Monday, October 22, 2012

A Night To Remember!

Wishmaster, The Rockline and the Diplomates horn line

After seven months of regular practice, and pretty hardcore at that in the last month, The Wishmaster OES 2012 event may now be a thing of the past, but the memories from this most awesome day will remain forever. Even though we had to work hard the entire day from 8AM up until show time, it was great to do so in the comfort given to rock stars. And as we had planned, the effect of having the marriage of Drum Corps and Metal was absolutely devastating. From the opening punches of Scaretale to the gigantic finale of Ghost Love Score, everything was dead-on with the precision of an atom clock. And the power... ZOMG the power! Having my already ridiculously powerful bass drum miked and hearing it assaulting the venue's walls was a truly awesome feeling. I would definitely do this again! It put a serious time constraint on my schedule but with results like this I'd be stupid not to do it again.

And hey, I can say I've realized one of my dreams: I am now part of a top-flight drumline that played the equivalent of FOUR Drum Corps shows in one evening. And wait till you see the drum feature! I'm waiting for a good video of it to come out, and I'm sure it will, to post it here. The house had already been brought down by the two opening bands, Opened Fist (tribute to System Of A Down) and Alcoholica (tribute to Metallica) so what we did was blow the remains of the house clear across Ste-Catherine street :))

And now I can go back to a somewhat regular schedule. The Rockline will be taking a well-deserved break and we'll see where it goes after. I've heard that we may skip 2013 for the big event because Wishmaster is also going on hiatus after a 25+ show summer tour, guitarist Tony Batal becoming a dad to a little girl, and drummer Alexis SerrĂ©'s girlfriend expecting a baby soon™. But I'm keeping my eyes and ears open. In any case if there's a gig for the Rockline (without necessarily 45 minutes of drumline parts to learn), director & instructor Jacques Charbonneau has my number and he knows he can count on me on the bass line.

In the word that has become the Rockline slogan, it was totally SDEMMEY !!!

o7

I'm on bass #4 this time, stretching my neck to see the drum major!
The crowd, with EVE MTL pilots Ilinane and Cartboard Box up front and center :)
Meet La Drumline Rockline! Yours truly is on the far left.

Edit for Facebook users: Here's links to all of Quebec Metal's photos...

The lighter: Opened Fist

The dynamite: Alcoholica

The explosion: Wishmaster


Edit #2: Concert review !!!

2 comments:

Druur Monakh said...

I think I can relate - it reminds me of why every year I return to help with a local marathon. Months of preparation leading up to race week, which for us Ops folks culminates in a 40 hour weekend.

But seeing it call come together, and knowing that you are part of it - priceless.

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

Sorry I took long to answer... this cloud was mighty comfy :) Yeah, I've done a few shows in my time, and helped out on some Drum Corps comps and stuff. But never have I seen a show run like such a well-oiled machine. As we say in french, "c'etait sur la coche!" :)