An Evening With Machine Head
Freedom rang with a shotgun blast….
tl;dr; ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG Z O M F N G - what a show.
It was Thursday night and the Church of Metal had gathered strong for corporate worship - or at least that’s what it felt like as several hundred hungry metal heads all sung along in unison as the DJ spun “Sad But True” by Metallica, lost souls gathered for the message of The Blackening, a warning of Locusts…
I can still remember the day back in mid 1994 when I stopped off at The Record Cellar, Napier’s best source back then for all things metal. Ian, the man behind the counter with the keys to the kingdom said “I have this new band, Machine head - I think you might like it…” and from that opening harmonic I was blown away. This was….different.
With a set comprising of 18 songs, Machine Head took the the stage shortly after 9:30 and proceeded nearly non-stop for the next 2+ hours with what I must say was the best sound I think I’ve ever heard out of The Studio ( a venue often said to suffer in that department ) - it was loud but not overbearingly loud, crisp (except for the intended distortion) and thus remaining clear and enjoyable.
How can one ever complain with a set list like that? Covering all major albums with a killer cross section of tracks - sadly, I was hoping for “Death Church” or “I’m Your God Now” but am I dissapointed? Not at all - and as much as my legs were holding out for the show to end, every once of being elsewhere was wanting it to go on…
To say that the crowd was lapping things up was an understatement, and it was surely evident that the band themselves were feeding of that frenzy, a feedback loop getting louder and louder with each bouncing wave...
All I can is now is to repeat the above tl;dr; ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG MACHINE $#(*&#(*$# HEAD ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG.
Do not, I repeat - DO NOT miss this tour.
Edit: Photo Gallery Updated with the full set of photos.
