By Katey Khaos

The upstairs stage of The Palladium may be small, but the bands performing on it don’t seem to mind, and neither do their fans. On September 17th, Evergrey with openers Powerglove and The Absence rocked the upstairs stage at The Palladium with nothing but good ol’ fashion metal!

The opening act for the evening was none other than The Absence, an aggressive thrash metal band out of Florida. The Absence broke the audience’s ear drums in by playing hard and fast metal that got the mosh pit moving!

Although the audience had been warmed up, those who had never heard of Powerglove had no idea what they were in for…but they soon found out!

When the word “powerglove” is mentioned, most guys and girls in their 20s think of that horrid controller used with Nintendo. Trust me, this band is way cooler! Take your childhood theme songs ~ Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Pokemon and add killer guitar riffs and double bass pedals ~ that’s Powerglove! In other words, video game metal!

Taking the stage in warrior attire, Powerglove began their blast from the past ~ and the fans loved it. Once the crowd was warmed up to what Powerglove was all about, the band handed out inflatable mallets and swords. Why? For a most epic battle in the mosh pit against the background of the metal version of the Mortal Kombat theme, of course! Afterwards, everyone was rewarded with a shower of Starburst candy! Hooray!

Powerglove may seem like a hard act to follow, but Evergrey made it look easy. The Swedish prog-rock band combined the musical sound of metal with (mostly) clean vocals, which made for a unique sound ~ something that caught many fans off guard initially, but it took them no time at all to get into it!

Evergrey put on a seventeen track set ~ thirteen songs for their main set and four for their encore. Songs included fan favorites such as “Wrong,” “I’m Sorry,” and ~ yes, they saved the best for last ~ “Broken Wings”for the encore!

It was evident from their performance that Evergrey is passionate about their music. Their stage presence is magnetic and each member clearly loves performing. The fans, in turn, showed their appreciating by giving the energy right back to the band ~ there wasn’t a single person standing still by the end of the set.

I highly recommend checking out all of the bands. Each band has added its own twist to the metal genre, creating music your ears have probably never heard before. Trust me, they’ll thank you ~ that is, unless you crank it up too loud while rockin’ out! :]

For more about the bands, check out their websites:

Evergrey: www.evergrey.net
Powerglove: www.vgmetal.com
The Absence: www.facebook.com/theabsenceofficial

Photos: top ~ The Absence, middle ~ Powerglove, bottom ~ Evergrey