Pit Report: Protest the Hero

     I told you it was coming eventually, and now here it is, my pit report for last Sunday's Protest the Hero show here in Kingston. Now that I've had some time to ruminate on the experience, you're going to get the complete rundown. It'll be like you were there!

     Let me start by saying I felt like a bit of a fanboy at this show. When I heard about this Protest mini-tour, with this line-up, I was beyond stoked. I've only known about/been into Mandroid Echostar and Pomegranate Tiger for a little bit (at least compared to being a Protest the Hero fan for the better part of a decade) but having already interviewed the one opener (Mandroid) and having wanted to do the other for a while (Pomegranate) at the time that I heard about the show, I couldn't miss this one.

     I did, however, make a miscalculation on the actual evening of the show. As I think I've mentioned here before, when I was younger we usually skipped the opening acts at concerts unless we already had a pretty good idea who they were. This is a habit I'm slowly trying to get out of, since discovering new music is kinda what I do around here, but either way I certainly wasn't going to skip out on any of the opening festivities for this one. So I figured, doors at 7, do a little math, and we should be able to show up at 7:30 or 7:45 and just walk right in. It's a little club show, right?

      Not so. Well, yes, it was a little club show, but no, my clever timing calculations didn't work out. The doors didn't open until 8 or after, and we didn't get in until a while after that. So despite my best efforts, the evening began with an unfortunate amount of standing around and being more than likely the oldest person lined up for the show.

     But things started looking up as soon as we got inside. I've never really been the starstruck, autograph-seeking type, but within the first half-hour or so of the show (before things got started and then into Pomegranate Tiger's set) I'd scored the John Hancocks of both of Protest's guitarists Luke and Tim. On top of that, I had the chance to meet Mike from Mandroid and thank him for doing the Twenty Questions with me a while back.

     Anyways, back to the whole point: the badass metal show. First up was Pomegranate Tiger, who had the crowd pretty into it despite being the first opener and an instrumental act. I don't know how many people (can I say kids without unfairly generalizing? probably) in the audience knew PT beforehand, but you'd be forgiven for thinking that they were indeed very familiar with Pomegranate's jams, such was their enthusiasm. If the crowd was already aware of Pomegranate Tiger, then I guess I'm impressed with the number of people in Kingston who seem to be that into them, and if they weren't cognizant of PT already, I'm similarly impressed with PT's ability to fucking bring it to an unsuspecting audience. Well done.

     Next up was Mandroid Echostar, a band whose presence and general tightness really speaks to the fact that they've been playing some shows and honing their chops. The band's got three guitarists, two of whom spend a good amount of time shredding out some tasty leads, and all three are rock solid across the varied material that Mandroid plays. If they play it on the record, they can play it live. Likewise, the aforementioned Michael Ciccia has plenty of range, and sounds great on record, but also doesn't sacrifice any of that range or any of his power in a live setting.

     And then, of course, there's Protest the Hero. What can I say about Protest's live show that I haven't said before? I've seen Protest three or four times now, and I would see them again any chance I get. As usual, the boys played a decent mix of old and new stuff, although also as usual, not a lot of love for debut LP Kezia (one track, or maybe two, if I recall correctly). But realistically, after the rest of the evening, a good set from Protest the Hero was almost icing in the cake.

     All in all, despite the slow start, and the fact that I had to work at 4 AM the next morning, it was a pretty sweet night. I really hope that any and all of these bands make it back to Kingston sooner rather than later, because the convenience of being able to take in three great metal acts in your own backyard just can't be beat. I highly suggest you try it sometime.

Mandroid Echostar - The Sleeper

     In addition to being aware of my love for physical media, regular readers will likely also have picked up on my penchant for preordering. Whether it's in the form of an Indiegogo campaign or just a straight preorder, I enjoy knowing ahead of time that the album I'm looking forward to has already been paid for and will arrive at my door without any further action required on my part.

     The only downside is that stuff can sometimes take a while to arrive in the post, and although lots of bands are now mitigating this problem by issuing digital download codes on release day for fans who've purchased physical version of albums, I'm still a little old school in my desire to wait for my copy to arrive before I really sit down with a release. Sure, I'll stream or download on release day to keep up with the Joneses of music journalism, but it's only when I get my grubby mitts on a disc that I really delve into the material.

     For this reason, I was pleasantly surprised to find my copy of Mandroid Echostar's new EP in my mailbox earlier this week. For the unfamiliar, Mandroid is a techy Canadian band from Guelph that I've seen best described as sounding a little like Protest the Hero meets Coheed and Cambria. Their self-titled debut EP was pretty solid, and their new disc Citadels is more of the same: some really cool melodies spread across the soaring vocals and intricate guitar work and backed up by some tight and tasteful drumming.

     I almost want to go with "Ancient Arrows" as your song today, simply because the intro-y riff strikes me as the best Avenged Sevenfold lick Avenged never wrote, but I think I'm going to settle on "The Sleeper. For a guitar guy like me, this one's loaded: there's some fat riffage, some very video game-inspired tapping that opens and closes the song, and even a sweet little bluesy-sounding solo too.

     One problem/blessing in disguise? All I can find on Youtube is a stream of the whole EP, so you'll just have to ingest the whole thing, paying special attention to track five. Or just skip ahead to "The Sleeper". Either way, check these guys out pronto, and while you're at it check out the e-mail interview I did with Mandroid's singer Michael Ciccia back in the spring.

Song of the Day: Rush - The Spirit of Radio

     Both because Mike from Mandroid mentioned them in his responses to my Twenty Questions (which you should of course check out if you haven't done so already) and because it's a Canadian long weekend, I'm going full Canuck tonight and featuring by everybody's favourite princes of prog.

Twenty Questions - Michael Ciccia from Mandroid Echostar

     As you may have seen me mention in a recent post, Loud Noises turned a year old about two weeks ago now. If you've followed the blog for any length of time, you may also have seen me mention that I've got some things in the works, simmering away in the background, that I couldn't yet unveil to the world. But none of those things has ever really amount to much more than continued simmerings. Until now.

Song of the Day: Mandroid Echostar - The Precursor

     Another band I'm currently diggin' on is going the crowdfunding route for their next release, but unlike fellow Canadians Protest the Hero today's band doesn't have the fanbase to raise two hundred thousand dollars in a few days. So it's time again to show Mandroid Echostar some love and maybe help them reach their rather modest goal of $7000.

Song of the Day: Mandroid Echostar - Kingdom and the Crown

     We're back in the present today, and I've got yet another recently-discovered band to share with you. I found Mandroid Echostar (yes, that's their name) at the same time that I found Intervals (they're going on tour together this fall), and both bands are proggy outfits based in southern Ontario (go Canada!). But while Intervals is heavier, instrumental (for the moment, anyways) and kinda djenty, Mandroid Echostar sounds like Coheed and Cambria if the latter leaned away from proggy punky pop-rock and towards proggy metal. Vocalist Michael Ciccia even resembles Coheed and Cambria's Claudio Sanchez a little. But make no mistake -- these guys aren't just Co&Ca copycats, and I think they're definitely worth a listen.

     As such, today's song is "Kingdom and the Crown", the lead track from Mandroid Echostar's self-titled first EP, which you can download from the band's bandcamp FOR FREE! So if you like the song, check out the rest of the EP and let me know what you think.