Bigger. Heavier. Woodener.

Lamb of God – Live in Sydney 19^th April

Setlist:
Hourglass
Again We Rise
Walk With Me In Hell
Ruin
Pathetic
As The Palaces Burn
Descending
11^th Hour
Blacken the Cursed Sun
Bloodletting
More Time To Kill
Now You've Got Something to Die For
Laid To Rest
--
Vigil
Redneck
Black Label

(Completely accurate for once.)

Turns out you can take better photos from outside the moshpit.

Things were not looking promising for the Lamb of God concert come Sunday night. I'd had a bit of a mad weekend and had in fact flown in to Auckland on the Saturday, partied all night, flown back Sunday afternoon got straight off the plane and off to the concert. I also made a bit of a miscalculation in regards to how far away the venue (the Roundhouse at UNSW) was and it took me about three quarters of an hour to walk there. By the time I arrived I was pretty much ready for bed. The opening band, Sydonia, did nothing to change my disposition, despite assuring the impatient audience that they had been personally asked to support by Lamb of God themselves. They were competent but everything about them felt like something I'd heard before and they did nothing to overcome my weariness. Fortunately a few stiff drinks gave me the energy to shuffle off to the moshpit, and Lamb of God themselves did the rest.

On the other hand photos from in the moshpit probably convey a little bit of the smelly, sweaty experience of being there.

As you might recall I saw these fellows last year opening for the shit-tastic Killswitch Engage. Even though if I were to give an interpretive dance performance to demostrate my opinion of Killswitch Engage, it would involve me vomiting on a pile of my own faeces and then wiping it all over my face, Lamb of God gave a satisfying (but not outstanding) performance. So I was a little surprised when they appeared onstage this time around and rocked out like motherfuckers from the word go.

"You guys have heaps of cool shit over here in Australia. Nice beaches, good weather, some weird fucking animals, but the best thing about this country is your hot fucking women!" Your humble reviewer didn't have the heart to tell the skanky metal mum screaming her heart out next to him that Randy wasn't talking about her.

The audience was great. When I first arrived I was a little nonplussed upon realising it was an all ages gig because there's nothing I hate more than having to rub shoulders with teenagers all night, but I must concede that the little shits mustered together a pretty decent moshpit, wherein I had a lot of fun even in my zoned out, cranky, tired state.

It's called the Roundhouse because it is ROUND.

There's not much to say about the band themselves, they can only be described as metal done metal, but they do it brilliantly. Vocalist Randy Blythe is genuinely witty with his intersong banter and the entire band delivered nothing less than a flawless and energetic performance. The highlights were (again) 'Blacken the Cursed Sun', for it's brilliant singalong part and 'Walk With Me In Hell' for rocking out just a wee bit more than everything else.

"I dunno what the hell you call people who live way out in the outback and get drunk all the time over here, but back home we call 'em REDNECKS!"

Fucking excellent concert, these guys are now on my 'must see at any opportunity' list.