Gojira: Milwaukee, Oct. 2009

I saw Gojira at a theater called the Rave in Milwaukee last Wednesday.  The openers were Zoroaster, Burst, and Lazarus A.D.
Possibly the best $25 I've ever spent.  The Rave is a multi-venue location, and this time the show was in the Rave Lounge, a bar/music lounge where tickets are very reasonable and the acts somewhat smaller.  My friend and I had to stand towards the back of the room to avoid losing our hearing, and we were still within 20 feet of the band.

Zoroaster, from what I could tell (they were having some acoustical issues), sounded like a bit of a sludge metal band with elements of post metal.  They were pretty decent, and sound like they'd be a good studio artist, but I thought their frontman had a little too much fun with the mic effects, which got pretty repetitive.

Burst I have listened to before and liked, so it was a pleasant surprise when I found out they were also on tour.  A somewhat metalcore band from Sweden, they have a lot of progressive and post/ambient elements in their music, and they played very well, albeit they had some issues with their guitar tones fading out.  I like how they manage to mix such a diverse amount of music into a very seamless package that can appeal to both proggies and the hardcore fans that were there to see Gojira.  Their frontman was selling T-shirts after the show, so I got a chance to chat with him.  Pretty cool guy with a noticeable accent.  Apparently, this was their first show in North America, and also one of their last, since the group is breaking up after the tour.  Bummer.  Needless to say, I bought one of their shirts (only 20 bucks, not bad for a concert tee).

Lazarus A.D. I had also heard of, but never listened to.  They were a very cool hardcore thrash band, and they reminded me of a contemporary Slayer.  Pretty impressive riffwork and soloing, they also started some good moshing in the center of the crowd.  The frontman said they're from Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is less than an hour away from where I live.  Pretty neat.

Gojira rounded up the night, and man oh man, were they fun.  For anyone who isn't familiar with Gojira, they're a progressive death metal band hailing from France who have some of the best heavy metal head-banging stuff around.  Possibly one of the heaviest acts in progressive metal, they kicked serious butt.  The acoustics were excellent for the tiny lounge and they played pretty much every song I wanted to hear.  They has a killer set list that had no filler tracks and only their absolute best stuff from start to finish.  One thing that was interesting was hearing the lead vocalist, Joe Duplantier, do his death metal growl to get the crowd riled up, and then to hear him address the crowd normally in his soft, French accent.  After the show, they sold copies of their out-of-print first album, Terra Incoognita, which was recently re-released in France.  I also got to talk to their drummer, Mario, after the show and have him autograph the album.  I even got interviewed for Gojira's tour DVD.  One heck of a night.

If anyone is a fan of Gojira or any other more extreme progressive metal acts like Mastodon, Opeth, or Strapping Young Lad, I highly recommend seeing these guys the next time they're in town.

Awesome!I love Gojira, and I would love to see them live at some point.