GOJIRA/BURST/ZOROASTER/SPLOOGE.

Last night I told Burst vocalist Linus Jägerskog –  a truly chill dude who not only works his band’s merch booth, but is more than happy to pose for photos, sign shit, etc. – that he broke my heart. How could this be the first time we were seeing them live? And why oh why was it the last?

Burst were fucking great, man. So great that when the shitard behind me yelled “Stand up, you faggot!” at guitarist Robert Reinholdz (who was, for reasons I’m not clear about, seated for the entire performance) and then called for Jägerskog to “hang yourself tonight,” I seriously considered throwing my beer at him. And if any band that wasn’t Gojira was going on after Burst, getting kicked out of the show to defend the Swedes’ honor might have seemed totally worth it.

But GOJIRA. Wow. Here are some random thoughts that ran through my brain as we watched them give the best show of the year so far for the second time this year:

• I just came a little.
• I haven’t seen Vince this happy since we were six years old.
• I just came a little more.
• Can everyone see my hard-on through my pants?
• This is how girls must have felt watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan back in the day.
• Why can’t I stop smiling?
  
• I hate encores and I want a fucking encore.
• Yo, those Hasidic kids can MOSH.
• Aaaaannnddd… I came again. Fuck.

During “Toxic Garbage Island,” the band’s first of two encores (the second was “Vacuity,” natch), or friend Bob wandered over to tell me he’d never seen Gojira live before, and his mind was blown. Then he started to talking to our friend John; suddenly I heard him say “Hold on, I’ll be right back,” and then, just as the already-infamous dive bomb part of the riff kicked in, Bob fucking launched himself into the pit like a goddamn cannonball. With his leather coat still on. All you saw was the crowd parting and bodies flying and it was on, dude. And I can’t blame him. That’s the power of Gojira.

Listening to The Way of All Flesh as I walked to get my morning coffee today was almost (almost) anti-climactic. There is nothing like seeing this band live… and all evidence suggests that they’re only getting better. If Gojira aren’t the best metal band on the planet right now, they’re pretty fucking close.

-AR

P.S. Zoroaster were good, too.