Kansas City Blog

The reason I mention all this is because, watching the band tear through an hour or so of metal, speed metal, operatic metal, and just about every sort of metal you can transition across, it occurred to me that they should be much more popular than they are – though I hear they’re huge in Europe. So here’s my plan. Guns N’ Roses allegedly has Chinese Democracy coming out this month. You know who also released an album this year? Iced Earth with the Crucible of Man, Something Wicked 2. And instead of being a lame grouping of songs about how hard it is to be Axl Rose, Iced Earth’s album – much of which they played last night at the Beaumont – is about how the Antichrist grows up, rules the earth for 2,000 years, and comes to love people like pets. You know that’s a better album.

So if you really want to buy something by a band with a metal label (earned or not), when/if Chinese Democracy does come out this year, don’t buy it. Don’t give Rose the satisfaction. Instead, take that cash and go buy a copy of Iced Earth’s latest instead. Or any of their other 10 albums. Lets shock the world and put that up on the Billboard 200.

Ah, but I stray from the show itself. If you don’t know this band already, I suppose recounting song names like "Dracula” and “Watch Over Me” probably won’t matter to you, but I can tell you they deliver on the promise of their titles. This is one of the rare bands that can effectively mix melodic phrases with really mean thrash music. In a way, it’s a shame you have to move when you hear it. If you could put it on your bedroom radio, and lie down in darkness, you would know what it feels like to have demons dancing across your body. That’s pretty fucked up.

And before I forget, somebody needs to start buying Early Man (above) albums, too. Despite best efforts, the other opening bands left a few crowd members screaming “You suck!” or just idly hanging out on the stools in the back of the club. One of these was the self-described "neandercore" act Troglodyte from Kansas City.

Much as I admired Troglodyte's commitment to performing as half-men-half-bigfoots, they set energy bar low. A good number of fans in front of the stage disagreed with me, though, and did an impressive call and response with the band on "Bite It, You Scum," but the guys in the back wearing Iced Earth shirts weren't shy about yelling at them to get off the stage.

And then Early Man came on actually caring about whether the crowd got into it. I’m running out of room here, but if you like Slayer or wonder what Megadeth might sound like if they’d managed to continue being relevant, this is your answer. I couldn’t believe how hard these guys worked live for a couple dozen people, or that they had a sense of showmanship, building crescendos, and sustaining tensions, and I had a smile on my face that I didn’t know of for I don’t know how long. If they come back, and you care at all about rock and roll, you need to pay attention. Buy tickets. Buy albums. I’m serious. Don’t be an asshole

Set List:
Who the fuck knows

Critic’s Notebook
Personal bias: When attempting to contact Iced Earth for permission to photograph the show, a man named Ulf Zick granted our request. Roll that name around in your mouth for a while and taste the German steel. With Ulf’s involvement, there was no way this could be a bad show.
Random detail: Between all the bands, there were more guitar strings on stage than audience members.
By the way: Here’s an Iced Earth fun fact – they were at one time fronted by Tim ‘the Ripper’ Owens, who got his start when he was taken from being the lead singer of a Judas Priest tribute band to fronting the real thing. This inspired the truly bad Mark Wahlberg movie Rock Star.