Early November Concert Recap

I went to a few shows last week that were all great and I shot a lot of photos and videos and thought I’d share them here with you all. Mercyful Fate, Katatonia and the Dave Sherman Benefit show were all great experiences, I’m so glad live concerts are back this year.

Mercyful Fate

First up was the return of Mercyful Fate at the Fillmore Silver Spring on Tuesday, November 8th. Teutonic thrash legends Kreator were the first band I saw as it took me 25 minutes (and cost me a bottle opener on my key ring) to get into the venue leading me to miss opener Midnight. King Diamond has toured the US several times since Mercyful Fate’s last US tour in 1999 but fans have long been whispering rumors of a proper Mercyful Fate tour. With a blood moon lunar eclipse in the sky and midterm election results coming in time was standing still as Mercyful Fate took the stage. You never really know if a band as old as Mercyful Fate is going to live up to the hype live but I think it is quite safe to say that this show did. King Diamond’s voice held up well and the band had great energy on stage along with a beautiful stage set up and lighting. They played a set list full of classics and a new song off an upcoming album that is yet to be named. I didn’t have a photo pass for this show, all my shots were from the audience on my phone, but I think I got a few decent ones, and I got video footage of the new song “The Jackal of Salzburg” as well as my personal favorite Mercyful Fate song, “A Dangerous Meeting.”

Click here to see all of my concert videos on YouTube.

Click here to see all of my photos from this concert on Flickr.

Mercyful Fate – The Jackal of Salzburg

Mercyful Fate – A Dangerous Meeting

Kreator – Flag of Hate / Pleasure to Kill

King Diamond of Mercyful Fate

Mercyful Fate at the Fillmore Silver Spring

Mike Wead and Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate

Mercyful Fate at the Fillmore Silver Spring

Mercyful Fate set list 11/8/2022

Katatonia

The next night I found myself at the Black Cat to see Swedish doom band Katatonia along with the German prog band The Ocean. Again I missed the opener, Cellar Darling in this case, and I’m starting to wonder if it is just me or if shows are starting earlier now since the pandemic. This was the first night of the US tour and I wasn’t sure what kind of set list Katatonia would play, mostly newer stuff or and older “best of” style set. They played a pretty good mix with 5 songs off of The Great Cold Distance album and they even played their new song “Atrium” live for the first time ever at this show. Jonas Renkse’s voice sounded great and the band seemed fresh and really into the entire 90 minute show. The lighting has never been stellar at the Black Cat and since I just had my phone with me I didn’t get many decent shots of either band, but I did get some great video footage of Katatonia, which you can peruse below.

Katatonia – Old Heart Falls

Katatonia – Deliberation

Katatonia – Teargas

Katatonia – Leaders

Katatonia – Atrium first time ever played live

Katatonia -Evidence

Katatonia at the Black Cat

Katatonia set list 11/9/2022

Video clip of The Ocean Collective

Dave Sherman Benefit

The following Saturday, the 12th of November, I headed up to Frederick, Maryland, for the Dave Sherman Benefit show at Cafe 611. The gig was a benefit show for the family of the late, great Dave Sherman. It was also something of a memorial show for the legend of the Maryland doom metal scene after his untimely death in September, but I’ve gotta say it was a pretty uplifting and positive experience. People were happy to see each other and most of the bands played some sort of cover or tribute to Sherm during their sets. The first band went on at 3pm, which was way too early for me to get there, but I did make sure I left in time to catch Victor Griffin and his band Place of Skulls. I guess they took too long setting up because several songs were cut out of their set and they ended abruptly after playing a cover of Pentagram’s “Relentless” (which wasn’t even on their set list). Still, it’s always cool to see Victor Griffin play live. Next up was Foghound and they put on a super high energy set and got everyone in the audience to raise their hands like how Dave Sherman would imitate riding a motorcycle. After they played it was time for another great set by Borracho. The DC based stoner band has been working on some new material and playing some of the songs live here and there and I managed to get video footage of a brand new song the first time they ever played it live that night. They closed their set with a Spirit Caravan cover, one of Dave Sherman’s bands, and I’ve got footage of that below as well. Faith in Jane closed out the show and the crowd was dwindling by the time they took the stage a little before 1am but the people that were there still had some energy! Faith in Jane had some technical difficulties but even so they still somehow seem to get better each time I see them, and this time was no exception. I wish I had been able to catch Pimmit Hills and some of the other earlier bands but I still enjoyed every minute of the sets by the four bands I did catch. I’m not one to believe in any kind of afterlife but I know that Dave Sherman would have been happy and proud to see all the joy in the room and on stage that night because of him.