Machine Head, Arenele Romane, 23.09.15

„Who’s opening for Machine Head? Machine Fucking Head.” That was the joke you could hear from every mouth last night after Machine (Fucking) Head gave us a recital it’s not easy to forget, even if you’re not a fan as dedicated as most of the people in the audience were.

After two and a half hours of rocking VERY hard, most of us could hardly stand without having every piece of our body sore, but Robb Flynn looked like he just started his day. The man really is a machine, he was more than impressive, roaring for 90% of the time, then giving us the warmest and most emotional voice you wouldn’t believe it’s coming from the same man, changing guitars, encouraging us the whole time to cheer and headbang and make mosh pits.

His communication with the audience was flawless, always connected to us, always trying to get us to be even more involved, always with an expressive face. Even without the long speech about how they’re proud that even though they’re not a big band and they’ve never had a song played on the radio, they have managed to do what they love for 21 years, without compromise nor any desire for fame or money, and they have an army of loyal fans that value the same things they do, you could still tell they are extremely passionate about what they’re doing. When you have a band that sounds like Tool one moment and like Iron Maiden the next, that has influences from thrash metal, groove metal, nu metal, death metal, progressive metal and surely a few other genres I’m missing, there’s actually little doubt on whether they’re doing what they love or what the audience expects from them.

And even though some people raised some eyebrows at the long heartfelt speech and some even raised their voices and encouraged them to stop talking and start singing, I personally enjoyed his honesty. I also enjoyed his lack of honesty when he saw the mosh pit that had taken up almost half of the venue and started mocking it and calling it a „pussy pit”. I thought it was a quite honourable pit, especially considering that most of the people were over 30 and the type that prefer to enjoy the show in their own world. Still, the atmosphere was great. I was a bit disappointed by how quiet we were during the frequent breaks the band took, when we were probably supposed to cheer and call them out, but I think we more than made up for it during the songs. People started out in a very calm mood, but as time went by, I could see everyone around me letting it all out, taking shirts off, headbanging, jumping and generally getting crazy, even in the back. I don’t think one could actually stand still during that outburst of energy and enthusiasm, Robb was more than contagious. I don’t have much to say about the rest of the band partly because I couldn’t see them very well, but mostly because I couldn’t get my eyes off Robb. I can’t get over that guy, what does he eat in the morning? How does he not collapse after the first 30 minutes of playing like that and keeps on going for two and a half freaking hours??

As for me, I started the show slightly reserved because Machine Head are not exactly my cup of tea and I was there because of my husband (who was more than ecstatic, by the way, as most of the die-hard fans were), but as things went on, I started getting into the atmosphere and had a lot of fun. I may not start listening to them on a regular basis, but I did end up having nothing but respect for this band. For their professionalism, for their lack of boundaries, for their enthusiasm and for everything they did last night.