did not come with that, so those people had to bring their own stuff to be signed.  So, I guess we did get something a little extra afterall.

It was kinda of interesting when we were in line for the meet and greet though, because a couple kids (well, teens, but they are kids to me, haha) asked if our VIP passes meant we got more time with the band.  Boy, how I wish that would have been true.

Opening bands

Now, opening bands can be hit or miss for me, depending. Sometimes they are ok, a nice little warm up.  Sometimes they don't seem (to me) to mesh well with the headliner.  Other times opening bands can still be fairly well known, so it's an awesome lineup.  I hadn't heard of the 3 opening bands for Trivium before, but they did a fine job of building the energy of the crowd so that we were in a damn near frenzy by the time Trivium struck the first chord.

The first opener was Dirge Within.  I must say, I want to hear more of this band. They were pretty fuckin' metal.  Oftentimes with a band I'm not familiar with, their songs (live anyway) can seem to just blend all together.  But they sounded great.  The singer had a great mix of good, growly vocals that I could understand.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any CDs for sale at the merchandise booth (unless they had sold out by the time we went to check).

Oh, and Dirge Within started about 15-20 minutes early.  You have to love that.  Too often it's a late start, which gets the crowd more anxious!

The second band, Darkest Hour, was pretty good too.  I was able to enjoy them and loosen up my neck for serious headbanging later.  The third band, WhiteChapel, was REALLY heavy.  There was a pretty sizable crowd of fans for them in the crowd.  While I like heavy music, they weren't really my flavor.  Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean I think they were bad… they just aren't for me.

I enjoyed them live and their energy, but it's not a band I can picture listening to in my car.  Their singer had impressive low growling skills, but I like to still be able to understand what's being growled at me.  Also, they had a lot of tempo changes which threw off my ability to headbang with any sort of rhythm.  It was good for moshing though!  To each their own.  So, if you are looking for something really heavy and haven't heard of them, you might want to check them out.

Trivium Rocked the Headline

Unfortunately, I cannot find a posted set list as of yet.  I was too into the concert to keep track of every song played myself and now kinda wish I had!  Of course they played a few songs from their newest album, but they also played several old songs that they haven't played live in a long time (if ever).  For fans like Sideshow and me, it was definitely a good range of songs from their catalog. (I do believe we'll be able to download the show once it's available.  I think that was part of the ticket package as well.  So, if no set list is posted by the time I get that, then I can get it together after watching it again!)

[Update: 9/29/09] Here's the setlist:

1. Kirisute Gomen
2. Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis
3. Down From the Sky
4. When All Light Dies
5. The Deceived
6. My Hatred
7. Like Callisto to a Star in Heaven
8. Like Light to Flies
9. A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation
10. Throes of Perdition
11. Rain
12. Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr

Of course, I had been listening to the newest album a lot recently, so although I still knew all the songs they played… my mind was not sharp on remembering all the lyrics of their older songs.  Ah well, that's ok, I recalled the choruses at least!

But the energy.

OMFG the energy was intensely awesome.

The crowd was pretty pumped and energized through all the opening bands, but the place just exploded when Trivium hit the stage.  The smaller venue and lack of security/event staff to control the crowd seemed to feed into this.

There was a sizeable mosh pit in the center and several crowd surfers.  I'm used to hearing bands tell the crowd how awesome we are… you figure they say that at every show, but Matthew kept telling the crowd several times that our energy was awesome… they also said they'd be back.  I can't wait!

We started out more in the middle, but that is right where the first pit started, so we shifted to the side of the stage near the front.  I have no issue with moshing, just, don't get me involved.

I'm too old for any potential injuries that may incur and… I like watching, listening, and getting into it without smashing into everyone around me.  And believe me, I got into it – headbanging, throwin' up the horns \m/, singing, screaming, yelling, jumping, clapping, fist pumping… you wouldn't peg me as a geek girl gamer at one of these concerts, haha.

Trivium's Meet ‘n Greet or “How I tried not to swoon and play it cool”

After the show is when they held the meet and greet.  The last (and my first ever) meet and greet I attended was for Godsmack.  That one was held prior to the show starting.  When I first heard Trivium's would be after the show, I was not sure I liked that idea.  I was thinking about how tired they would be after playing the show and whatnot.  But, then I figured they wouldn't have to be in as much of a hurry or adhering to a time schedule the way Godsmack had to, since there was no way they'd start the show late due to us crazed fans.

So, after the show, we hung out and got in line.  I was actually surprised at how quickly the band came back out to start the meet and greet.  Sideshow and I figured they would want a little more time to take a break, but it was appreciated that we weren't left waiting too long.

The line moved along fairly quickly.  As much as I wanted to hog their time and try to get pictures with everyone, I knew that would be rude to those waiting behind me.  When it was my turn, first up at the table was Matthew Heafy (singer).

Oh. my. goodness.

Poor Sideshow got to hear me chatter on and on about how I couldn't wait to meet him and get a picture with him… but I was also worried about freezing up like I did when I met Sully.  I was so stiff and unnatural when I met Sully in my awestruckness.

But I played it pretty cool with Matt. Maybe it was because my energy was spent on the awesome show.  Maybe it was because he seemed so friendly and approachable.  Maybe it was because he seems more “real person” to me since I follow him on twitter (and he follows me back! … ok, ok, so he follows everyone back, but it's still a nice gesture!).  Or maybe, maybe it was some of Syrana's confidence coming out.

When I approached him, he smiled and said hi.  He took my poster and signed it.  As he was signing it, I asked if I could have a picture with him.  He said, “Of course.”  Then grabbed my VIP pass that was hanging around my neck to sign that too.  Since he was on the edge of the table, it was easy for me to stand beside him for a picture.  He put his arm around me, I put my arm around his back (his hair was still wet… it was awesome – I'm obsessed, I know, lol!).  I felt so short next to him….  He put up the horns and I gave a big cheesy smile while Sideshow took our picture.

My poster started to get passed down the table, but I was still waiting there near Matt so I could take a picture of Sideshow with him.  While Matt signed Sideshow's poster and pass…

Me: “You know what would be really awesome?”

Matt: “What?”

Me: “If you tweeted about meeting me.” *big grin*

Matt: *smiles and laughs* “Yeah, I'm pretty addicted to Twitter.”

Me: “That's ok, so am I.” *click, take Sideshow's picture with him*

So I finish moving along the line and got my poster signed by the band.  Paolo (who I also follow on Twitter) was at the end.  He was friendly, as was everyone.  I wish I would have went ahead with being selfish and got pics with him too and maybe tried for one with everyone…

And of course I tweeted about it!

So… TL;DR version: Really liked opening band, Dirge Within; Trivium kicked ass; meeting Trivium was a treat; and this was one of the best concerts I've been to!

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