The thing about Vektor is that they are definitely on the brink of exploding with popularity. When I saw them a few years back, at a free show nonetheless, there was barely anyone there for them. At this show, they had a big crowd (especially for a Tuesday night past midnight) and the numbers didn't dwindle at all throughout their set. I would say there was close to 100 people or so in this tiny bar and I don't think anyone left during their set, which was amazing. During Black Future, David broke a guitar string and left to repair it, so the rest of the band kinda jammed on stage for a good 10-15 minutes. The crowd was really understanding, and let out a cheer when they did a bit of The Number Of The Best and Scavenger Of Human Sorrow. After David got everything fixed, they ripped right back into the set. We missed a couple of Outer Isolation tracks because of the technical difficulty, but it seems to me we got a bit of an extended encore.
Black Future was, of course, a killer tune. I headbanged so much during each song that my neck broke, but none more so than for Hunger For Violence. You have to mosh to that song. It's not a suggestion, you HAVE to. And everyone should be familiar with how much I don't like to mosh. Tetrastructural Minds was insane and is still my favorite track off of Outer Isolation. I think they were originally going to end with Forests of Legend, but we wanted Accelerating Universe, so they played that! It was seriously insane. So much moshing and headbanging. They were about ready to pack up but everyone kept screaming. At this time it was like 12:50 AM so they got the okay for one more, and gave us Asteroid! Killer, killer stuff.
The sound was impeccable. I could really hear each instrument and the vocals perfectly, which was surprising because I was up right in the front. This is kinda weird I guess, but I absolutely love the thick bass sound that Vektor has, and it was mixed perfectly tonight. The bass on Cosmic Cortex makes me want to rip my face off. Erik and David hit every note perfectly, and Blake on the drums is one of the most talented drummers I've ever seen, especially with such a modest kit.
The dudes were really, really appreciative of the crowd. Huge crowd on a Tuesday night in Kansas City...who woulda thunk it? Erik came up to me afterwards and laughed at my shirt of choice for the show (my bright blue and yellow "Defend Pop Punk" New Found Glory shirt :3 ) and assured me that they'd be back in KC. YEAH!
Three amazing local bands opened the show. The first to play was Meat Shank and they play awesome death/thrash. Probably the best performance I've seen by them. They were a lot heavier than they've ever been, and there were lots of people headbanging to them. They did a killer cover of Slayer's Antichrist too. They need to play more!
Second band of the night was one of my new favorite power metal bands from the area, Alsatia. They have the riffs and solo of thrash metal, but the vocals and keyboards for Rhapsody-esque power metal. It mixed very well, and the guitarist and keyboardist do that Bodom-style solo battle type thing very well!
Direct support came from Hellevate who play like (and get the reaction of) a legendary thrash band. Seriously, the vocalist has the charisma and the pipes of Bobby Blitz, and their brand of thrash was so infectious that it kind of boggles my mind how they aren't the biggest band from the Midwest right now.
Man, I just can't get over how amazing this show was. Having a ton of my friends there, some who I haven't seen in a while, just added so much to the experience. I love heavy metal so much and I will love it more than anything else for the rest of my life.
Vektor: 10/10
Hellevate: 9/10
Alsatia: 8.5/10
Meat Shank: 8.5/10
Vektor:
Cosmic Cortex
Black Future
(long jam while David fixed his guitar)
Echoless Chamber
Tetrastructural Minds
Dark Nebula
Hunger For Violence
Deoxyribonucleic Acid
Accelerating Universe
Asteroid
1 comment:
I've been out of the metal scene around here for the last decade or so, and just started to go to shows again recently thanks to finding your blog.
Anyway, Vektor has always been a little too technical (heh, I'm a black metal fan at heart) for my thrash tastes, but goddamn, that was a great show last night, I was pretty blown away!
Really excellent stuff, wouldn't have known they were coming to the area if it wasn't for this blog, so keep up the good work!
(I'll see you/introduce myself at Kreator next month!)
Isley
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