I drove 4 1/2 hours to my hotel and then another hour down the coast to Hollywood.  I planned to arrive at the venue extremely early because I was unsure about parking on Sunset Strip, and I wanted to get good seats.  I parked in the rear of the building without any issues, and was one of the first fans in the building.  I headed straight for the side seats close to the stage and that’s where I remained through four opening bands.  As the crowd grew, I observed lots of myspace hair and tiny pants, lots of blue jean vests, and more eyeliner than one could imagine.  Death to false Metal!

The first band to take the stage was called “Echoes of Eternity”, an LA band that just signed with Nuclear Blast.  A lot like Leaves Eyes, or a million Euro-goth metal bands on the lighter side.  The chick’s vocals were pretty good, but her stage presence was sort of awkward.  The drummer was really mechanical, and the lag time between songs was very uncomfortable.  Good riffs though.  I got the feeling that they haven’t really found their sound yet.  The small crowd was receptive, but only because the chick was wearing a corset and had enormous tits.  I think they played 5 songs.  Overall, not a bad band, they just needed a little more experience on stage. 

A local hardcore band with a chick vocalist followed. They were called “In This Moment”.  This chick had incredible stage presence, and for what it is, the music was good.  Her growls were brutal and she was so cute!  They played 6 or 7 songs, and they were all heavy.  The breakdowns were neck breaking.  They drew a huge crowd too.  I would say their crowd was almost as large as the Dream Evil crowd, but they’re also from the local scene.

For the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the band that followed “In This Moment”.  It was another hardcore band and I think they said they were from Texas.  They were heavy and had killer breakdowns, but I couldn’t see the stage because four guys stood in front of my seat, on the raised level, through their entire set.  Assholes!  The band played 6 or 7 songs, and the crowd was enthusiastic. 

I saw Himsa a few years ago when they opened for Iced Earth, and they’ve improved significantly since then.  The tiny pants crowd loved them.  I’ve never been a huge fan of the genre, but they’re a really good band.  There was an active pit throughout most of their set.  They played 9 or 10 songs, and I was quite impressed.  I didn’t expect such a brutal performance from them.  The singer likes to let the front row fans finish lines into the mic, so that’s pretty cool.

The mighty DREAM EVIL, finally.  I sat through 4 bands that I didn’t really enjoy all that much, so I could stand 36 inches from the stage and eye level with the band.  After a 20 minute setup, they took the stage and the crowd went crazy.  Metal geeks unite!  It was incredible!  . Niklas' vocals were amazingly powerful.  You never know what you're going to get with a live show, but he was dead on.  He was even chewing gum throughout the whole set.  The band was absolutely flawless and had amazing energy on stage.  It was a fun show.  Niklas made comments like “This next one is the deep lyrics!” referring to Heavy Metal in the Night.  All the band members were interacting with the audience, and Niklas even had a chick in the crowd sing the “I am his wife” part of Made of Metal.  It’s so cool to see a band with such talent, not take themselves so seriously.  I had a blast and can’t wait to do it again.  From what I hear, the outcome of that show would determine if they come back to the States or not.  It was a small crowd, but I think we were pretty convincing.

Setlist:

United
Blind Evil
Fire! Battle! In Metal!
In Flames You Burn
Crusader’s Anthem
Back From the Dead
Higher on Fire
The Prophecy
Made of Metal
Heavy Metal in the Night
Let Me Out
The Chosen Ones

--encore--
Children of the Night
Chasing the Dragon
The Book of Heavy Metal