I was listening to Kittie as a teenager, once upon a time, through a Creative Labs 5.1 PC based surround sound set up. My parents didn't appreciate the music as it was "too angry". Now, some 20 years later, I find myself with an entry ticket to Kittie, who are opening for Jinjer.
While I'll admit, I listened to Kittie as a teenager for the shock factor (an all girl heavy band with sludgy riffs and bass lines?) - I actually liked that style of music, and it persists this day, with heavy music, and its associated aesthetics being something that I enjoy thoroughly.
Now, being me, I'm an old fuck; and so are the performers of Kittie, as I enthusiastically thrust my hand into the air when asked "Who has been here since our first record?". I was about ... one of a dozen or so in the crowd.
It was fantastic to be a part of that heritage, but even more so, to look around me and see all the young(er) faces so keen to see these powerful women of heavy music do their thing, and absolutely fucking nail it, too.
They played a variety of old and new, and the "pit" was a lively place to be. A woman firectly in front of me stood on me toe at one point, and turned around to apologise, as all good heavy music fans do, only to turn white with horror at my (much larger) stature. I told her she'd have to try harder than that to hurt me, and we proceeded to enjoy the rest of Kittie's set.
I particularly liked their rendition of "Brackish", "Spit", and other hits from their first album which were all delivered with finesse, power, and the requisite anger that drives heavy music. Thankfully, there was also a great deal of precision in their performance, which meant the set was delivered with professional skill.
It was great. Then; they were gone, and all that remained was a single stage element, a beautiful drum kit, and a brass section that may as well have had ... real wind instruments in it. But I suppose, since every instrument makes sound, aren't they all wind instruments?
It was soon to be time for Jinjer, and the crowd grew restless and impatient. I marvelled at the drum kit. The lights eventually went down, and the main act came to the stage.
It didn't take many songs for it to be obvious that Tatiana, the lead vocalist of Jinjer was having some trouble with her in ear monitors. At one stage, the crowd heckled the sound engineers... which was probably not helpful; they could clearly see what the problem was.
Even though this happened, her vocal performance , which for those of you who don't know her style, swings between an ethereal, lovely voice down to the growls and roars the likes of doom and death metal are so pleasantly known for.
The dynamics in her voice were excellent live, and I was so incredibly impressed (and star truck) with the sheer beauty with which the new single "Green Serpent" was performed. It made me more of a fan of the song than any pre-recorded version had until that point.
As the set went deeper into the back catalogue, I was pleased to her favourites of mine such as "I speak Astronomy" (which I felt I was the only person actually LOVING that song) - along with the well received and universally adored "Perennial".
I head banged... a lot. The people around me did not do this as much. There were a few in the front row who did the same, but they were completely out of sync with the music. There was a decent moshpit throughout, and a few crowd surfers, but it was not the craziest show I'd been to.
Perhaps because it was a Wednesday night? To me, it didn't matter, it was still incredible.
It wasn't until the very last song of the evening, Pieces when the crowd really came alive - it felt like everyone had come along to see that one song, and to not necessarily appreciate the deeper, darker gems of the band's catalogue.
Everyone is a fan to a different depth, I guess.
I would love to see either of these bands ever again, and I was sad that the song "Wallflower" was not played. "Green Serpent" more than made up for this, which made me a very happy heavy music fan.
And a selfie from the gig....
I'm on the left. My mate who I went with is on the right.