MOG

Last Saturday night I finally got to see Immortal at The Metro. Originally I knew that my friend Jules was going, and I suspected that her friend, Liv, would be there as well. So, with an initial ticket mix-up all solved, I headed in. Joined Liv at Bar Ace, thence to The Metro to pay their horribly overblown prices and drink with Jules and company whilst Ruins were playing. No offense to Ruins but I was enjoying the company.

So, intermission happened and then Immortal walked onstage to a huge reception. Now,They workerd the stage, and made contact with the audience (again this is something that I prefer a band to do) - although my only criticism of their audience contact would be that it was only the 'mosh' area and not really addressing those in the 'cheap seats'. Now, I'm not usually a rabid fan of Norwegian Black Metal, although I must add that I DO like it. I also wasn't expecting to see so many people I knew there... silly me. This was my first time seeing Immortal live (no not even a DVD, OK?) and as far as I am concerned, Immortal had a huge stage-presence, they hit all their hallmark numbers (I'd been swatting up on their discography) AND did their standard fire-breathing at the end. I may get pilloried for the comparison but I found them very KISS-like (except that the music is much more gravelly and a lot more [dare I say it] hardcore). Where KISS has the market in commercialist-performance, Immortal has the market in edgier hardcore performance. They seemed to get off on the Sydney audience, and that's the important thing I think. If a band so obviously hits their marks, and they get off on the audience, the feed-back to and from is something electric and this indeed was just that.

I liked Immortal and I'll be back to see them again, hopefuly in an equally intimate venue like The Metro. A larger venue would seriously detract from the rapport with the audience. After the show, I did lose Heather and I did lose kanika and company as well... after a couple of drinks - it happens on a 'school-night' after a show like that.