Demon Hunter at the Norva Part 1

   Spring break, as a child, was a welcome relief to the gray, cold winters. As an adult taking night classes after work, spring break actually through me off my groove. I still had my regular work schedule, so none of the standard college road trips. With half of my classes being art classes, I actually look forward to school and spring break put a snag in my momentum.

   The only thing I really looked forward to during spring break was one of my favorite bands, Demon Hunter, was in town on a day I usually have class. It fit into my schedule almost as perfectly as a week night concert possibly could. Doors opened at the same time class normally starts. The venue is also located on the same city block as my campus so I even got to use my student parking pass to go to the show. It would let out later then class does but I decided to play that by ear as to when would call it a night.

   The full line up of extreme metal bands included: Battle Cross, All Shall Perish, Demon Hunter and headliners In Flames. A more aggressive, fast paced and hard driving line would be difficult to find. Of these bands I know almost every DH song by heart but have only listened to In Flames once and had never heard of the two openers. As a fan of music I've made it a point to see the opening acts even if I'm unfamiliar with them before hand. It's probably there best way to discover new music in a genre you already enjoy.

   These opening bands did not disappoint. Deciding to take a leisurely paced dinner unlike my usual rush to get to class, I enter the room after Battle Cross's set had already started. The state of a crowd during the opening act is almost always sparse so it was easy to walk to the near-front of the house. It wasn't empty thought which lead me to hope for a big crowd later on, and with that, a more active show.

   So imagine the bands disappointment with a decent turn out of a crowd all just standing there. Rock shows are all about audience participation, the crowd starts grooving and bouncing to the music, the band reciprocates that energy by by getting crazier on stage bringing the whole room together. Getting a high level of musical immersion is the whole point of paying to see a show and the crowd had seemed to be ignorant of that. Battle Cross wasn't having it but didn't give up without a fight. Their closing song “Push Pull Destroy” was and absolute shredder, with the high light being the fast paced base lead which was pasted to one guitarist, then the other with out hitches or pulling punches. If the crowd was going to remain unresponsive, it wouldn't be for lack of trying on their part.