September 2011 I stumbled upon a video on YouTube that was labeled as the band Pain.  In actuality, the song Sex on Legs wasn’t from Pain but from a German band called Lord of the Lost.  Since the video looked like something straight out of Vampire the Masquerade (and the music wasn’t bad either), I was hooked.

I never really looked into who the band was, I just liked their music.  I also really wanted to see them live, but at the time I discovered them they weren’t coming anywhere close to the Netherlands much less any venues I regularly go to just over the boarder in Germany.  So October 2012 they were playing a venue in Enschede.  I found someone who wanted to go with me, bought tickets, and waited.  Then tragedy struck…the singer of the band started having throat problems so wouldn’t be making the stops in Enschede or Rotterdam.  Damn!

It was at this point that I started looking into Lord of the Lost a bit more and I found out that I’ve probably seen the singer live before, but as a guitarist for a band I love to hate.  Big Boy.

I won’t go into my loathing of Big Boy, but lets just say that they were an opening act for the first Cruxshadows show I saw in Europe back in 2007 at the Matrix in Bochum, Germany.

You’ll never guess where I saw Lord of the Lost last night.  Yup.  At the Matrix, in Bochum, Germany.

I’m not 100% certain Chris Harms was actually part of Big Boy back in 2007, but if he was, irony was at it’s fullest since everything came full circle last night and I learned a few things.  First, I think I might have to apologize to Big Boy for hating them so much.  The sound at the Matrix was horrible in 2007 and it was still pretty bad in 2013.  So it may not have been Big Boy that was bad…

The second thing I learned, never go to the Matrix to see a band you haven’t seen before.  The sound quality is horrible!! If you’re in the center of the room, I think the sound is a little better (from what I remember back in 2007 since I was center room for CSX).  However, it was packed last night and the closest I got to the stage was about 6 rows back and to the right so I was just under the right hand speaker.  For several songs it took me at least 1 verse to realize what song it was since it was just coming out as noise.

The third thing I learned is you will come out of the Matrix smelling like an ashtray.  Apparently smoking is still allowed in this venue (haven’t seen smoking in the building at the last few concerts in Germany) and it sucked.  Every time I inhaled to scream or sing, I was sucking in someone else’s disgusting smoke.  I appreciate the fact that the venues I go to the most don’t allow this and because of this (and the bad sound) I probably won’t be going to the Matrix again.  It’s just not worth the price of the ticket or the drive.

However, overall, it was a good night.  Even though the person who was supposed to go with me ditched me at the last minute, even though my other half who wasn’t planning on attending wasn’t able to get off work any earlier so we would arrive on time, even through a white wall of snow that made me slow down to 50 on the autohahn, even though we arrived late and I missed the first few songs of Unzucht who was co-headlining with Lord of the Lost, even though it was so packed I would hit someone or get hit when hands went in the air, and even through the crappy sound, I finally got to see Chris Harms and Lord of the Lost live.

Now I’ve got to wait patiently for them to play at a decent venue so I can actually make out the words of the songs! Maybe I should buy tickets to Mera Luna…