Well, on this very moment I am going to try to write a report of the most strange but jet greatest day. Last Tuesday 36 Crazyfists was playing in Amsterdam and Metalrage has got a couple of true fans of this band. A funny anecdote is that 2,5 years ago when we saw 36 Crazyfists in Amsterdam we decided to start Metalrage. Last Tuesday we went to Amsterdam early because we had an interview with singer Brock. Carn, Niamen (one of our members) and me jumped in the car not knowing what would happen to us that night. When we arrived we had a drink outside and after that we watched a few minutes of the 36 Crazyfists sound check and after that the From First to Last sound check. After a great interview and lovely pizza we went to the venue to experience what would become the best show ever.

From First To Last




Let’s start with the first band of the evening, From First To Last. A kind of emo-metal/rock band from California. I was glad I had to review their latest album some weeks ago, because that resulted in the fact I could actually sing along with a few songs. And though I like their album very much, the show was a bit difficult from what I had expected. I’m not saying I didn’t like the show, but it all seemed a bit too emo to me. BUT, and that’s something I’ve got to mention: From First To Last vocalist Sonny Moore wasn’t on stage tonight. Actually, he won’t appear on the stage during this whole tour, due to big problems with his throat. (You can read more about that in the upcoming interview with FFTL.) And thinking of that, I’ve got to admit that the band replaced Sonny very well. I can imagine it’s quite difficult to make such a last-minute decision to go on without the actual a vocalist. So I’ve got to give these guys my compliments for that.

A pity that at some moments, guitarist (and replacing vocalist) Matt Good, sang like someone suddenly grabbed him at his balls. This resulted in quite some false notes. Again, I’m not saying this really bothered me though! All in all it turned out to be a nice, but certainly not spectacular show.

Twelve Tribes




The second band/support of the night was Roadrunner Records Metalcore band Twelve Tribes. With some dedicated fans in the audience they got the party started. I had never seen them before and the album quite surprised me but the live show actually was flawless and energetic. The song that is still in my mind is Godshapped War, the boost this song gave the audience was gigantic. The great sound (thank you soundguy!) really got the audience pumping on that moment. Too bad the set of Twelve Tribes wasn’t that long. I think they played for 40 minutes or something like that. Besides that the lights weren’t that good which caused a dark stage. The band compensated this very well by just doing their thing and blasting us away.

The thing I missed was the communication with the audience. You can be a good band but the interaction with your fans and audience can make you a great band. And I think this band need to do more with the audience to get the united feeling. Overall we had a satisfied feeling after the show of Twelve Tribes but we didn’t know what was about to happen 30 minutes later.

36 Crazyfists

After a quick change and sound check it was time for the headliner of the night. This is the first headlining tour of 36 Crazyfists through the mainland of Europe and they sure were into a great party. And that is what they gave the audience and what we gave them. The intro was the ever so famous Imperial March from Starwars, and soon the first song blasted out of the speakers shortly after. At the End of August was the first song of the night and the audience exploded right from the first note the band played. Before the show Metalrage gave the band a shirt to wear on stage. Brock promised to do this and when he entered the stage we couldn’t believe it, he was wearing the shirt. Can you see the irony? 2,5 years ago we decided to start this website and right now the band who was playing back then was wearing our shirt. For us this was just an honour. The whole setlist existed of tunes from mostly the Snowcapped record. The Heart and The Shape, Bloodwork, Cure Eclipse, Kenai, With Nothing Underneath, Song for the Fisherman, Destroy the Map and Installing the Catheter all got played. The closing song was a part of Waterhaul.



A new song was played as well, called “Felt through a Phoneline”. If this is a taste of that what is to come, I want more! The tune had a nice mix of melodic vocals combined with some great screams and some very metal-ish doublebass/guitarwork. The band itself gave a great performance, clearly enjoying the show themselves as well. Brock delived some great crowd interaction and was letting people sing all the time.



The band came back for one more tune, the almost classic Slitwrist Theory. For one last time the crowd got in action, and Mr. Lindow was inclined to do some stagediving himself. Personally I would have loved some more older tunes but I believe its a fact that the band themselves are pretty fed up with most of the work on Bitterness the Star, so we have to live with that.



All in all this was one of the best shows I’ve been to, and the band should tour mainland Europe a bit more because it seems that the English are getting all the goods. The Metalrage crew had a good time after the show as well; The band was kind enough to drink a few beers in a rockbar called The Cave with us. A great night it was! (Carn: Suffice to say, I got pretty wasted)