SLAYER ::

SLAYER / DISBELIEF / THE DUSKFALL
arena / vienna, austria
29th june 2005

took me some time to write this one down. mainly because it wasn't as spectacular as i had hoped for it to be. the thing about SLAYER is that they're not the coolest guys in the book. so, they have their way of doing things and if it doesn't run smoothly that way they'll be a bit flabbergasted as to what to do next. and that's what happened.

about 3000 people attending the open air concert. my estimate. arena is a wonderful venue, stage is great, sound is great, atmosphere is brilliant. you know, it all runs together so nicely. arriving at the venue THE DUSKFALL were already handing out some good, old-fashioned swedish-style death metal left and right. it might not be the freshest take on death metal, but what the heck, it sounds great if it is played well. and that they did. looking forward to their up-coming full-length.

while stagehands were setting up for german band DISBELIEF i was amazed at how many familiar faces i found. as a matter of fact there were people that i hadn't seen for more than 5 or 6 years in that crowd. lotsa guys and gals who had previously dampened their music fetishism a bit but were lured out by the prospect of SLAYER in concert. and just in case you were wondering: yes, that's a good thing. i always think it's a good thing to meet old acquaintances and find out that you still have a good connection, even after all the time that has passed.

i'll skip the bit about DISBELIEF, although i really like the band. but there was nothing remarkable about it and those who are interested can always go visit their homepage.

SLAYER. they got this choreography of sorts, a rockstar stage performance attitude thing. it goes like this: play 2 or 3 songs in a row, get off stage, darken stage, let the crowd cheer for about half a minute, get back on stage, say "thankee, thankee!" (or in the araya way: "thank you, man, alright?") and rinse and repeat. not a bad idea, only... yeah, the cheering of the crowd is the integral part. if they don't really cheer as you'd expect them to, well, then it's going to be kinda embarrassing. and they didn't cheer. now, don't misunderstand: the crowd was having fun. it was obvious that everybody was really enjoying the gig and nobody was disappointed by the musical qualities in any way (ok, i was, but just a little bit, because i thought that it was lacking in drive and power this time and that they had been much better the last couple of times). it's only that the viennese crowd is a tough crowd to begin with. and if they don't feel like cheering, man, you ain't gonna be able to get them to cheer. so, SLAYER went off stage in betweend their "song-blocks" and then there was some clapping and after that silence. well, as silent as 3000 people can be. there was some shouting and general loudness, but i dare to wager that 500 people could do about as much noise as those 3000 did on that day. so, the first time round tom gets back on stage again rather quickly, says thanks and off the go again. next round: SLAYER wait much longer until they get back on stage again after there still is no cheering and yelling. tom goes to the microphone and looks at the people. that was his moment of truth i guess. he's looking at the people and he sees that they are enjoying themselves, it's just blatantly clear. so what is he supposed to do? he would like them to cheer and yell and chant, so that he can feel more like a rockstar, but they just don't really feel like it. on the other hand they are having good fun and it is a good concert, so there really is no need to get down on the situation. so, what to do? keep playing on, yes. that's a good start. what else? adapt your stage "choreography", since it backfired on you? yeah, that would be a good idea, demanding a bit of impromptu thinking, but that's the least... you'd think. not for SLAYER. the kept up their shtick for the entirety of the gig. results didn't change at all. oh well, they ain't the freshest egg in the basket.