Gojira and Tesseract

On Friday, 14 October 2016, I saw Gojira and Tesseract perform.  I am not super familiar with Tesseract, but I do enjoy what I have heard and their performance was very good.  Unfortunately, Gojira’s performance is hardwired into my head and that is going to be the thing that I talk about today.

After charting #24 on the Billboard 200, you would think that Gojira would be booked at a pretty large venue, but they actually played a venue that holds about 900 people.  The event sold out a full week in advance and even the scalpers were done selling their tickets before the doors even opened.  Tesseract played to a full venue and it was only after their set ended that we were able to push our way to the first section back, able to sort of see the action from stage left.

Gojira played with a huge projector screen behind them, with lots of interesting video that accompanied their music.  The band came out and the drummer was immediately on point.  He started playing this technical sequence that beautifully segued into “Only Pain”.  The guitar effects for that song were spot on and I was impressed that they were able to duplicate it so well.  In fact, I noticed that this particular performance may have been the cleanest I have ever heard a live guitar in my entire life.

The transitions from song to song were flawless.  They would play these parts that made one song flow into the next in a way that you wouldn’t expect.  Gojira played 17 songs, seven of which are from their newest album, “Magma”.  The other ten songs were complements to these songs and some of my absolute favorites from their catalog.

From “Magma”, I particularly enjoyed “The Shooting Star” and “Silvera” (the guitar solo in that song was phenomenal.  From the album “From Mars to Sirius”, the songs “The Heaviest Matter in the Universe” and “Flying Whales” were really heavy hitters for me.  And “Wisdom Comes” was my absolute favorite from the set.  The drummer performed a really badass drum solo as well.

My only regret was that they didn’t play anything from their 2012 album, which is an album that I really enjoy.  I am still glad I got to hear some of my favorite songs and they delivered really well.  Below are some of the songs they played that stuck well with me.

That’s everything for today. Next week I may go back to the artist profiles or I may share a story of another concert I’ve seen recently. Who knows?! Join me next week!

-Ryan