Dragonforce at the Grand Ballroom, Sutter St.

Dragonforce are loud.

Stunning I know. But they are so loud, so overwhelmingly loud, that the setlist really could have said anything: they weren't songs so much as they were collections of solos, choruses, and thrashing on all parties. I feel for that singer, I really do: he's a tenor of remarkable power and sustain and his belted lyrics might as well have been in Finnish for as much as I could understand them. The volume of his microphone just could not compete with those roaring guitars. He must be used to this though, and devoted most the never-ending solo time to hamming it up for the cameras and dumping water bottles on the crowd. He worked up the croud like an expert and strutted the stage like king of the hill, but no one really came for him. Everyone came for those two guitarists.

And whoa. Those guitarists. They thrash, ok? They thrash hard. Their shtick is to act nonchalant and try and one-up eachother in the solos, and their stage-yawns and casual gestures are endearing but not convincing. They clearly take their thrashing very, very seriously, and virtuosic though they are, damned if they don't start sounding the same after a while. Or maybe that was just my ear drums dying a slow death. This band is all about it's guitarists. Though that keyboard player is a close second for the simple reason that the man is able to play a two-level keyboard AND do high kicks at the same time. That's pretty impressive stuff.

Dragonforce doesn't lend itself well to detailed scrutiny. There were beers with straws in them taped to the mic stands, there was thrashing, there was 3-man synchronized jumping, there were many water-bottles emptied onto heads, there was a mosh-pit half the size of the room, there was a keyboard solo and the bassist grabbing one of the guitars in the interest of proving HE can shred as well as anyone else (he's kind of right), and there was a lot of screaming. Devil-horns were thrown. Photos were snapped. My limbs feel like rubber and my voice is gone. I'm exhausted.

What more can you ask for from a rock show?