Village Gamer

Vancouver – Despite below freezing temperatures this weekend, a sellout crowd gave a rousing Vancouver welcome to powerhouse heavy metal band Dragonforce with guests Power Glove and Turisas on this last performance of their 2008 North American tour.

The all-ages show was opened by Power Glove, a heavy metal group from Boston who have put a whole new spin on video game music. They opened the show with their version of the Tetris theme, levelling up into a high powered set of heavy metal Mario Minor, So Sexy Robotnick and more. Power Glove ended their set with a fantastic rendition of the Power Rangers theme – far better than the original show’s version. This is a band who obviously takes their foray into video games very seriously – right down to the koopa shell shoulder pads – and they put on a seriously rocking show.

Finnish Viking metal group Turisas was second to take the stage. Dressed in full battle regalia from furs to warpaint, Turisas took the audience through a journey of Viking legend in a way I’m sure the Vikings of times long gone never foresaw – and I’m sure Boney M never envisioned Rasputin becoming a heavy metal anthem, either. This band never stopped moving and neither did the

crowd, who raised their fists in homage to the driving beats and orchestral overtones of Turisas’ very unique sound. After all, how many heavy metal bands do you know of whose entourage includes not only a violinist, but also an accordian player – and Netta Skog plays one mean accordian, as evidenced when she took on Dragonforce’s Vadim Pruzhanov later in the show (minus warpaint and furs). Lead singer Mathias Nygård vowed the Viking horde would return to Vancouver, a show we definitely plan on catching.

After a (reasonably) quick stage change, headliner group Dragonforce took the stage. The power and energy of this band is incredible – add to this their individual personalities, and you have a highly entertaining performance. From first song to last, appreciative fans never lost momentum nor missed an opportunity to voice their approval of the show.

Lead singer ZP Theart never missed a beat, nor an opportunity – picking on his bandmates’ apparent exhaustion following a romp around the stage with Power Glove’s half-dressed guitarists (at least they remembered the shoulder pads) – ZP was very considerate, offering a small dousing of cold water to bassist Frédéric Leclercq.

Dragonforce ended their show with an encore performance of Through The Fire and The Flame – showcasing the outstanding talent of guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, something that is absolutely amazing to see live.

All in all, the entire show was great – all three bands were so full of energy, good humour and audience appreciation – they were truly having a great time up on stage, and it was obvious through all of the antics and good-natured bantering which was carried on during the entire show.

Check out our concert shots in the Dragonforce album.