I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2024] Jinjer

I’ve seen Jinjer twice.  Last time, after the show I wrote:

Now that I’ve seen “Pisces,” I don’t think I need to see Jinjer again.  In fact, I’m probably not going to go to too many more metal shows.  I think I’ve seen everyone I wanted to.

Pisces was the song that introduced me to them and Tatiana Shmailyuk’s incredible voice.  She can sing beautiful soaring melodies and then on a dime turn into a scary growling monster.  It’s fascinating on record but it is mind blowing to see live.

So I wasn’t really sure I wanted to see them again, but I was inspired by the opening band Hanabie to go see them again.  And I’m so glad I did. This was the closest I’d been to them and it was great being that close to Eugene Abdukhanov on bass. The previous tow times, I was on guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov’s side but I’d really admired the bass work on these songs.  So it was very cool to see just how complicated his bass rhythms were.

Ibramkhalilov has a great sound–shifting from quiet picking to heavy chords, but it was a little lost on my side of the stage (I noticed it more on some of the recordings I took).  Drummer Vladislav Ulasevich also adds wonderful fills and stops and starts to add drama to the songs.  He was even louder than the last time I think–I needed to put the earplugs in deeper toward the end.

I also brought my son to the show.  He has been wearing one of my Jinjer shirts but he didn’t really know the band. I knew he’d love the show and he did.  He also loved Hanabie so we were on the same page there.

I really don’t know many Jinjer songs.  I’ve listened to their records and I know what they sound like, but I didn’t know anything they played.  In fact they played three brand new songs, in addition to highlights from previous albums.  They didn’t play Pisces, but that’s okay (but a bit weird, no?  It’s their biggest song I think).

As the night progressed there were a few big circle pits going on.  There was a ton of crowd surfing (although I realized after a while it was like the same four people) and a lot of screaming.

It was good fun and it was exhausting.  I was really quite happy that their set was relatively short (about 75 minutes).

It was a great time and it’s always fun to take my son to a show with me.

But now I really don’t need to see them again.