On a dark night in November... thrash rules!

(Oh it was dark alright--both indoors, and outdoors. Even with a few lights on. I know, the photographer's complaining again... "where's the light???". Anyway...)

Four metal/thrash bands in one show, starting with locals Solanum, then another local band Krippler, with the main support band being Havok, and headliner Soulfly, fronted by Max Cavalera, who you may remember was with Sepultura until 1996.

Solanum

The evening was off to a great start with Solanum's set: their brand of thrash includes some very talented musicians. Intense rhythm and drums. Really, really good guitar. Well worth checking them out when you get the chance. You can find out more about Solanum on Facebook.

Then Krippler... another local band with their set of fans in the crowd... but really not my cup of tea. I could only hear the depressingly-repetitive cuss words, not the music. Sigh... More about Krippler on Facebook, too.

Krippler

Then Havok. And they rocked the room! Thrash, but happy. Heavy, but musical. Energy? In buckets. Great show!!! Of the four bands that played, Havoc I enjoyed the most. Especially the guitar...

Havok

Havok looked, and sounded, as if they were having fun on stage. It's infectious. If you missed them and want to check out the sound, there's music on their website: http://havokband.com/merch/

(One of the first things that caught my eye when walking into the Ace of Spades on Wednesday, was a T-shirt on Havoc's merch stand. "No Karate in the Pit", it says, with a manic karateka on the front, and the blood-dripping white words on the back. I just had to buy one of those. Maybe I should wear it to the dojo...)

And then Soulfly!!!

Max Cavelera, Soulfly

I know my daughters would have loved to see Max Cavalera (after all, they used to deafen me with Sepultura regularly a while back), but one was on a plane back to New York and the other was studying, so I was there to represent them and to carry the family flag. Very cool to see Max's son, Zyon, on drums. Max's mic stand is a skinny skeleton. (I have to write about mic stands soon. Watch this space.)

Security guy had to tap me on the shoulder, "get out of the pit" sign, at the end of Soulfly's first three songs. I can usually count to three all by myself... but the songs seemed to run into each other and I thought we'd only reached two. Ooops..

High energy crowd all evening, lots of space for the mosh pit. Lots of space for everyone, in fact. I was a little sad to see that the venue was by no means full. Wednesday nights can be tricky--I had a 6 am work call the next morning--but heck, Sacramento, surely you can do better than that...

Those who were there made up for those who were not. Soulfly, Havok: you have big fans here!

To see more photos from the show, click on the photos above, or go directly to the galleries:

Solanum, Krippler, Havok and Soulfly photos.