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The mighty King Diamond recently released his newest CD, The Puppet Master last week and kicked off a tour to support it. I've seen the King and Mercyful Fate at least 5-6 times since 1989 or so.
I arrived too late to see the opener Single Bullet Theory. Oh well.
Nocturne took the stage as soon as I arrived. A large crowd had already gathered for the show, which is rare this early at a club show. I didn't care for this band. They had a female singer and a bass player that looked like he came straight from Marilyn Manson's band. The music and sound were okay, just not my cup of tea; I prefer Grandma's tea anyways [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
My friend and I drank some beers and tried to pass the time. Celebrity musicians in the crowd included Paul Bostaph, Mike Bordin, and Robert Trujillio; Bordin and Trujillo aren't what I would call "tall" by any stretch of the imagination.
Entombed was next. Again, not my preference. The guitar player with the SG had a HORRIBLE guitar tone. Eliminate all treble and put the ProCo Rat on "suck" mode and you'll have his tone. I went back to the bar after 3 or so songs. They seemed to play forever and ever. It was like I was, I dunno, stuck in a tomb or something...
Finally at 11 freakin PM the lights go down and Funeral from Abigail begins playing over the PA. King comes out on stage and is mouthing the words of Funeral while he stabs a baby doll that he pulled out of Abigail's white coffin.
Then the band rips into A Mansion in Darkness. For the first time ever, King has a backup singer! I'm pretty sure she's the Hungarian woman who sings on the new record. Unfortunately I couldn't hear her too much. Speaking of sound, the sound for the night sucked. The Edge Nightclub used to have flat out awesome sound. First of all, I couln't hear Andy LaRoque for about the first 5-6 songs. Then I can hear Andy, but not Mike Wead, the other guitarist. When I could hear Mike, his tone was so shrill and piercing that I DIDN'T want to hear him anymore. King's voice, however, was amazing and always loud and clear. Hal Patino did a fine job on bass and drummer Matt Thompson is great. I do miss Mikkey Dee though.
For the songs, King played some stuff from Abigail and Abigail II, left the stage for an intermission and played some stuff from Them, Conspiracy (Sleepless Nights!!!!), and the Eye. Just like on the Voodoo tour, a dancing girl on stage played the role of many of King's "characters". She was burned at the stake, cut with a knife, you name it. For the Puppet Master songs she wore a white Phantom of the Opera type mask and King controlled her with puppet strings. Some of this stuff borders on the comical, but you can't fault the guy for really giving it his all on (mostly) ever record and on stage.
Andy LaRocque's playing was great. He played Caparison guitars with EMGs and for the 3rd encore (No Presents Till Christmas) he broke out a BC Rich Warlock. Mike Wead played strathead guitars, some with reverse heads. I'm pretty sure the guitars were missing logos and some of them had pretty beat up bodies and finishes. Mike Wead's leads weren't anything stellar and he sounded a bit sloppy and off key at times.
I bought a shirt and a signed tour book (supposedly only 250 or so were signed). The shirts available can be seen here: (I bought the one at the top of the page)
http://www.covenworldwide.org/shirts2003.htm
When King first hit the stage, the band played behind these iron gates. After the first song, I was annoyed with having to watch the band through bars and I think it really took away from their performance. Finally after about 5-6 songs, the gates were removed. I was glad to have 3 encores but was upset the most about the somewhat crappy sound.
Here's my rating:
Performance :4 out of 5 stars
Setlist: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Here's a link to some pics from another show but the Palo Alto show pretty much looked the same:
http://closedcoffin.com/kingdiamond.htm
I arrived too late to see the opener Single Bullet Theory. Oh well.
Nocturne took the stage as soon as I arrived. A large crowd had already gathered for the show, which is rare this early at a club show. I didn't care for this band. They had a female singer and a bass player that looked like he came straight from Marilyn Manson's band. The music and sound were okay, just not my cup of tea; I prefer Grandma's tea anyways [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
My friend and I drank some beers and tried to pass the time. Celebrity musicians in the crowd included Paul Bostaph, Mike Bordin, and Robert Trujillio; Bordin and Trujillo aren't what I would call "tall" by any stretch of the imagination.
Entombed was next. Again, not my preference. The guitar player with the SG had a HORRIBLE guitar tone. Eliminate all treble and put the ProCo Rat on "suck" mode and you'll have his tone. I went back to the bar after 3 or so songs. They seemed to play forever and ever. It was like I was, I dunno, stuck in a tomb or something...
Finally at 11 freakin PM the lights go down and Funeral from Abigail begins playing over the PA. King comes out on stage and is mouthing the words of Funeral while he stabs a baby doll that he pulled out of Abigail's white coffin.
Then the band rips into A Mansion in Darkness. For the first time ever, King has a backup singer! I'm pretty sure she's the Hungarian woman who sings on the new record. Unfortunately I couldn't hear her too much. Speaking of sound, the sound for the night sucked. The Edge Nightclub used to have flat out awesome sound. First of all, I couln't hear Andy LaRoque for about the first 5-6 songs. Then I can hear Andy, but not Mike Wead, the other guitarist. When I could hear Mike, his tone was so shrill and piercing that I DIDN'T want to hear him anymore. King's voice, however, was amazing and always loud and clear. Hal Patino did a fine job on bass and drummer Matt Thompson is great. I do miss Mikkey Dee though.
For the songs, King played some stuff from Abigail and Abigail II, left the stage for an intermission and played some stuff from Them, Conspiracy (Sleepless Nights!!!!), and the Eye. Just like on the Voodoo tour, a dancing girl on stage played the role of many of King's "characters". She was burned at the stake, cut with a knife, you name it. For the Puppet Master songs she wore a white Phantom of the Opera type mask and King controlled her with puppet strings. Some of this stuff borders on the comical, but you can't fault the guy for really giving it his all on (mostly) ever record and on stage.
Andy LaRocque's playing was great. He played Caparison guitars with EMGs and for the 3rd encore (No Presents Till Christmas) he broke out a BC Rich Warlock. Mike Wead played strathead guitars, some with reverse heads. I'm pretty sure the guitars were missing logos and some of them had pretty beat up bodies and finishes. Mike Wead's leads weren't anything stellar and he sounded a bit sloppy and off key at times.
I bought a shirt and a signed tour book (supposedly only 250 or so were signed). The shirts available can be seen here: (I bought the one at the top of the page)
http://www.covenworldwide.org/shirts2003.htm
When King first hit the stage, the band played behind these iron gates. After the first song, I was annoyed with having to watch the band through bars and I think it really took away from their performance. Finally after about 5-6 songs, the gates were removed. I was glad to have 3 encores but was upset the most about the somewhat crappy sound.
Here's my rating:
Performance :4 out of 5 stars
Setlist: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Here's a link to some pics from another show but the Palo Alto show pretty much looked the same:
http://closedcoffin.com/kingdiamond.htm
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