Paganfest II at the DNA Lounge, San Francisco, 5/16/09

Last year, Paganfest was a mere 10 minute drive away.  This year, it was more like an hour away.  That said, the extra driving time was balanced out by the fact that you could enter the venue in full viking regalia if you wished to do so.  There were no silly signs prohibiting this like there were last year in Santa Clara.  I was almost disappointed to see nobody taking advantage of this new freedom.  Sure, there were some attendees in kilts, but no battle gear of any kind (that is, if one discounts the battle gear being sold at the merch table, right next to the "Odin says tip!" sign).  

The merch table was full of nicely designed shirts, but since my wardrobe already consists mainly of black concert shirts, I resisted forking over any money. 

There was a band already playing when I entered the club.  I knew it couldn't be Swashbuckle, who I thought were going on first, because the members didn't look like pirates.  As it turned out, they were a local band called Cormorant.  The bass player was playing a six string fretless bass, and growling in death metal fashion.  Once I truly started to pay attention to what they were doing, I found myself liking them, especially when they slowed it down and added some variety to the proceedings with some "clean" vocals and haunting melody.  At a mere $8, their cd ep was about the cheapest thing on the merch table, so I made my one purchase for the evening (if I choose to discount the slices of pizza I bought next door between bands, that is). 

Swashbuckle were, as I figured they would be, dressed up like pirates.  They obviously didn't take themselves too seriously.  They more or less stayed in pirate character for their entire set.  I've recently changed my Facebook language setting to "English (pirate)", so for a moment I could imagine I was home in front of the computer.  It's funny hearing a large, bearded pirate shouting:  "San Francisco!  How the fuck are ye?"  Musically, they played thrash metal.  It was entertaining in a live setting, but I think I probably wouldn't listen to the cd much if I owned it.  They ended their set with a question - "who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" - and launched into a metal version of the Spongebob Squarepants theme song. 

Okay.  That was amusing.

Blackguard, from Canada, added a keyboard player to the thrash metal formula.  The singer kept enthusing about how well they'd been received/treated on this tour, it being their first U.S. tour.  They had the Venom hair-windmill thing down perfectly, whipping their heads around in tight little circles as they played.  I've gotta hand it to anybody who can play while doing that.  Twenty years ago I would have been excited about their music too, but from the vantage point of a forty-something they just sounded like another thrash band.  I wish them all the best though.  Towards the end of the set, the singer pulled out a video camera and told the audience that he'd been filming the pits at every date on the tour, and that he'd be uploading them to YouTube after it was all over.  That's one way to get people to dance, I guess - appeal to their competitive natures.  Geez.

Moonsorrow reminded me of Ensiferum, who headlined last year's tour.  There was a bit of viking-era Bathory influence to their sound.  Many of their songs were long, keyboard-laden affairs with hints of folk melody.  The vocals were mainly growled, with occasional wordless, melodic backing vocals.  In the end, I think I would have liked them better if they'd ditched the keyboards and added some strings - maybe a violin or cello. 

Ireland's Primordial is one of the bands I'd most wanted to see, and they didn't disappoint.  Their singer burst onto the stage in full corpsepaint, his bald head and arms smeared in stage blood (if I were to be uncharitable, I'd say he looked a bit like Uncle Fester after a car accident, but the look actually worked pretty well for him).  No keyboards here.  None needed.  Like Tyr last year, Primordial exuded a... well, primordial sound without the benefit of any instrumentation other than the basic drums, bass, and guitar.  The singer actually sings too, with his voice sometimes descending into a black metal rasp, but usually soaring majestically above the doom-laden instrumental assault.  They're one of those bands that manage to invoke a sense of claustrophobia and despair while pummeling along at 100mph.  At one point, while introducing the song "Coffin Ships", about the often disasterous Irish immigration to the new world, the singer asked how many of the audience had Irish blood in them.  After the applause had died down, he deadpanned, "apparently everybody."  Their set seemed short to me, but not as short as Tyr's was last year. 

Korpiklaani, from Finland, play folk metal, and their sound was abetted by accordian and fiddle.  Compared to Primordial, their music sounded deliriously happy, with high speed folk melodies and gruff vocals forming a backdrop for a wide range of dancing styles on the floor in front of the stage.  A lot of people appeared to be pogo-ing, and I found myself moving with the rest of the audience.  I wish they hadn't provided introductions to the songs though.  When the lyrics are in Finnish, I can imagine that the songs are about anything I please.  It's a bit of a letdown (although not much of a surprise) to discover that many of their songs are about drinking and fucking.  Oh well.  Still, I had a blast during their set, and would definitely see them again.
They played an encore, and the vocalist/guitarist came down the stairs playing the first few bars of Rainbow's "Man on a Silver Mountain".  Too bad they didn't actually play the song.  That would have been interesting. 

It'll be interesting to see who makes it over for Paganfest III.