I took my 2 sons, Max & Leo, to this show for Max’s 11th birthday. It was a surprise for both of them. They had just seen Smashing Pumpkins with me the night before so they were not expecting another concert. The first band on the stage was Super Guitar Bros. I had never heard of this band. It is two guys with acoustic guitars playing instrumental video game music. Not much else to say.
Next up was another band I had not heard of called Powerglove. They had a large Halloween tree decoration on the stage. My first thought was this sounds like Dragon Force meets video games and cartoon themes. Both of my sons quickly came to the front of the stage as soon as the first song, Tetris, started. They played some great Saturday Morning cartoons that were done well in their metal version. The singer was playing the guitar and keyboard at the same time. All of the members had energy and a great entertaining stage presence. Next, they played the Sonic theme. They had a video for every song playing on a huge screen behind the drummer. The singer had a rad guitar with light-up buttons on it. Super Smash Bros was next on the playlist and they killed it. Most songs were instrumental but the Ghostbusters theme song was the first song he sang. This is not a genre that I am into but I do like metal and I appreciate the thought they put into making these songs metal. They did a great job and did this genre justice. Of course, they had to play the Street Fighter theme and the Sonic The Hedgehog theme from the 90s. He sang lyrics for this one as well. I did notice this three-piece band does not have a bass player but then again is one really needed for this genre. Next was Anastaia, Kirby, Pokeman (Max’s favorite), and Mario. For the Power Rangers theme, he Put on a Powerglove and tore into the song. Leo got them to sign the back of his Star Wars shirt that he was wearing and then both of the boys got a shirt and had them sign it.
Galactic Empire was the headliner and the band I was familiar with. They opened with the Star Wars theme song. The first thing I noticed is that there are no microphones on the stage. All of the band members had full costumes with masks. They did not have much of a stage presence outside of the costumes. The bass player was the only one that moved around the stage. There were many fans there with lightsabers and full costumes. I did well to wear a Star Wars / Pink Floyd themed shirt. There were recorded voice parts that were played in between songs. They played along with what was being said. The Imperial March was awesome. Everyone there knew this song. The band has 3 guitars and the costumes are well made. I can appreciate how much effort they put into making this a legit show. They did a good job of a stage show with no singing. It was cool that they played the Indiana Jones theme even though they are a Star Wars band. They play anything written by John Williams.
It was a good show overall but the show did grow boring. It was fun for the first 5 or 6 songs but after an hour plus it just seems like one long run-on song. My sons and I both agreed that Powerglove stole the show on this night. It is not often that an opening band is better than the headliner but it does happen. What opening band have you seen that was better than the headliner?
