I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 25, 2019] Nøthing Møre

Before getting tickets for Starset, I had bought tickets for C. and I to see Ghost.  I had heard that their live shows were tremendous and I was pretty excited to bring him to a show like this.  When I looked for tickets, I knew we wouldn’t want GA Floor, but I didn’t know if we should go straight back or close to the stage on the side.  I chose close to the stage and I was pretty happy with the location although C. thought it would be better straight on.

I had not heard of Nøthing Møre before this show.  I rather wish I had looked them up beforehand, because part of their live show was really cool and I wish I had known it was coming so I could have appreciated it more.

But as it turned out, I was not quite in the mood for them.

Traffic was fine (I loved having the Arena only 45 minutes away and would totally go back).  Parking was a little tricky (I’ll know better if there is a next time).  We walked in with a few minutes to spare.

The entrance was right at our seat section which was right in front of the merch table.

I enjoyed browsing all the merch with C. and trying to decide which shirt he would get.

So we finally walked in during the third song.

But then between bathroom visits and browsing the merch, we wound up not getting into the show until after two song.  Nothing More were really loud–you could feel them in the bathroom!  And they didn’t sound that great (from the hallways).

Nothing More were quite enthusiastic and full of energy.  They have been around since 2003, although in 2008, their drummer, Jonny Hawkins became their lead singer (after three other singers (!) and frontman.  They are now on their fourth drummer, Ben Anderson.  The other two constants have been Mark Vollelunga on guitar and Daniel Oliver on bass.  They have three albums since Hawkins became lead singer.

We found our seats during “Go to War.”  Listening to this clip now, I guess they didn’t sound quite as bad as I felt they did when we were there.

I don’t mean the band was bad, I mean the sound was bad.  We were off to the side–which I didn’t think would affect the sound all that much.  But maybe they weren’t fully hooked up to the sound system?  They sounded kind of muddy at the time.  But this sounds quite clear.  So maybe I’m wrong.

I also hated the lighting system.  As you can see from the pictures, the lights were terrible.  Overly red and saturated.  And worse, half of the time, they were shining right in our eyes.

So these two things combined to make me not really enjoy their set as much as I probably would have if we were in a different location.

They played four songs from their new(ish) album. Hawkins is quite the screamer–old school metal screaming, the likes of which I haven’t heard in quite a while.  They’re actually quite a change from the more poppy sound of Ghost.

Interestingly, since we walked in during “Go To War” we actually wound up hearing more of their older songs.  They played three songs from their self-titled album and then ended with a song from their first album with Hawkins as the singer (nothing from the two albums before those).

I wasn’t that excited by the show until we got near the end.  When all of a sudden Jonny began wrestling with this large drumset contraption.  It rose up in the air with him on it and then he started messing around with it in all manner of ways.  I really couldn’t tell what was happening.  Was he going to climb on top and ride it like a bull?

This is why I wish I’d read about the band ahead of time.  Because this snippet from Wikipedia summarizes pretty well all of the interesting things I’ve since read about them:

The band has set up two separate drum sets for their live show, one for the band’s primary drummer, and one for Hawkins to join in on intermittently…. The performances also include … “The Scorpion Tail” [created] in 2016 [by bassist Daniel Oliver.  It is] an animated structure created out of scrap metal and salvaged auto parts, weighing 400 pounds and measuring 14 feet tall. Hawkins rides the structure, while also using it to create digital electronic effects for the songs as well. Its design is based on the “Drumtron”/”Bassinator” contraption the band has used prior, which allowed the band to perform 3 person bass solos by Hawkins, Vollelunga, and Oliver.

That’s a poorly written summary, but it gets the point across.   Hawkins climbed on this monstrosity and then was effectively manipulating the sound of the band (the contraption has all kinds of MIDI interfaces and he can transform the sounds of each band member live).  Watching the above video again, it sure seems like he’s not actually doing any sound manipulation and, in fact, he looks kind of puzzled.  After this song, he suggested that The Scorpion Tail might be on its last legs, so I guess maybe it didn’t work at all.  But it was still fun to watch him.

This led to a them doing a cover of a Skrillex song (!) “First of the Year (Equinox)” which segued into the intro of “We Will Rock You” before they ended the set with their older song “Salem (Burn the Witch).”

This song was pretty heavy and, without knowing the lyrics, I didn’t care for the song all that much.   But I see now that the song is actually kind of interesting.  Indeed, most of the lyrics of their songs are interesting or at least thoughtful (“Jenny” deals with teen depression).

So, I was a little down on Nothing More, but I would certainly give them another shot so that when I was in the right frame of mind I could enjoy their impressive live show.

SETLIST

Convict / Divide [taped intro]

1. Let ’em Burn §
2. Don’t Stop §
3. Go to War §
4. Jenny ∅
5. Fadein/Fadeout §
6. Ocean Floor ∅
7. This Is The Time (Ballast) ∅
8. First of the Year (Equinox) [Skrillex cover, with chant of “We Will Rock You”]
9. Salem (Burn the Witch) £

£ The Few Not Fleeting (2009)
∅ Nothing More (2014)
§ The Stories We Tell Ourselves (2017)