By far the coolest thing in my life since Hallowe'en was taking Adz's brother Tristan to see Iced Earth live at the Islinton O2 for his birthday.
Some context: To Tris, Adz, myself and some of our best friends, Iced Earth represent a lot more than a great band. We've managed to create a crazy culture around their work - to be specific, the Gettysburg (1863) trilogy - an epic set of songs telling the story of the American civil war battle.
Thanks to this song we've congregated for the last seven years together for a weekend of excessive meat-eating, drinking and listening to metal. What started in 2006 as a day-long barbeque in Gatty halls, St Andrews has now degenerated into the annual tradition of Gattysburg:
We even cooked a pig or two:
So back to the present. Iced Earth were phenomenal. Their new singer is perfect, absolutely astounding range and didn't get a note wrong all night (I'm a stickler for that, sorry) and the guitarist and star John Schaffer, was solid as a rock.
Their new album material is just great, Iced Earth distilled to its purest form, and Dystopia made for a great opening number. They put some real classics in too, and surprised us all with Damien from Horror Show. Atmosphere was perfect, everyone was hyped to see them, and they worked the crowd like pros. I now have a minor crush on the Bassist, Freddie Vidales and his epic stage presence - seems I have a thing for bassists.
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| Look at us, we love it. |
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| Shake that beautiful mane, Mr Vidales |
So, it was Tristan's birthday, and Adz had bought him a VIP package for the gig, including a meet and greet with the band. So we armed him with an album of all the shenanigans of the last seven years of idiocy and sent him forth to tell John Schaffer our drunken tales. Apparently he seemed pretty pleased - he's a Confederate all the way...
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| Tris meets Iced Earth |
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| Schaffer learns about Gattysburg |
Dethonator played the next day and Adz and Tris were top form. Pretty sure they were channeling the power of seeing Schaffer in the flesh.
Anyhoo. That was Iced Earth and it was a great night.
Til next time,
Hxx
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