"Yesterday has gone forever, there's no turning back the clock” — words which Iced Earth must heed on this night at a packed Billboard in Melbourne.
It was a night the band and punters won't forget all too soon, and not for all the right reasons. On the contrary, a series of unusual incidents took place which seemed to baffle Iced Earth's lead guitarist and founder Jon Shaffer throughout the night, as evidenced by a perplexed shake of his head now and then.
Things started going awry from the get-go when the opening act, local speed metal band Elm Street, experienced what no band wants to hear during their set — a very strained sound system which hummed and harred as if to say, "I'm old and worn-out and no matter how good the sound guy is, I ain't gonna sound no good". And it didn't. It was like listening to blown out speakers in an old Datsun. Blurrp, blurrp. It had nothing to do with the band’s ability nor inability to play; the rig is not just not accustomed to such ferocious metal riffs.
The next in the series of incidents occurred half way through the third song during Elm Street’s performance. I happened to be taking a snapshot of the lead singer mid-verse when, in my peripheral, I saw the bass player screaming in pain on the floor with his knee cap oddly configured in the wrong position on his leg. A dislocated knee was the end of the night for that local act.
After a long break of silence, the main act's deep riffs finally pounded into the hearts of their dedicated legion of fans, each adorned with a black Iced Earth shirt. But it quickly became clear that something else was wrong. Normally, power metal singers can be heard loud and proud over the mix, and the melodies are usually quite decipherable. But during the first song, 'Plagues Of Babylon', it became apparent that the vocalist’s voice was a wash-out.
The next issue happened all too soon during the second song, 'V', when all of a sudden Jon Schaffer stopped playing, disarmed his guitar and handed it to his trusty roadie. He then walked up to the mic and humbly began apologising for the strangeness of the night and said that it was the first time Stu Block (the vocalist), in his three years in the band, had lost his voice and that something had just blown out in his amp. He even mentioned the unfortunate accident during Elm Street’s performance and some other bizarre oddities during the day.
Nevertheless, as professional artists do so well, they rose to the occasion and ended up performing a very solid set of American-style power metal. Stu Block’s vocals improved over the course of the night and the crowd were clearly thankful for the “Go hard or go home" approach.
I'm looking forward to seeing Iced Earth again, but next time, without the dramas.
