It seems ironic to have a section on concerts, because I went to so few of them. For the second year in a row I managed to attend a mere half-dozen shows. I think my gig-going days are winding down: the physical toll is getting greater, and the cost…!  Sure I love to support the bands but we are ticket-fee’d to death before we even get in the door, and then the merch cost….  As much as I regret not doing it, I haven’t bought a shirt for over a year. But that’s an old story and I can’t see it changing any time soon. 

These days there has to be a really good reason for me to hit the venues, and frankly there are fewer and fewer bands coming this way that I really want to see (most of those are small-to-medium European acts and are unlikely to be able to afford to tour over here). 

The shows I did see were scattered throughout the year: Earthside opening for Caligula’s Horse in February; Ministry/Gary Newman/Front Line Assembly in March; VNV Nation in April, Riverside in June; Billy Idol in August; and Zeal and Ardor in November. I’ll start in third place and work towards the top.

3. Riverside Live at Torwar Arena. June 1, Warsaw.

This show was the grand finale to a huge (year-and-a half, all told), and hugely successful world tour in support of the band’s 8th album, ID.Entity, released in January of 2023. We can acknowledge the somewhat divided opinions about the album within the more established Riverside fan base, but I do believe it gained them more new fans, especially overseas, than any of the other albums. The gig was planned for June 1, to be recorded as an official live release, and in a bigger venue than they had heretofore played anywhere outside of festivals. They were going to go out with a bang, figuratively and (given the confetti cannons) literally, not to mention the massive laser-heavy light show. There was no way I was going to miss this gig: these are my boys, after all, and I love them dearly. 

I had a marvelous time. It was reminiscent of the February 2017 shows when Riverside returned from their year’s hiatus after the death of Piotr Grudziński, and the fans came together in remembrance and celebration. Everyone was there, from all over Poland, Europe, the UK, and farther afield. It was an opportunity to reconnect with the Riverside Family, most of whom I had not seen since 2017, and a bunch I had never met before. It was a concert meet-up at its best.

Given all that, why is it Number 3?

Unfortunately, despite the elaborate hype and promotion and all the initial excitement, the show itself struck me as somewhat flat. It felt over-rehearsed and suffering from a lack of spontaneity that the guys didn’t seem able to overcome. I had certainly seen the band put on better, more dynamic shows: the incandescent gig in Chicago in 2015; the monstrous show in Warsaw in October 2018 to start off the Wasteland tour; the Montreal gigs in both 2022 and 2023. All of those were Riverside at their energetic best, truly the live band Mariusz Duda insists they are. June 1 in Torwar was not one of those shows, which is why I never said much about it at the time or afterwards.  

2. Zeal and Ardor. Opera House, November 28th.

I didn’t know a whole lot about these guys except that they were out of Switzerland, and had some interesting-sounding songs: metal, but on a foundation of southern spirituals and slave protest songs. I liked what I’d heard of their latest album, but hadn’t played it a lot–in fact, I don’t think I had played it all the way through when I bought a ticket on a whim. I had no other gigs planned for the near future, and they sounded intriguing enough to take a chance on.

I am very glad I did so. It’s a big band, with six guys on stage. Along with the regular metal-band two guitars/bass/drums lineup, there are two guys who are straight vocalists, along with the lead singer/guitarist. The music has a great emphasis on intricate vocals, strong harmonies, and call-and-response amongst the growls (it is, after all, a metal band). And as heavy as they occasionally get on the album, they ramped it to a whole new level live: intensely powerful and raw, much more than the studio stuff would lead you to expect. Dynamic, energetic, and yet in between songs the leader, Manuel Gagneux, is funny and personable, and unexpectedly American (given his name and where the band hails from I guess I was expecting to hear at least a French accent). They did not play a long set which was a bit disappointing but it was thoroughly immersive and I’d go see them again in a heartbeat.

1. Front Line Assembly/Gary Numan/Ministry. History, March 16th.

Sometimes, you see the lineup for a tour, and the information is hard to process. Is this really a thing, or is it someone’s fantasy show and I’m just looking at a meme? These three acts  all on one bill, every one of them a headliner, an industrial lineup of such legendary proportions–it hardly seemed possible. And yet there we were.

 They were on the second leg of this tour by the time March 2024 rolled around, having taken it across the US first. I knew FLA and was a huge fan of Noise Unit, one of Bill Leeb’s other projects. I had seen Numan three times before on his own tours, but had never managed to catch Ministry. There was no possible way I was going to miss this show, even if it killed me, and given it was General Admission and standing, it just might. It was at a venue I didn’t know (the relatively new History), and it was gonna be packed because it had sold out almost instantly. 

I got there early enough to be pretty close to the front, if not right on the rail, and the crowd was electric with excitement. And this show did not disappoint: crazy and intense and over the top, a crowd almost overwhelmed with joy and energy; even the security was good-natured, handing out water bottles as the heat and excitement grew, manipulating surfers over the rail, keeping an eye. I’ll give the venue kudos for that (it is a pretty nice place, actually). The individual sets must have been shortened but they didn’t feel that way–we certainly got our money’s worth from everyone. The show lived up to every expectation and then some. Gigs like this don’t come along too damned often.