Dragonforce is coming to town tomorrow. Not only that, but they’re playing at the Newport Music Hall, which has more history and character than any other concert hall in the country. But to add a little shit to the sugar, I have both the flu, and an extreme lack of funds.
I was first introduced to Dragonforce when the video for “Through the Fire and Flames” first started playing on Fuse several years ago. My friend Metal Joe would always play it while we drank at his apartment. He played it loud. Really fucking loud. And we would all sing along with it as if it were some old irish drinking song. That is, if old Irish drinking songs were power metal played at 800 beats per minute.
I’ve seen Dragonforce twice already; once as the openers of the main stage at Ozzfest and once as the openers for Killswitch Engage.
At Ozzfest ’06 Dragonforce opened up the main stage at like 10 in the morning. They played 4 songs, lasting about a half hour to 40 minutes. Even though it was early, and a more popular teeny bopper candy-metal band was playing on the second stage, Dragonforce brought their A game. They actually had a small crowd going (the majority of Ozzfest attendees had yet to arrive because the concert was on a weekday). What made me laugh out loud was the Keytarist. That dude is absolutely driven. He starts out every song playing a traditional keyboard, then mid-way through switches to a keytar and rocks his fucking balls off for the rest of the song, leaping and jumping and kicking like a maniac.
Less than a year later Jason Perlman at Musicohio had an extra Photo Pass and gave it to me. I didn’t have a camera, but I didn’t particularly care about that. I got to see Dragonforce up close; so close I could smell what they had to eat for lunch. So close that I got repeatedly hit with strands of Dragonforce sweat.
This was LONG before they became huge through Guitar Hero III. They were one of the opening acts for Killswitch Engage. Really. Both I and the band itself were surprised by how much the crowd was into it. It was an indoor show, and people were going crazy. The whole place was singing along with the chorus to almost every song. It was amazing.
Go see Dragonforce. Even if you don’t like metal. No matter how much tickets cost, you will get more than your money’s worth.