Concert Review: Killswitch Engage/DragonForce (Wiltern) A-

Date of show: 03/17/07
DragonForce (B-)
Killswitch Engage (A-)

St. Patrick's Day found me attending Killswitch Engage's "No Fear" (all these corporate sponsored tour names are getting a bit old. I'm surprised there's not a group simply called 'Jaegermeister' by now) tour at the Sunset Strip House Of Blues with openers DragonForce (who I was curious to check out), Chimaira (who I had been unimpressed with before), and He Is Legend (who I wasn't curious to check out).

DragonForce is a strange band, to say the least. Their virtuostic brand of power metal on steriods is a difficult concept for more serious metalheads, but I find their self-admitted cheesiness and amazing twin guitar attack to be silly fun, even if their songs aren't necessarily the most original or entralling. Their live show simply proves they can pull of the complexity and speed of their marathon-length compositions in front of an audience and without the aid of any studio magic. It's quite a sight to see such brazen fretboard speed and skill, but to be honest, it grows old after about two songs. That speaks to a larger problem with DF's material, most of their songs over their three album career are interchangable. They're all fast, they all have intricate soloing and incorporate epic-y vocals. There's not much in the way of personality. They do have a ravenous, Guitar Hero-playing following, who not only know the lyrics by heart, but also often replace raised metal horns with wiggling air guitar fingers during solos. Weird. Anyways, the band is charasmatic enough, I suppose. They honestly look like they're having a good time up there, even if I was bored after song number two. DragonForce is fun...but right now they're not much more than a novelty.

Having seen Killswitch Engage once before, I knew to expect a high energy show with lots of crowd interaction and a charasmatic performance from frontman Howard Jones. This time was no exception. Even with the absence of quirky guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz due to some back problems, the band put together a highly energetic and electric set with replacement guitar work from Patrick Lachman (formerly of Damageplan and Halford). KSE's trademark sing-a-long moments were plentiful, even if material of 2006's As Daylight Dies didn't quite hold up as well as the older material. Highlights included B-side "This Fire Burns," (which I still think may be about jock itch, and is still better than anthing off As Daylight Dies), and the show closer; a cover of Dio's "Holy Diver." Sadly, 95% of the under-30 crowd (which made up about, oh, I don't know, 99.3% of the total attendance) had absolutely no idea what the hell song this was. But I fucking loved it. While DragonForce may have looked like they were having fun, KSE always looks as though they're having a fucking blast. Their sense of humor and good-natured fun just make their already strong set that much better.