Live Report :
Knotfest Japan 2014
Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan
November 15-16, 2014
Completely sold out, Knotfest Japan launched in the crisp, cold morning with two opening bands, including the Japanese hardcore band Crystal Lake. Their brief set got the crowd warmed up, with hardcore fans “picking up change” in the pit and the rest of us head-banging. See the rest here
The merch line is epic. It opened at 8am. I took this picture at around 1pm. Somebody’s getting paid!
I’m coming at ya live on location at Knotfest Japan! It’s still early going on Day 1, but I can report it’s completely sold out, unseasonably cold, and I saw Fred Durst. He joined the Japanese hardcore band Crystal Lake on a early morning cover of ‘Rollin.
Thanks for answering my questions. It’s taken me some time to absorb. First, thanks for introducing me to the term “reunion-aged.” I feel that’s going to be very useful in a few years when all the NWOAHM bands that have just recently disbanded get back together. Second, I absolutely agree with your sentiments about Kreator and Overkill; age has neither lessened their aggression nor the impact of their live shows (and Mille is only 47–I was surprised by that). See the rest here
Perhaps the issue with age is less about the members in any particular band and more about that group’s heyday. Thinking of the band’s ages in that light tells a very different story. See the “birth dates” of the aforementioned bands below.
I would also make the argument that reunion-aged bands sell more festival tickets (and more expensive ones at that). See the rest here
The Dolving material sounded great. Marco can pull it off with no trouble. I teared up a bit during The Dead Eye songs. Damn, was that a great album! As for DT, in fact, they played a headlining gig the next night, so I’m sure they took their time there. See the rest here
Thanks for your intrepid reporting, as always. Nice to hear that the Haunted and Kreator ripped it up as usual. I was surprised to see they played so much Dolving era stuff—how did those tunes sound? And as for DT, a 90 minute set is like a preshow warm up for them—they must have had to go to another venue to play another 3-4 hours after Loud Park to make it worth their while. See the rest here
I realize now I failed to include any negative comments in my earlier Loud Park reports. That was probably partly due to positive bias caused by the immediate post-show high, but I like to think my choices about which acts to watch also had something to do with it. However, as is always the case with festivals, there were some problem areas:
Thanks for these excellent reports, JaPaBo! Was Kreator painfully loud, as they were when I saw them with Overkill? Also, I can’t get over Jordan Rudess on keytar (especially what looks to be a bloated two-octave one). See the rest here
Just got back from the first day of Loud Park. You may know that Manowar cancelled their headline spot due to a fire that delayed their gear’s arrival. However, the big story of the day was how unnecessary Manowar is. See the rest here
This work by Metalligentsia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
