King's X @ The Fine Line 8/25/2016

13th show since August 26, 1996 (20 years ago today). All in Minnesota.

They still are fan-fucking-tastic live. Such energy, and vibe to the crowd. And the songs are almost always slightly if not somewhat different, which is great and they feel so much more *live*.

The local openers, Meridian Incident were quite good, sort of in a Tool with a Thrash or Power Metal vocal style in some ways. I'm thinking their singer reminds me of Thomas Englund from Evergrey and like a few other singers I can't recall yet.

But definitely a band to keep tabs on, and as it turns out, they have a debut album coming soon they worked for like 5 years on I guess. Also not surprising, their drummer, Adam Schmid is the same Adam Schmid from none other than Between Two Skies, so I can't say I'm surprised, but it's cool he has another gig going on...especially until that long awaited BTS album finally drops.

OvrFwrd also impressed in a cool proggy, instrumental way. They had some cool space/Floyd like jams that had some great moments.

And just to add to King's X, Vegetable was a huge highlight, for my Manic Moonlight-fandom. Such a great groove to it live.

The CONS: The upstairs area was EXCLUSIVE TO VIP. I have seen like 30 or 40 shows at The Fine Line, and other than the shows that the upstairs area was totally closed off, that area has always been available to go up to, and hopefully find a seat.

Not last night.

I may have to consider with TFL, to either get a VIP ticket, which is sad, or not go. Standing for 4.5 hours isn't acceptable, even though I've done it. And I hate to say it, but it makes me think of TFL sort of like The Quest used to be.

That and the talking which takes place during the music, namely the opening acts, and when you are further back. I guess it's per it being so close to the bar, but I still think it should be considered bunk for people who want to hear the music, but may not want to be so close to the stage. The bar just is close to that area, and so people will order drinks and babble on. Granted, it's happened upstairs as well when I have been there. So, it may be partially due to like The Cabooze, the people who attend shows there, not all that much for the music, which again is pathetic.

Groove Machine
The World Around Me
Pillow
vegetable
Flies and Blue Skies
(Thinking and Wondering) What I'm Gonna Do
Everybody Knows a Little Bit of Something
A Box
Over My Head
Over and Over
Pleiades
We Were Born to Be Loved

Encore:
Go Tell Somebody
Dogman
Goldilox

Between Two Skies

Video on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/betweentwoskies



maybe more to add later, but it appears with their busy Facebook activity including photos and videos, they may finally be recording that long awaited debut record.

As someone who literally has looked forward to it for 7 or 8 years, I can't be more excited if/when it does finally come. Maybe 2014/2015 are the long awaited albums years with Kaddisfly, Put Down the Muffin, Subterranean Masquerade, Bubblemath, Nomia and many other returns including one of my long time favorite bands from my hometown.

Between Two Skies - "At Home With Strange" (demo)

Hey all you great friends of ours!
We'd love if you took a sec to go vote for us to play the Mpls stop on this summer's Warped Tour. We won it two years ago and by golly we want to do it up again!!! So go ahead....help us out eh??

stream the demo on this battle of the bands for a spot on the Warped Tour stop in MN link.

That demo sounds amazing. It's been more or less 5 years for these guys to make their 1st full-length, but just based on that demo and their lives shows, it should be well worth the wait. That is, assuming it does (and another record or two since they have enough material for more than 1 record now) come out.

Between Two Skies - Seeing Dawn (demo)

posting on their facebook



it's just a demo, but man, it sounds amazing. There's a lot to say about this band, still probably my favorite band in Minnesota, and the amount of time looking forward to their 1st record. But I ran into Kevin Kildahl from BTS, a few months ago at the dredg show and asked him quickly about the record, and he said Spring seems likely. So I'm thinking finally, after 3 or more years or reasonable anticipation, 2011 will be the year it does finally come out. That demo is more of a good sign that it will.

East of the Wall IS coming to Minneapolis on July 24th!

For East of the Wall the progressive post/sludge (post-Tool) instrumental-now-having-vocals band/project related-to both The Postman Syndrome (they basically are them now) and Day Without Down,

it didn't seem too likely a concert date in Minneapolis could happen on their Summer tour this late in the booking game. Even though they had a date bookmarked for either Minneapolis/St.Paul or somewhere in Wisconsin (Madison) for July 24th. But when I tried contacting East of the Wall about it, I noticed most of the logical venues that would book them already had events scheduled (Triplerock, Station 4, The Entry even The Turf Club I think).

Well, by some good fortune, East of the Wall have now been confirmed to play at this very unknown (at least by me) Art Gallery in North East Minneapolis called Tarnish & Gold. With at least 2 other bands. 1 being called name and another local band called Iron Thrones.

And they are looking to set up at least 1 other local band on the bill if possible. I emailed Kevin from EotW back and also the band I would hope for I guess 1st and foremost to be added to the bill, Between Two Skies. But any number of others such as Empires or Nomia, or even my friend's band Shattered (who by the way, have a debut album expected now in October. Their new singer has improved a lot actually).

The other bands on the bill: name and Iron Thrones, I guess are on tour with East of the Wall. The myspace samples, save for my big beef with highly compressed cymbals, actually kind of impressed me. Both are kind of post-progressive and a bit sludgey at times. But I could see enjoying both. And of course East of the Wall who are a bit different now, as opposed to the all-instrumental A Farmers Almanac sound. But no matter, I am looking forward to seeing them 1-week from Saturday.

Also rather cool as the new album Ressentiment should be available to buy at that show (and it drops 1-week from today!)