Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Amon Amarth @ The House of Blues, Hollywood. 4/24/11.

I hadn't seen Amon Amarth live in seven years. Back in 2003, they were opening a package tour with Goatwhore, Vader, Kreator and Nile in small clubs across the country. Today, Amon Amarth are selling out larger venues like the House of Blues by themselves! Yes, my first Amon Amarth gig in forever was "An Evening w/" Amon Amarth. No opening acts, just my favorite Swedish Vikings playing two sets back to back all by their lonesome.

First things first. Holy feces this place was packed! I knew Amon Amarth have gotten considerably more popular over the years, but I've never seen a line outside the House of Blues like this one. With no opening act to skip/arrive fashionably late for, everyone and their mom (hot girlfriends actually) was outside waiting. Once inside, the vibe within the HoB was festive, despite having waited outside in the cold for well over an hour. There was a surprising number of ladies in the crowd, and not the usual heavy metal girlfriend troll types either. Also, I overheard a lot of foreigners jabbering in their native tongues (random Scandinavians, Japanese, some yoked out British dudes, etc) aside from the healthy dose of SoCal Spanish I hear all the time.

So Amon Amarth came onstage and immediately went into "War of the Gods," the opening track off their latest album, Surtur Rising.This first set consisted of their new record in it's entirety, then they came back out and did an even longer set of hits. I like their new album fine, not as much as 2008's Twilight of the Thunder God that preceded it, but hey, no big deal. The second set they did is where things really got poppin'. The crowd went nuts during the last half of the concert, even if the band remained totally chill as before. Aside from their occasional synchronized headbanging, the dudes in Amon Amarth let their music do the talking. Heads were banging in force, girls were dancing ( WTF? where were these girls back in 03?!) and just about everyone was singing along. "With Oden On Our Side," "Guardians of Asgard" and "Thousand Years of Oppression" were my personal highlights of the evening. 

Something about listening to this pro-pagan, anti-Christian anthem on Easter Sunday made me love Amon Amarth a little more before. haha

They ended the night with "The Pursuit of Vikings," and effectively turned the House of Blues into a sweaty karaoke party. Pretty awesome show. Totally worth the seven year wait.

21 comments:

  1. i like their lyrics, about the norse gods

    ReplyDelete
  2. fuck yes! i fucking love viking rock n roll.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I fucking love that, really epic and goose pimples on my arms.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sweaty karaoke. I want in on this.

    Also, a 7 year wait is serious business, that must've been one HELL of a show. I'm jealous.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whoa I'm from Norway and live in Hollywood now- I should look into these things more haha.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "the pursuit of vikings". love it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Been a while since i heard them, great first pic

    ReplyDelete
  8. That beard is the most metal beard I have ever seen!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The photo looks like my boyfriend's ancestors :|

    ReplyDelete
  10. not really in to this, but glad you had fun :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've never seen them live, but love their music.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Seems like it was a very good show!

    ReplyDelete
  13. house of blues, nice, they look hardcore

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow, sounds like it was a rockin event. Good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That's awesome!! The only group similar to this I've ever seen live was Mastodon in Asheville, NC, and that was a pretty wild time.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Those videos were sick! Really close to the stage is where its at!

    ReplyDelete
  17. When Johan Hegg told everyone to do karaoke that was pretty epic haha! I saw Amon Amarth live in 2009 and it was an intense show! Johan was drinking beer out of a tusk or horn one of those two and it was hilariously awesome XD

    ReplyDelete