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Hanker's live performances are few and far apart so whenever I have the opportunity to catch them, I jump in the car and drive. This show, dubbed Rendez-vous Métal 2001 was held at the local arena in Hanker's hometown of Beaupré near Quebec City. I have to bitch about the number of bands: Seven. That's at least 2-3 bands too many. Who the hell can stand through all this? Anyway, I missed the first four bands, arriving just as Prophecy were finishing their set. I was pretty pissed at having missed them and Tales of Destiny who I had seen opening for Hanker before. Anyway, can't have it all I guess.

The first band I saw playing was Blinded by Faith. I had wanted to see them for over a year, knowing the band's two guitarists. The sound was ok but could have been better, I guess with 7 bands playing the sound checks were pretty limited. A pretty good performance, with them playing songs off their Veiled Hideousness demo CD and also a couple of new compositions showing a notable change of sound for the band, adding more power metallish sounds while keeping the extreme vocals. The musicians competence was pretty obvious, my only criticism being that they didn't move much. That'll most certainly improve as they get more stage experience. Musically I enjoyed the set. I was never a fan of the vocals on Veiled Hideousness so the vocals didn't do much for me, although I noted that on the new compositions, the "Dani Filth-like" vocals are gone (good.) My main criticisim of Blinded by Faith's performance, and I'm not the only one to think so from the comments I've heard around me, is that the singer should keep to the singing. I always thought that if the singer has nothing to say, he should keep to the standard "glad to be here, the next song is, thanks for coming" lines. His comments were so fucking retarded that I was wondering if he was drunk, you know just so he has an excuse. I don't know if he was. Anyway, I hope he reads this and takes notes. Either find something intelligent to say or just keep to the singing. Anyway, despite the criticism, that was still a good performance.

Edited to reduce hate mail and phone calls when I'm sleeping: I do not care to offer any comment about the band that played between Blinded by Faith and Hanker.

Ok finally that band finished and a bit later Hanker came on stage. I've praised their live shows before, but compared to this, their previous shows sucked! What an awesome performance. I just don't understand how they can improve that much considering that they don't play a lot of live gigs. Again playing a selection of songs from their three albums (sorry, I suck at remembering playlists, my memory sucks unless you're a backstabbing fucker, then I'll remember you-hehe), the guys were everywhere, moving a lot on stage, the guys obviously more comfortable than ever and having no problem moving all around the stage without bumping into each other (hey, I've seen that happen). The band played a lot of crowd pleasers (although just about every Hanker song is a crowd pleaser, and I'm not kidding you here.) The only negative thing about their set has nothing to do with Hanker themselves, but you can imagine that as the headliners of a 7-bands show, they stated playing late, so people had to start leaving before they finished. Too bad for both the fans and the band. They played two encores (one song each), on the second one Pascal (vocalist/guitarist) was pissed at whoever turned on the arena's lights (they turned them back off a minute or two later). They ended the night with their classic Staring at the Rain, a very emotive song that is always a major hit whenever they play it live. Awesome set. It's a shame that those guys have not have the chance to play outside their home province of Quebec yet, with so many fans elsewhere in the world.

Oh, I want to mention that the audience was pretty young - lots of teenagers and NO BAGGY PANTS! The fact that both Pascal and Patrick are teachers might help get those kids to listen to real music rather than MTV/MuchMusic crap. Hails! I however need to send a big fuck you to the little morons who were slamming during Hanker's set (what the fuck is this with a mosh pit for a heavy metal band - keep it for death you morons!), preventing a lot of people from getting closer to the stage.

Anyway, overall a good night despite the second (well, sixth) band which shouldn't have been there, they were obviously not ready to do a live performance. Or they should have played a short set earlier.