Screams, sweat, passion: KYLESA fought against exhaustion and earned the big applause.
YELLOW DEVIL SAUCE: Their TOOL-gone-Stoner style probably wasn’t the best fit for this concert but their catchy compositions were nevertheless rewarding. Interesting mix, buffed up rhythm section, hints of Grunge on dope…you know…cool stuff. Hopefully, the sound will help them more next time. And in case you wondered, no, they don’t play music (only) for girls.
POTERGEIST: They had arguably the best sound of the night; massive but crystal-clear at the same time. Their muddy Southern/Stoner Rock, full of smoke and other herbs would constantly scream: Welcome to the swamp baby! Once more the DOWN influences were more than obvious but hell, with tracks like “Rivers and Oceans” who cares if the so called experts label them rip offs. The only bad thing about their performance was that they were playing before KYLESA and the fans were getting impatient.
KYLESA: When you are the last stop of a tour you always get a band near the verge of exhaustion (you also get shits for merch but that’s a different story). On the other hand, people say you can always rest assured that KYLESA will give 100% and get the job done. That’s exactly what happened Friday night. The band had to fight against technical difficulties, bad sound, and the accumulated physical stress from non-stop touring but they pushed it to the limit and in the end they came out winners and earned the warm applause from their fans. KYLESA seemed much more mature and improved in matters of execution to a point where I actually even liked the live versions of all “Spiral Shadows” and “Ultraviolet” tracks (as you can imagine I am not the biggest fan of those albums). Despite the buried guitars and the almost mute vocals they managed to give a dirtier nuance their newer material which made them feel much closer to the traditional KYLESA style. As always the coordination/cooperation between the two drummers was damn impressive to witness on a metal show. Unfortunately, even though Laura has a kick-ass voice in the more brutal stuff her performance was again disappointing on the clearer stuff. The setlist, was well balanced and despite my initial fears there were enough songs to label this gig a Sludge one, yet, I still can’t believe how they can get away with shows as small as 55 minutes. Having seen KYLESA live twice I stick with my statement that they are probably not the best live band out there but they ARE getting better and they ARE heavy fighters and for that, they have my respect.
Dr. Doom's Lair 