Monday, October 3, 2011

Enslaved and Alcest Concert Review

Enslaved and Alcest concert on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at Outland Live in Columbus, OH


If someone had told me at the start of the year that both Agalloch and Alcest would tour the United States in 2011, and that I'd miss both of them, I would've been in disbelief.  Right now, I'm in disbelief.
 

I missed Alcest Saturday night because I arrived at the venue too late.  I drove six and a half hours to find out, when I walked up to the girl taking tickets at the door, Alcest had just completed their set and left the stage.  I felt absolutely sick.

On top of that, I'd either purchased the wrong ticket, or Ticketmaster sent me the wrong ticket, because when I handed my ticket to the girl at the door she showed me the ticket was for the Enslaved and Alcest show in Springfield, VA.  So I had to cough up $17 to see Enslaved.

Enslaved was great, of course.  I expected nothing less.  Although I'm not gonna lie and pretend I enjoyed the show and had the time of my life.  In all honesty, it was impossible for me to really absorb it and get into it.  I was exhausted, physically and mentally, and for a large part of the set I sat on a couch in the back of the room and just listened.  I wish they'd played more off Vertebrae, which is Enslaved's best album and one of the best black metal albums ever released. They did cover "Immigrant Song" by Zeppelin as an encore, which was awesome.  The set was as follows, from what I can remember... I might've missed one or two in the middle of the set.


Setlist:

1. Axioma (intro)
2. Ethica Odini
3. Raidho
4. Fusion of Sense and Earth
5. Heimvegen
6. Ruun
7. Ground
8. Giants
9. As Fire Swept Clean the Earth
10. Allfaor Ooinn

Encore:

11. Drum Solo
12. Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin cover)
13. Isa