Trivium
The much anticipated Trivium tour hit Portsmouth Guildhall on Thursday night, and from the outset the excitement from the fans was noticeable.
First on stage we see Trivium's label mates Sanctity. It was a miracle that anyone was around to see them play, they came on at 7:05 but the tickets said doors opened at 7:30. Luckily for them lots of people had turned up early, so by the time they were onstage the Guildhall was already half full. As soon as the band started playing the crowd was going wild, moshing, cheering, even singing along with the songs. When front man Jared made devil horns the whole crowd made devil horns with him. Sanctity sounded great and their performance couldn't be faulted, and the crowd obviously noticed because they received a huge cheer after their set and there were even chants of "More! More!" not a bad performance for an opening act.
Next out on stage were Gojira, a band who have been on the receiving end of a lot of hype recently and the crowd eagerly awaited their performance. Once again the band were welcomed onstage by a huge cheer and as soon as they started playing the crowd sprung into action. Gojira were not as good as I had hoped, and I don't think they managed to follow Sanctity's performance very well. They are obviously a talented bunch of musicians at points their music didn't not come across overly well. The drums seemed to drown out the other instruments and Joe Duplantier's vocals were sometimes inaudible. Nevertheless the crowd seem to enjoy their performance and there was barely a sole standing still in the room.
The third band out on stage was Annihilator and they were the third band in a row to receive a great welcome to the stage. Annihilator really worked the crowd, everyone was moving. Their performance was definitely the best of the night so far. They were confident behind their instruments, there was plenty of crowd involvement and everyone in the room seemed to love them. They even had members of the other support bands stood in the wings rocking away with them. It seemed like a lot of the crowd had come along to see them, they were literally hanging on every word Dave Padden said. An outstanding performance.
It wasn't long before the mighty Trivium graced the stage, they received such a loud cheer I think it blew my eardrums. Front man Matt involved and entertained the whole crowd by moving up and down the stage and singing into various microphones rather then just doing all his vocal work from the centre of the stage. Song after song they received massive cheers. Song after song they had people moshing and a circle pit going.
One of the most amazing things of the night was when someone got injured in the circle pit, somehow Matt spotted it and the music stopped. "Is someone hurt? Put your hand up if someone's hurt" he said to the crowd before a small sea of hands popped up in the air. "We need an A&E guy down here." he announced, which seemed to make him a hero amongst the crowd, everyone cheered an clapped. Before long the injured party was ok, "Be careful" Matt instructed much to the injured person's embarrassment. The music soon started again and was in full flow when the band left the stage. Chants of "Trivium, Trivium" filled the room. Drummer Travis was left on stage and started chatting to the crowd before the rest of the band came out again and played a few more songs to finish of a blinding set.
The show was one of the most entertaining I have been to for a long time. It was obvious that the crowd had a real appreciation for music and treated every band with the same amount of respect that they showed the headliners, which is rare these days.