DragonForce, Brighton Music Hall 7/21/17

Robert Mackenrodt
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

When a friend asks you if you’d like to visit your favorite venue to see a band named DragonForce, you should probably say yes.

I was only aware of DragonForce through Guitar Hero, like an unfortunate poser, but I knew they were very talented and probably put on a great show. Plus, Brighton Music Hall is surrounded by good food and has that second bar with skee ball.

Exiting the Lyft, it was upsetting to see that the old pizza shop right next to Brighton Music Hall had vanished. The historic (in my opinion) establishment had been replaced with a seafood place, which looked pretty good but a little crowded. We made our way maybe two or three doors down and found Habanero, a small taco and burrito joint with Jarrito sodas (though apparently you can only get the Apple flavor in Mexico now?). After a dinner of two small but hearty and delicious tacos, we made our way into the Hall.

Brighton Music Hall is sort of divided into three parts: the main stage/dance hall with a bar on either side. Behind the left bar is a small area that usually contains merch tables and patrons trying to get away from a large crowd. When walking through the main area, you’ll notice there’s a long trail of white tape on the floor and, in my opinion, no visit to Brighton Music Hall is complete without trying to traverse it among the crowd at max capacity. It is thrilling. The trail goes around the first bar on the right, all the way up between to large groups of people: the people inside the maelstrom of sweat on the dance floor, and the people on the right leaning against a convenient counter. This leads to aforementioned skee ball room, a fine reward for your stressful travel — the act of getting from start to finish becomes a dance in itself, albeit one where you’re avoiding as much physical contact with strangers.

My one picture taken from the old man view at the bar.

DragonForce takes themselves just seriously enough. While they are enthusiastically sincere about their music and stage presence, lead singer Marc Hudson is a hype man with a great sense of humor. When Marc took a small break to sip his beer, the crowd obviously starts chanting “chug!” Marc downs it to uproarious applause and exclaims “Let’s hear it for the guy that just drank half a lager!,” adding “what a man!” The combination of the lights on stage and Marc hopping on an amp to belt lyrics about being a master of this universe often made him appear like some sort of metal god about to explode. The rest of the band (Herman Li, Sam Totman, Frederic Leclercq, and Gee Anzalone) are also clearly very talented. They are capable of playing guitar at superhuman speeds and can apparently produce video game noises from their guitars. In fact, my favorite part of the show was an intermission with a theme from Street Fighter (Guile), the main Super Mario Brothers song we all know and love, and a song I believe is from Sonic The Hedgehog. Between all the dragons and furies of storms, it’s nice to see a metal act have fun. They are also very loud. Perhaps the loudest show I’ve ever seen (with the Eagles Of Death Metal coming in second). The type of loud that starts beneath the feet as you feel the bassline and drums rising through your body, all the way through the top of your skull. Then someone hits you with a guitar.

DragonForce is one of the few bands keeping metal alive. Go see them if you ever get the chance, especially if it’s in a small, intimate venue. Bring earplugs.

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