October 9th, 2009. That was the last time I saw Dragonforce live, with Sonata Arctica and Taking Dawn so needless to say, I was very excited for this show… in the same venue as last time, no less! Added only to the fact that this tour has been on the minds of everyone that originally planned to see it last year when Unleash The Archers were on the bill, but we now have Firewind, Visions of Atlantis, and New England based titans Seven Spires to look forward to. Let’s stop wasting time and get into this symphonic and power-metal night of fun.
The fifteenth annual The New England Metal and Hardcore Festival came along at just the right time this year. Concerts are often a needed respite from whatever is ailing your life at the moment. Even though fans had come for the event from all over the world, Boston and the entire state of Massachusetts had been having a rough week. Earlier in the week, the Boston Marathon bombings occurred at the hands of some piss poor excuses for terrorists. The night before the show the city of Boston was in lock down as the manhunt tightened. All the roads were closed in or out of some parts of the state, but the show was never in doubt. Although I was stressed out and we got a very late start on the road, we made it and it wasn’t a total loss on the day. My trusty spies at the show told me early bands such as Code Orange Kids, Vygr, Holy Grail and Black Breath were all apparently terrific, even though I missed them. Ugh.