Common Thought of Sir Rantsalot

Myspace has done wonders in my life, it’s helped me find long lost friends, ex’s, introduced me to new bands, find bands from all over the world, keep in touch with people better than e-mail, post stuff for sale, blah blah blah. Case in point, I hate it with a fiery passion; I check it everyday non-hesitantly just to see if I got a message and stuff. It’s like a drug that was made legal for use by everyone thanks to this scumbag who calls himself Tom. Huey Louis… there you go (his song “I want a new drug”). Case in point, I logged on Thursday and one of my “friends” happens to be the manger of El Corazon, and she had stated that there was a free secret show going on in the Emerald City, starring a metal band that risen to the top in popularity thanks to a video game that’s pretty addicting itself… Guitar Hero. Originally on Guitar Hero 3, the software was all ready for release, then I guess during a test run, some programmers installed a song for play on the game entitled “Through the Fire and the Flames”. This song was originally supposed be a joke; the track is insanely off the wall with guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and everything else, it made me straight up say, “Metalli-who?”. I guess the popularity of this song had everybody in an uproar, and record sales went through the roof.

The band’s name is DragonForce, from London, England. They started in 1998 by ways of guitarist Herman Li. The band claims video games are the biggest influence on their music, for their off the wall sound. They’re one of those bands that seem like it’s all about the guitar, and not the vocals, even though the vocals are good.

I first heard DragonForce when I was flipping through the channels late one night, and landed on Headbangers Ball. I thought to myself, “these guys won’t last, just a normal rock band that’ll have it’s 15 minutes.” Boy, was I wrong. I went to a party with a friend of mine, and he started playing ”Through the Fire and the Flames” constantly. A few days later, I could not get the damn song out of my head, I had to go buy the CD. So I did, and listened to it to the point where I was bored with it.

Months roll by, DragonForce seems like a thing of the past, and I have found other bands that are cool. When up until last Thursday, I received word on the unholy website myspace that… oh wait, I already told this part didn’t I?

I spread the word to some of my friends, in hopes that they’d be there. But, 1 friend of mine couldn’t make it. I had conflicts with showing up because I had tickets to a Mariners game that day as well, but the game was 1300 (1 pm) and this show was at 2000 (7 pm). I left early because the game was going nowhere, it was tied at 1 til the 14th inning, and it was 5pm already.

Anyway, the show was pretty damn awesome! I was suprised to see a band as big and as epic as DragonForce to bring their A-game to a small club like El Corazon, and I usually don’t like going there for it’s size and the lack of hearing the band due to it’s loudness. But that was a long time ago. I could hear everything perfectly (even though the instruments were insanely loud), it wasn’t too cramped, and I liked it, perfectly. The band was awesome to the crowd, throwing water at the sweat englazed crowd, throwing guitar picks, making gestures, telling everybody to get up, taunting each band member while still playing like it was their last time, and giving praise to Seattle by telling us how awesome we are. This is a band that only plays arenas and ampitheatres. So to see a band like this in a small venue is considered a supreme honor especially if it’s in a city that’s not as famous as New York or Los Angeles.

For their encore, guess what song they played? If you guessed Through the fire and the flames, you win! It was pretty much total bliss to hear it live. And I got such an adrenaline rush, that I had to go nuts and fight through the crowd to the front, and looking back, that was a good time! I still can’t believe that was free. And it’ll never happen again.

I want to go play Guitar Hero now. And I’m sure you do too.

Catch ya on the flipside

PS There’s video of the show on youtube, but I didn’t want to put them up on this blog due to stealing someone else’s thunder, so if your interested, go to youtube, and type Dragonforce el corazon.