♫Intimate Venues♫

It should probably come as no real surprise to most of you out there that I am, in fact, a bit of a rocker. With just one solid look over, most could probably/safely infer that I have a fairly deep love affair with the genre of heavy metal. You know, with the long hair/beard, and wearing nothing but black and all... Oddly enough, as it stands, I've never really been to all that many concerts in my time. I can count the amount of concerts I've been to in about the lower double digits. This is mostly in part due to my age (as I wasn't even born yet when most of my favorite bands were actually touring) and also having a distinct lack of personal funds to attend the ones that I could have.

Last night I got to attend a concert at one of my local venues, The Baltimore Soundstage. It's not a huge hall by any means, but it does provide a somewhat intimate space for the audience and the performers to occupy for a few hours. For locals (such as myself) it's a nice way to check out some of the native bands, as well as any talent that may be passing through. It's not often, but every once in a while we get a doozy of a band that shows up, and when that happens the sparks do indeed fly!

The band in question was the one, the only, Sanctuary, and yes, I do mean that Sanctuary.

Being joined by the amazingly talented front-man/singer (and my all around excellent friend) Joe Silver, we personally embarked on a close to four hour sonic sojourn that respectively rocked our collective socks off, while simultaneously kicking our balls thoroughly in. All hyperbole aside, it was a great time is fundamentally what I'm trying to get at here people...

Before Sanctuary could take the stage proper, we had a couple of front bands to get the crowd warmed up, and boy did they not disappoint. Kicking things off was a local band (out of Columbia Maryland) by the name of Burning Shadows. Truth be told, even though they didn't have their regular line-up for this show (as the drummer and bassist were last minute replacements) I honestly couldn't tell. Barring one slight mess up with one song for about ten seconds, these guys were on point and got everyone's blood pumping. I'm a bit of a sucker for the more mythic sounding prog-rock power bands (like Blind Guardian) and these guys are now no different. Their song 'The Last One to Fall' was absolutely epic in all sense of the word, and compelled me to purchase their album with that single on it almost immediately. The lead vocalist Tom Davy has an impressively deep and resonating tone, that honestly just fits the vibe of every track perfectly. These are the kind of folks that the Soundstage was built for, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing much more from these guys in the future.

Following up Burning Shadows was another (somewhat local) band called A Sound of Thunder. Before I go further, I think there is a needed bit of disclosure here, my friend Joe is actually good friends with the members of this band, and I've had the pleasure of meeting with them personally too, so take that as you may. Regardless of my own connections with the band, these guys (and gal) came out and rocked everyone's faces off. Within seconds of opening their set with the song 'Udoroth' they had a whole front line of headbangers. From there they played some tracks off of their latest album Tales from the Deadside which the crowd absolutely adored. The energy lead singer Nina exudes on stage is highly contagious, and her interaction with the audience is precisely the sort of stuff I love to see at concerts. Unfortunately they couldn't play but a handful of songs before they had to yield the stage to Sanctuary.

Once Sanctuary was front and center pretty much all bets were off. Even though I've only become a fan of these guy in the last couple years (due to an immensely emphatic Joe having me listen to their work) if I wasn't already a fan, this show would have most certainly converted me. Warrel Dane's voice (while not exactly in pristine shape) still enveloped the room, and Lenny Rutledge's guitar chops where so righteous that they made angels fall from heaven. The drums of Dave Budbill were so powerful I'm certain that people three blocks down the street were feeling his thunderous double bass. Sanctuary is definitely something to behold live, and getting to hear some of their classic songs like 'Soldiers of Steel' and 'Future-tense' along with their cover of 'White Rabbit' were all highlights I'm going to relish for years to come.

Nothing was greater though than getting to meet the band after the show wrapped up. As it turns out, Joe (who I mentioned earlier is a singer himself among other things) was very much inspired by Sanctuary/Nevermore in regards to even pursuing a career in music. Seeing Joe's face as he got to not only shake hands with Warrel Dane, but actually talk with him about music, singing, etc. etc. was like watching a child's face light up on Christmas morning. It's a moment I'm sure he'll never forget, and one I'm going to carry with me always.

Tragically it's nights like last night that make me wish I had a better camera (as the one on my phone couldn't pick up anything due to the low lighting) so I sadly cannot provide any pictures of what happened. Amusingly enough though, Joe changed his icon on facebook to the shot I took of him with Warrel Dane, so I guess that sort of counts...