Let's Break the Ice... With Some Megadeth!

After thinking about it for some time (and being pressured about it by some people), I finally decided to start blogging. Of course, I will talk about what is going on with my band, Plum Shark, but also about plenty of other things related to music in general (mostly rock music, by the way).
Just for the heads up, Plum Shark is currently recording its second album. We hope to finish recording in June, to mix in July. Of course, I will keep you posted in the next few weeks about this process.

For a start, I thought I would talk to you about the Gigantour concert that took place in Quebec City this week. The heavy metal festival took place last Monday, at the Pavillion de la Jeunesse, a brand new venue just beside the Colisee. This arena seems perfect for smaller shows, exactly what Quebec City was missing for medium scale rock and metal events. However, they were not prepared for such a beer-drinking crowd, as there clearly were not enough toilets in the building!

As always, metal does well in Quebec City (must be something in the water or maybe a side effect of our extreme winters, I don't know...) and the show was sold out. Not all bright lights in the crowd, mind you. What's funny in most metal shows is that punks usually get inline at the venue by 14:00 to start boozing. Thus, at 16:00, some guys are already getting rowdy. Imagine, then, what it looks like at 21:30, just before Megadeth... There are always a few guys that end up passing out before the main event (which is all too predictable). Thankfully, most people know how to behave.

Children of Bodom (CoB) and In Flames both had a good response from the crowd. However, I found CoB to be a bit on the flashy side, not displaying enough emotion. They seemed to play for the crowd and not enough for themselves. In Flames were good, but there were not enough old songs for my taste (sadly, the last In Flames album I listened to was Clayman, around its release, while I was in CEGEP). Yet they were good and lighting was really nice: they brought their own lighting rig in road cases that were put behind the band where guitar amplifiers usually are. The result was impressive.

Then, Megadeth. The Almighty Megadeth, that is seeing a second coming with the last two album. It was my fifth time seing the band, and it actually was the best concert I witnessed from Dave Mustaine and Co. I was blown away by the new lead guitar player, Chris Broderick, who might be the best since Marty Friedman (by the way, I have seen 4 lead guitar players in 5 shows, including Friedman). The show was tight and full of energy, as always, and the crowd response was amazing, so much that Dave seemed surprised and honored. I have never seen him smile that much at the end of a concert, while the crowd cheered for him for a good 2 minutes. Best song of the night goes to Ashes In Your Mouth! Already one of my favorites, they just nailed it.

All in all, a good night of metal.

On another subject, I will be recording guitars for our album with Pat this weekend. If it all goes as planned, he'll only have 2 songs remaining to record. We are quite happy with the results so far, and it can only get better. As I said before, I will keep you posted on the subject.

Well, that is all for this "breaking the ice" post. By the way, if you guys want to discuss about something here, feel free to respond by posting some comments!

Cheers,
Charlie