Parkway Drive at the Gothic

COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE!!!

Denver, CO - 02/17/2011
I'm not a huge fan of modern "growly metal", so it was more than a little out-of-the-ordinary that we hopped down to the Gothic Theater last night. We just knew "hey, it's a metal show" and with tickets checking in around 20 bucks, it wouldn't be so bad if a band just happened to be Cookie Monster Vocals with Marshall Stacks and Drop-D Tuning. So we arrived and immediately realized that we were the oldest non-drug dealer, non-criminal, guys in attendance at what looked to be a full house.

The four bands officially on this bill were The Warriors, The Ghost Inside, Set Your Goals and Parkway Drive. Parkway Drive's banner was already hanging behind the stage, so apparently the other bands couldn't be bothered to spend 180 bucks at a FastSigns outlet to get their own banner. Didn't matter, as we missed The Warriors and arrived in the middle of The Ghost Inside's set. They were a growly metal act from California, complete with --yes-- Cookie Monster Vocals and Drop-D Tuning. But it wasn't so bad, as this type of music actually sounds MUCH better live than on a recording. The guys in the band bounced around in synched mogul-hops while playing their instruments and had a nice sludgy vibe.

Towards the end of their set, they brought out local Denver mutant, "Harris the Great". A guy with a mohawk, zombie make-up and a heavy trenchcoat. He said a few words, plugged his website (which apparently doesn't exist, unless I'm spelling his name wrong) and proclaimed that he had "killed" everyone on stage. Ummm, okay. Is that like the "I am crushing your head" kind of killing? I actually ran into the guy back in May 2010 during the Westword Music Festival, so I had a little chuckle at seeing him again. I don't think he plays an instrument; he just likes to show up and pretend to be a monster. Could be worse.

After The Ghost Inside went outside (yuk yuk), the next band was Set Your Goals, who sounded like an awful mix of NOFX and Blink 182. Two awful bands to begin with, so you can imagine how a knock-off of those two might sound. But their most offensive sin was having two singers; one a shaggy haired guy with a non-distinct shout; the other a scrawny 98 pound dude with a high-pitched voice. We did a double-take and couldn't believe that the little dude was on stage and actually part of the band. We thought he was someone's little brother, or maybe a dying kid from the Make-a-Wish Foundation fulfilling his wish. As Butt-head would say: "uh, what's this butt-munch doing on stage?" It was weird, because the songs these guys played didn't need two singers. They didn't harmonize together, as it was simply one singer doing one verse and the other singing the next. It didn't flow too well and was very distracting.

Set Your Goals didn't seem too popular with the crowd, although they seemed to have a small amount of fans. We walked up to the bar and several guys were making fun of the band. Even sadder, midway through their set, the crowd began chanting for headliner Parkway Drive. The shaggy singer tried to play this off as a Good Thing and encouraged the chant. As he babbled on the mic, we heard several heckles of "YOU SUCK" from our section. Really, they DID suck and I hope to never see or hear this band again.

To end the night, Parkway Drive came out to make that banner relevant. These guys seemed REALLY popular and the whole crowd began to bounce around. Remember the auditorium from The Muppet Show? Where you'd see all kinds of Muppets going crazy and one or two flying into the air. That's about accurate. Especially when three people suddenly dove from the balconies of the Gothic onto the crowd below. Not as bad as it sounds, since the balcony level is about 12 feet from the ground, but it's still Highly Stupid. I mean, if a crowd's all facing the front of the auditorium and you suddenly leap onto them from the side? That's a pretty big gamble; not only that someone will catch you, but that someone will not be pissed off and want to pummel the snot out of you.

The guy next to us was inspired as well. About three songs into the set, he tore off towards the stage. Guy came back about 20 minutes later, holding an icepack to his temple as it appeared he'd eaten an elbow or two.

Anyways, Parkway Drive's set was better than I anticipated. They're apparently an Australian band who do the growlies. But they tend to mix in some old NWOBHM guitar riffs. Indeed, the guitars seemed to be the driving force in the group. Not just the usual blam-blam-blam with the double bass drum pounding kind of stuff. When it's live, all the different soounds mix together and I didn't mind the growlies as much. When the guitars and drums are blasting, the loud lyrics don't stick out aso prevalently. It was also a little funny how their singer seemed to be out of breath frequently. I dunno', maybe it was Denver's famed altitude. He reminded me of Kevin from "The Office", gasping at a seminar and telling people to "dream... *wheeeze*..... big....*gasp gasp*". At least he didn't puke into a bucket (although I suppose some fans would've seen that as "being metal").

But the guys seemed to be having fun onstage. They tossed out three Dollar Store beachballs and had a blast kicking them around. They weren't posing and trying to look all "bad ass"; they were smirking and hopping around with an upbeat demeanor.

Of course, now that I've heard them live, I'll listen to their stuff online and think: "damn, I STILL hate growly metal". All the stuff I've tracked down from them seems like the exact same song to me. So the moral of the story is: go see 'em live, not on your computer.

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