- Posted By: Dark Emperor
- Comments: 0
Finally the day came for this highly anticipated show that soldout the first week the tickets went on sale. We are huge fans of Jess and the Ancient Ones and were lucky enough to see them live at Roadburn 2013, so we instantly jumped on the opportunity to see them live again and so close to home. After driving through the Bay Area traffic for almost 80 minutes for 30 miles, we arrived at the huge line in from of the Warfield. Situated in Downtown San Francisco, this place has is interesting assortment of characters hanging out in its surroundings. After the very efficient entry, we caught a glimpse of this very impressive venue.
Like in a military setting, Jess and the Ancient Ones kicked off their set at exactly 8:00 PM. With their very minimalist stage setup and their enigmatic presence, the band got down to business very quickly. Ripping through their excellent "Prayer for Death and Fire", the trippy "Astral Sabbat", and our favorite "Sulfur Giants", people seemed enthralled by the bands mysticism and commanding presence. As the set progressed more and more people seemed to be paying attention and getting into the band's music.
Closing with "Come Crimson Death", Jess and the Ancient Ones clearly left an impression on King's fans and completely please the people there to see them. We saw an audience that really liked their performance and surely will become permanent fans of this very hardworking band. Listen to our interview with the band's musical leader Thomas Fiend here.
Setlist
Prayer for Death and Fire
Astral Sabbat
Sulfur Giants
Casteneda
Devil (In G Minor)
More Than Living
Come Crimson Death
King Diamond took the stage quite early around 9:45 pm and the place instantly started shaking. People went crazy as soon as King sang the first notes of his set and everybody (almost) started singing along his songs. With the place roaring, King delivered a very typical performance, playing for almost 90 minutes and pleasing all his fans with a decent selection of his greatest hits. We are not huge fans of his music, but his show is excellent and the stage setup is very elaborate.
Setlist
The Candle
Sleepless Nights
Welcome Home
Never Ending Hill
Let It Be Done
The Puppet Master
At the Graves
Tea / Digging Graves / A Visit from the Dead
Evil (Mercyful Fate cover)
Come to the Sabbath (Mercyful Fate cover)
Shapes of Black
Eye of the Witch
Cremation
The Family Ghost
Black Horsemen
Insanity
Note: We did not have photo pit access for his performance, so we only took a handful of pictures with our telephoto from the back of the venue.
Overall, this show was done by 11 PM, very public transportation friendly and we did see plenty of people leave with a high that would keep them going for weeks. We would like to thank the organizers of the event for being very patient while our credentials stuff got figured out. We also like to thank Jess and the Ancient Ones (Antti amd Tuomas) for helping us out with the credentials issue and being kind enough to let us interview them (link here). We love this venue and every show we have been here has been perfectly organized and everything always goes very smoothly.
