[ATTENDED: November 22, 2023] Avatar
I had never been to the Santander Arena in Reading. I don’t think I’d ever been to Reading. It was an hour and forty-five minutes away which is just abut my limit for concerts. But I knew that this show (and Pierce the Veil in a couple of days) would be worth the drive and would be a fun treat for my son who was home from college.
This show (on Thanksgiving Eve) started at 6:15,which is an insane time of day to start a show on the busiest travel day of the year.
New Years Day had opened for Ice Nine Kills on two shows that we did not go to back in 2019. I thought they were a heavy screamo band, but listening to them now, I find them to be quite interesting, with a heavy edge and an almost dancey vibe. Ash Costello is the only constant member and she had a cool vocal and visual style. Although I instantly bristle at a bad with members named Nikki Misery and Trixx Daniel.
They are surprisingly poppy for an Ice Nine Kills opener. But I have to say I’m impressed that Ice Nine Kills had two female-fronted bands open for them. It’s nice that metal isn’t a boys club only.
At any rate, the traffic was pretty heavy (on the busiest travel day of the year) and we arrived just before 7. Which was just in time to see Avatar.
My son and I were supposed to see Avatar, but we bailed on the show. So this was our chance to see them.
When I saw them the first time I blown away by them (even as an opening act).
For this show I was glad that my son and his friend liked them because I was disappointed. Not in them but in the venue. The sound wasn’t great and the lighting sucked. Avatar is a massively visual band–their whole schtick is like a satanic circus. Between singer Johannes Eckerström–dressed like a ringmaster, his face covered in white paint with (scary) clown makeup, the three guitarists swirling their heads in moshing style and drummer John Alfredsson using his robotic visual style to hit the drums, there’s always something to see. But not when the lights obscure everything in a miasma of purple.
Eckerström did drink out of his black gas can but even that was hard to see.
When they opened last time, they played eight songs. This time they only played seven. [When they played the TLA, the show we missed, they played 18!] But the audience seemed to be really into it and I think there were a lot of Avatar fans there.
They play very heavy songs and Eckerström growls and grunts with the best of them but he also has a soaring falsetto–a rather glorious operatic heavy metal voice. So it’s nice to hear him really let loose.
They also played what might be my favorite of their songs, the very fun “The Eagle Has Landed.” It really solidifies the circus atmosphere with Eckerström stomping around, swinging his ringmaster’s cane and singing “ladies and gentlemen.”
They played three songs from their new album Dance Devil Dance which might just be their heaviest, most screaming album. Although “The Dirt I’m Buried In” has a distinct dancey feel to it.
In between, “Bloody Angel” opened with a very pretty opening guitar part during which Eckerström left the stage only to come back in a new red jacket. The middle of the song returned to the opening riff and allowed Eckerström to show off that he could sing as well as growl.
Guitarists Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström both took turns at the front of the stage. Although it was Jarlsby who stood up front to play the slow pretty intro of “Bloody Angel.” Öhrström joined him soon after to add some counterpoint melodies. Quite lovely.
Like every time I’ve seen them, Eckerström was quite funny–especially when he introduced the second to last song: “we all look like a freakshow and we all sound like a freak show, but people never get close enough to realize that we smell like a freakshow.”
They ended the set with the song that they opened with in 2019 but which was the final encore in 2021–“Hail the Apocalypse.”
having seen them up close while the commanded a stage, it was a little disappointing seeing them in this weird light as an opener. But my companions seemed to enjoy them quite a lot. Maybe they’ll want to see then when they come back in 2024.
| 2023 (opening act) | 2021 (headlining) | 2019 (opening act) |
| Dance Devil Dance ψ | Colossus ∅ | Hail the Apocalypse ⊗ |
| The Eagle Has Landed £ | Let It Burn ϖ | Let It Burn ϖ |
| Valley of Disease ψ | Silence in the Age of Apes ∅ | Bloody Angel ⊗ |
| Bloody Angel ⊗ | Bloody Angel ⊗ | A Statue of the King © |
| The Dirt I’m Buried In ψ | Child ∅ | The Eagle Has Landed £ |
| Smells Like a Freakshow ϖ | The Eagle Has Landed £ | Tsar Bomba ⊗ |
| Hail the Apocalypse ⊗ | Paint Me Red ϖ | Puppet Show ⊗ |
| A Secret Door ∅ | Smells Like a Freakshow ϖ | |
| For the Swarm £ | ||
| Torn Apart ϖ | ||
| Gun ∅ | ||
| Going Hunting ∅ | ||
| Deeper Down ∇ | ||
| A Statue of the King © | ||
| The King Welcomes You to Avatar Country © | ||
| Encore | ||
| Wormhole ∅ | ||
| Smells Like a Freakshow ϖ | ||
| Hail the Apocalypse ⊗ |
∇ Avatar (2009)
ϖ Black Waltz (2012)
⊗ Hail the Apocalypse (2014)
£ Feathers and Flesh (2016)
© Avatar Country (2018)
∅ Hunter Gatherer (2020)
ψ Dance Devil Dance (2023)
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