A Thursday Night Concert Journey

Some of you were foolish enough to wait till Friday to show up at Dragon*Con, but us clever folks knew to get here early and take in the pre-con activities.  As a good reporter, I knew it was my job to hit every concert so that you late-comers could be informed.  It’s a tough job, and I was just the guy to do it.  Four concerts.  Four hours.  Overlapping times.

I started with Emerald Rose, a Celtic, folk-rock, Pagan band.  Yes, Pagan, as pointed out by their I-want-a-Pagan-girl song.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  The crowd was a Celtic-Pagan friendly one, so all was good.  After informing us all of a vampire girl, Emerald Rose turned the stage over to the Brobdingnagian Bards, for a

two song set.  They served up a comical tale of virgins and dragons on autoharp and mandolin.  Both bands will be making numerous additional appearances during the convention.  I would have been happy to listen to the entire concert, but I had work to do.  So I was off to catch DriWhater.  I assume they were DriWhater, as that was what the schedule said and no one on stage said otherwise, or anything for that matter.  Rather, they were playing a powerful blend of goth and punk.  The band was there to rock, but on a Thursday evening, the audience wasn’t quite ready.

With the first concerts done, I was ready for the 11:30 performance by Yeti.  What can I say?  How about “psychedelic Satan groove”?  Yeti is aptly named.  If you close your eyes, it’s easy for one to believe the lead singer to be an eight-foot tall monster of mythos.  I liked the swords.  Onward to Sins of Lust.   They were LOUD.  Very very LOUD.  As in amps set to eleven, loud.  But until I was blown out of the Centennial Ballroom by the acoustic holocaust-esque volume, they were pretty good.  Melodic goth metal fusion.

And thus, I completed my journey.  Tonight, I will go to work once again.  Try it yourself.

Author of the article

Matthew M. Foster is a freelance film critic and film historian and also the Director of the Dragon*Con Film Festival, which annually brings filmmakers, features, and the best in Independent Short film to Atlanta.

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