F O U R T H E Y E

Helmet came to town, claiming to play 2 sets, one of Betty in it's entirety and then a second "normal" set.

I came away bitterly disappointed and angry with the world, and will summarise the show in dot points:

• The playing of Betty really just felt like the band "going through the motions"
• Actually, I don't think Betty is even that great an album - it has a few good tracks but a lot of filler. I'd rank it behind Meantime, Strap It On and Aftertaste. Wilmas Rainbow, I Know, Milquetoast and (surprisingly) The Silver Hawaiian were highlights.
• Biscuits for Smut was a downtuned mess. The members of the band just tuned their to strings down to B or some shit, didn't appear to use a tuner and the whole thing sounded like balls
• Speaking of downtuning, all their old material was tuned down a step or two. I assume this was to allow for Page's old man vocals. I just didn't sound right.
• In fact for the most part the sound was pretty shit. At certain times during the show the volume would be cranked to ear bleedingly loud volumes, only to return to "normal" the next song.
• Page has never been a great vocalist, turn that shit down in the mix
• Beers we're $10 fucking dollars
• Not only that, but I got short changed and effectively payed $20 for one
• The second set was actually better than the first - at least they played their new stuff with conviction
• For what it's worth, stuff of their latest album (which I thought was ok) comes across well live
• 0 tracks from Meantime, 1 track from Aftertaste, 1 track from Strap It On - need I say more
• Maybe the encore had some unannounced tracks - I could see the setlist from my spot in the crowd though, and say nothing there to suggest it was worth hanging around (tip: I didn't)
• The didn't really play 2 sets, they moved right onto the non-Betty material with no gap (aside from Page talking to the crowd)
• I expected set 2 to resemble something like this one from NZ. It didn't. What we got was that setlist minus all the good songs

Bottom line - I won't be paying money to see Helmet again, unless the original lineup returns (not to say the current lineup is terrible, they seem quite capable musicians. But out of the 4 times I've seen them I've really only enjoyed the show twice)

Now that's scathing. Good job HB. At a certain point some bands think they can rest on their laurels.

A reminder that you are only ever as good as your last gig. X

And that's how nu-metal was born.