The Z Files

I headed for Toronto this afternoon with high expectations. I really enjoyed the Kamelot show in Cleveland last year and had similar expectations for this show, even with the new album being a little on the disappointing side. Unfortunately, this show would turn out to be the antidote for that awesome DT show on Monday.

I arrived about an hour before doors and got a decent, if not great, spot in line. Once they opened the doors, I made a bee-line for the stage and got a spot in the second ‘row,’ toward the center on stage right. There was a (local, I assume) opening band that I won’t even name, they were that bad.

I was looking forward to seeing Leaves’ Eyes. I’ve only been a LE fan for maybe four months, so to get to see them live so early on is a treat. Before the lights went down, though, I felt the disappointment coming on: they use a ‘quiet’ stage setup, with guitars and bass run direct into the PA (no amps) and electronic drums, so the only things left to produce noise on the stage were the vocalists and the cymbals, which were amazingly left without microphones. I figured the sound would be horrible, and it was. Even worse was the prerecorded backing track that they used, which contained all the synth/string/piano parts and backing vocals (and who knows what else, since there were no stage amps to ’speak the truth’). They’d do well to scrap one of the guitarists (they play the same thing 98% of the time anyway) and replace him with a keyboardist. I’m really not a fan of backing tracks. Triggering occasional samples is one thing, but the full-length tracks are just too much. That said, the performance was enjoyable, but the sound and the stupid backing spoiled it to an extent.

I was hoping things would get better for Kamelot, but they suffered from bad sound as well. Their set list was decent (although they left out “The Fourth Legacy,” which I was really hoping for) and the performance was just as good as the Cleveland show last year. A really nice surprise was the guest appearance of Simone Simons of Epica during “The Haunting.” It was also really great to hear “Memento Mori.” I love when the power metal bands play their more progressive stuff. Still, I had a hard time enjoying their set for reasons having nothing to do with the band.

The big downer on this show was the crowd. Things got crazy from Leaves’ Eyes’s first song. I’ve never had to fight so hard to defend a spot on the floor (and I’ve had spots at least as good as that on many occasions). By the time Kamelot came on, my back was sore, I was sweating like a pig and feeling dehydrated, and I was totally drained. I love to really get into the shows, with the fist-pumping and shouting and all that, but it felt rather like a chore to throw the horns up during Kamelot. Finally, after “Memento Mori,” I bailed and went to the back where it was cooler and I had space to lean up against a wall and not get blasted by some stray mosher. (The sound was bad back there too!) Basically, this was a good show despite the sound, but the crap with the crowd pretty much ruined the night. Finally, to add insult to injury, I got a parking ticket for some stupid thing about not having a permit or something. The cop had just finished it up when I turned the corner onto the street where I had parked. I would have beaten it if I had left early, which I had considered doing.

Lessons learned:

• Choose carefully the shows that I go for the prime spot on the rail…going for a prime spot at the front of a raised area farther back is looking like a more attractive option.
• Be careful about the parking when I go back up there to see After Forever in October.

Setlists after the jump.

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On Monday, Dream Theater came to Buffalo for the first time in 13 years. After that show, I think it’s safe to say that the wait for their next show here will be much shorter. Bringing along Redemption and Into Eternity, they packed the UB Center for the Arts to the gills. It was certainly a night to remember.

Into Eternity opened with a furious set of “extreme progressive death metal,” as they call it, which didn’t go over all that well. I saw IE a couple years ago when they opened for Opeth and Nevermore at Showplace, and that was more their type of crowd. There were a lot of older proggers there who probably couldn’t wrap themselves around IE’s crazy vocals. Redemption drew a better reaction. A highlight of their set came just before their final song, when the bassist announced that it was vocalist Ray Alder’s birthday, and Mike Portnoy came out with a cake and promptly smashed it into Ray’s face.

Finally, the moment all had been waiting for: the traffic light above the stage changed to green and the guys slammed into “Constant Motion.” I had intentionally avoided spoilers about this tour, and it was a good thing because they haven’t been changing the set lists so much on this tour. I was really pleased with the set list, though. The new version of “Surrounded” was great, especially when Jordan Rudess pulled out his new keytar and came to the front to take a solo. “Blind Faith” was another highlight, as the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album is a very sentimental one for me. In the spirit of “Octavarium,” there was a new cartoon on the video screen during the instrumental section of “The Dark Eternal Night.” I really hope they put it on the next DVD, as they did with the “Octavarium” animation. Finally, “In the Presence of Enemies” was just amazing. I get goosebumps just thinking of it. My only wish is that they would have played “The Ministry of Lost Souls,” which is probably my favorite of the new songs. I’m guessing that they’re saving that for the next North American leg of the tour, in the spring.

I don’t know if I can say that this was better than the Cleveland show last year, but it was definitely no worse, and even better that it was right in my backyard for once! That spring tour can’t come around fast enough.

Setlist after the jump…

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So I’ve been riding a post-Moestock emotional roller coaster (on one hand, I have newfound confidence and motivation, but on the other, I’m sad that it’s gonna be another year before I see all my buds) but suddenly WHAM!!! it hit a wall when my external hard drive didn’t show up on my desktop. There’s a lot of stuff on there that isn’t normally on my laptop (my audio and video projects, for one) and, to make matters worse, I had dumped pretty much everything non-essential from my laptop when I lent it to my dad to take on his Mexico vacation (had to make room for what turned out to be something like 12 GB of photos…!!). All that I left behind was my Applications folder and my iTunes library.

Faced with a data disaster of the highest order, I fired up trusty ol’ Disk Utility to see if there was anything that could be done. It rattled off a list of something like 6 things wrong with the disk, but totally failed to repair anything. At this point, my stress level hit a point somewhere between “the sky is falling” and “oh noes, it’s the end of the world!!!!” Knowing that I could really not afford to lose all that data and all those photos and projects, I bit the bullet and bought DiskWarrior. Within 5 minutes, I was out $100 but I had a good shot at recovering my disk. I clenched my teeth as I watched DiskWarrior’s progress bars inch forward. Soon enough, a report flashed onto the screen detailing several issues that DW found and repaired. A quick glance at the rebuilt directory showed all my files just as they were. Two clicks and another minute later, and everything was well again.

Count me into the ‘religious backups’ crowd, starting about 20 minutes ago.