This was my second time seeing two of these bands live and my first time seeing the other three, and seeing as it was the last concert I'd be seeing while actively living in New York City, I wanted it to be good. Webster Hall may be legendary, but it's not among my favorite venues in the city and consistently has not great sound. Tonight, for the most part, they got their shit together.

There were 5 bands on the bill in total, 4 of which I owned albums by and had listened to at one point or another, and…

I kind of stumbled upon this concert at the last minute while on Christmas break from work, so I had not been looking forward to it for a long time or anything like that. I hoped that it would a good show though, because there were a few unknowns going into it for me and I wanted to justify the $35 ticket price. First: the Graemercy theater has had spotty performance in the past, particularly in sound quality, 2nd: Insomnium is a band I've tried many times to like and just can't seem to do it, and 3rd: Dark Tranquillity…

Another Opeth show down! This is the 4th time (I believe) I've seen these guys live and regardless of technical difficulties or band member illness, they never have disappointed. Their Evolution XX tour at this same venue back in 2010 is still in my top 2 concerts of all time. This time, I sort of stumbled upon this tour date at the last minute and figured that it would be a fun way to spend a Thursday evening away from work, particularly since one of the opening acts/co-headliners was In Flames, a band I'd listened to on and off for…

2 bands that I have listened to for many years but have always been reluctant to see live are Slipknot, whose track "Wait and Bleed" helped get me into heavy metal, and Korn, whose album Untouchables is still one of my favorites of the era. The reason for this, as embarrassing as it is to admit, is that their respective fan bases honestly scared me. Both these bands, as well as their opening act, Flint, Michigan's King 810, are notorious for having fans that can get particularly violent (though that is no fault of the band's) and I was worried…

Steve Forbert is and has always been one of my Dad's favorite artists of all time. This was the 4th or 5th time I've seen him live and I honestly thought I had seen all there was to see. Well, I'm happy to say that I was wrong. See, all those other times I saw Mr. Forbert I saw him either as a solo act or with one other backup acoustic guitarist or something. Here I saw him with a full band, and let me tell you, as good as he is as a solo artist, this made a difference.…

With all the fuss surrounding Terminal 5, you'd expect it to be one of the worst venues in New York City. I've been here twice now and both times it not only has been a great venue, it has been one of the better ones in the city at large. The sound is good, the view is good, the layout not bad. I like it. Always have. The venue itself wasn't the problem tonight. Neither were the bands.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first band to come onstage was Amaranthe, who I missed last year because of my…

Odin praise Amon Amarth, for they now own our metal souls! May stories be told of their battle hymns in the hallowed halls of Valhalla! May -

Okay, I'm getting a little carried away. Let me start this again.

I almost didn't go to this concert. I had planned to for months, but because of unforeseen medical expenses I didn't end up trying to get a ticket until a few days before it happened. This was NOT a smart idea, because the concert was sold out, and had been for weeks. I was very surprised. Was Viking Death Metal really…

This was a historic concert for me. Besides being part of the 50th (yeah, you read that right, 50th!) anniversary tour for the legendary Canadian Folk singer's start in the music industry, it was also the first time I had seen him live since back in 1994 nearly 20 years ago. Add onto that the fact that Gordon Lightfoot is arguably my favorite folk artist of all time and yeah…I was really excited.

The venue he played in was the isolated but beautiful Penn's Peak near Lehighton, Pennsylvania. Now, I had been here many times before, having filmed many…

This was a concert that I had not planned to go to in advance. I saw that they were playing near where I lived in NYC and figured it would be fun to go to since I used to listen to Ill Niño back around 2002 or so with their debut album "Revolution…Revolucion". Plus, it was their hometown show so I figured the band would pull out all the stops to put on a good performance. I wasn't disappointed.

First off, the venue, Gramercy Theater, is one that I had been to before (to see Cold and Egypt Central in…

I've seen Kamelot 2 times before this show, and honestly both times they were outclassed by the bands playing with them (Leaves' Eyes in 2006 and Nightwish in 2012 respectively). The second of those two concerts was actually almost entirely ruined by poor venue sound and a hugely shortened set (7 songs total). Still, they're easily one of my favorite bands and I wanted to give them one more try. Hopefully the 3rd time would be the charm.

It was. They knocked it out of the park.

First things first though. The venue, Stage 48, was one that I had…