Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
Since 2007, when their song “Through the Fire and Flames” appeared on Guitar Hero III, DragonForce has appealed to the video game masses, and it showed at August Hall tonight. They had two giant video game consoles on stage that were playing a loop of late 80’s / early 90’s era video games. They also have their own channel on Twitch.tv, a live streaming video website primarily focused on video gaming, and guitarist Herman Li was wearing a backpack with a mini video camera attached to it, to live stream the entire show.
There was stairs built behind the video game consoles, so the band could walk up and perform on top of them, almost at balcony level… and they did… a lot! That setup was actually a little weird, because the space between each step was big, so when they walked up and down, they had to stop playing the song momentarily to concentrate on their steps. The consoles took up 25% of the stage, so it was a nice way for the band to both use that space and be close to the crowd that gathered in the balcony.
To switch things up for the live stream, Herman gave his backpack to one of the fans in the crowd, and instructed him to get in the mosh pit. This kid clipped on the camera and had it for a couple of songs. A bit later, sticking to the video game theme, singer Marc Hudson, apparently also an accomplished guitarist, grabbed a guitar and had a solo section consisting of a medley of classic video game music. Later on, despite performing a Céline Dion song in their encore, DragonForce ended strong with the song that started their video game adventures.
Click on any photo below for a slideshow of full-size images.
Setlist:
Highway to Oblivion
Fury of the Storm
The Last Dragonborn
Ashes of the Dawn
Heart Demolition
Guitar Solo / Drum Solo (Video Game Medley, Marc Hudson on Guitar)
Black Fire
Razorblade Meltdown
Cry Thunder
Valley of the Damned
Encore:
My Heart Will Go On (Céline Dion cover)
Through the Fire and Flames
See more photos of all of your favorite Heavy Metal musicians at Alan Ralph‘s photo portfolio.
