Concert Impressions: Varg, Wintersun, Eluveitie

Last night I want to my first metal concert in years: Varg, Wintersun, and Eluveitie at Station 4 in St. Paul. Given that my last one was Dream Theater at the Orpheum in 2009, it's safe to say that this was pretty new to me--my first European metal show. The Orpheum was a huge theater with seats, a balcony, and an indoor lobby; Station 4 was (it's safe to say) a "dive" bar with no seats, a big floor to stand on, and the guests got to stand in line outside in the snow. My friend and I were some of the first ones in, so we had a while to wait before everyone got in and the show started.

The first band on stage was Varg, who I had just listened to for the first time the previous day. They were all warpainted up like in their Metal Archives picture (which I had seen, or I would have been shocked by all the "blood" in the men's room sink) and pretty much looked like they'd been shipped right from Germany. They played loud, in-your-face "pagan" metal with lyrics screamed entirely in German. Despite it not really being my kind of metal and not being able to understand any of the lyrics, they were still pretty fun. There was an exhilarating sense of energy at the show between the volume and the crowd, and freedom; the freedom to scream at the top of your lungs, bang your head, raise your fist, or pretty much enjoy the show however you wanted.

But the whole time they were out, I was just waiting for them to be done so I could see who of the bandes I came to hear would play next: Eluveitie or Wintersun. The answer, it turned out, was Wintersun, who played the following set list:

1. When Time Fades Away
2. Sons of Winter and Stars
3. Land of Snow and Sorrow
4. Battle Against Time
5. Death and the Healing
6. Darkness and Frost
7. Time
8. Beyond the Dark Sun
9. Starchild

With little to compare it to, I'm not sure how to describe Wintersun's show, other than that it was (insert profanity of choice here) AWESOME. Obviously the music was better when played live at near-dangerous volumes, even if the live instruments did tend to drown out the orchestration (played by a temporary fifth band member on a MacBook). To my shame, I realized that I couldn't sing along to every line of their set (it's hard to sing along to screamed vocals anyway), but I was able to get most of the choruses. Of course the highlight was the ending of "Sons of Winter and Stars"; just before the first chorus, people started cheering in excited anticipation.

It was also great to see the band in person and know for sure that they weren't jerks or something. They mostly just played (I was expecting a joke about the snow storm and how the Finns felt right at home), stopping only for Jari to introduce the songs and tell us how much they loved us. Drummer Kai Hahto was, of course, a beast, playing almost too fast to see, especially on "Battle Against Time". I was hoping to hear something from Time II or "Beautiful Death", but this was hardly disappointing.

Unfortunately, after Wintersun finished my friend told me he wasn't feeling well and wanted to leave early. I agreed to stay only through Eluveitie's first song, which I strongly (and correctly) suspected would be my favorite, "Helvetios". In contrast to Varg (which was bare-bones metal) and Wintersun (whose symphonic elements you could barely hear), Eluveitie had a full, eccentric complement of musicians and folk instruments on stage; the singer had a slew of odd instruments on his mic stand, including some uillean pipes he took up several times. The concert seemed to hit peak energy in that song and I was sad to have to leave afterward, as they were beginning "Luxtos".

In summary, I want to go to more metal concerts (and dearly wish Kamelot and Nightwish had come here).