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The Palladium
Worcester, MA
March 5, 2010
 The thought of Voivod playing my hometown was just too amazing to believe and it was everything I had hoped it would be! Openers Evile and Nachtmystium put on decent sets but I have to admit I was there for Voivod and no other reason. From the moment they starting getting ready on stage I got giddy with excitement. You have to understand, I had not seen Voivod since 1993 and that is just a shame, because I missed their Eric Forrest years and Jason Newsted years as well, but all's well that ends well, because aside from the major loss of founding member and THE most innovative guitarist in Metal Piggy dying a few years back, it was more than perfect because Blacky is back in the fold and that makes up for any shortcomings the band have, which there really aren't any of. BLasting us right away with a rabid version of their classic Voivod, the band hit us full force with the fury they had on ther first album, War and Pain. Guitarist Dan Mongrain had the skill and power to capture Piggy's signature sound and playing, even bringing an extra edge to the sound. Drummer Away had a smile on his face through most of the set, an indication he was having a great time thanks to the passion of the upstairs crowd at the Palladium. The band quickly moved on to the Angel Rat tune "The Prow" and continued to wow us with the energy of a band a quarter of their age (which is currently over 25 years!). Having Blacky's signature "Blower Bass" sound is SO refreshing after all the years they went without it!
Voivod proceeded to pull out classics spanning their illustrious career including "The Unknown Knows", "Ravenous Medicine", "Tribal Convictions", and a classic (as if the aforementioned weren't classics) they haven't hadn't played in a VERY long time (according to Snake), "Experiment", which sounded so sweet to this hard core fans ears. Me and the regular GASPetc crew were front and center making sure they knew they had old school fans that were still rabid about them as we were back in the day. The band fully caught the sincerity and paid us in return by hanging out at the merch table for as long as there were people coming to meet them and get autographs and pictures, and this fan was so thrilled to be hanging with oe of his favorite bands of all time I pretty much all but missed Kreators set, which had some classics thrown in as well! But it was worth it because I got to talk to Dan about his replacing Piggy and I got to hear some crazy stories from Blacky, who was imbibing a bit on ths particular evening. If you have a chance to catch Voivod I recommend doing it, because their future is uncertain right now, but it seems like they're having so much fun that they might just do a new album with Dan! Fingers crossed!
A+ -Matt Smith
Matt, happy as hell right now.
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