{"id":19749,"date":"2015-12-28T12:22:17","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T10:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/?p=19749"},"modified":"2015-12-28T12:22:17","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T10:22:17","slug":"the-darkest-hour-at-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/the-darkest-hour-at-assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"The Darkest Hour at Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sun 20 December 2015<\/div>\n

Many an international metal act<\/a> has graced our shores this year courtesy of Witchdoctor Productions<\/a>, and the last of them for 2015 was Washington\u2019s The Darkest Hour.<\/p>\n

Originally scheduled to play Cape Town first, an incident<\/a> at last month\u2019s Finntroll<\/a> gig prompted the promoters to change venues and dates. As a result the band played Durban and Joburg respectively so while we couldn\u2019t boast hosting their first show on African soil we had the honour of witnessing their final one of the year and their 20th anniversary tour.<\/p>\n

\"Darkest<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Darkest<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Darkest<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The date and venue change was a definite setback and unfortunately only the first of several problems on the night. Flight delays further augmented the show time from 6:30 to 8:30pm. I arrived at around 8:15 and was ushered into the bar along with the other punters while the soundcheck ran overtime in the fully-lit main band area. It was all pretty strange.<\/p>\n

When the bar doors finally opened and the lights dimmed it was just after 9 and opening act Bulletscript kicked things off. I\u2019m not sure if the last minute venue changes were to blame but from a media-coverage point of view I was not impressed with the way things were going \u2013 as is standard procedure with internationals, photographers weren\u2019t allowed flash but unlike the last Witchdoctor show I\u2019d covered at Assembly (the epic Eluveitie<\/a>) we weren\u2019t granted pit access and the lighting on stage was terrible and what meagre visibility there was was further obscured by the overzealous smoke machine. Basically the conditions made it impossible to shoot by the rules and frankly the strobes on stage were way more hectic than camera flashes.<\/p>\n

I was a bit too distracted by all this to give Bulletscript a fair listen but they did a good job of warming up the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"Darkest<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Darkest<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bulletscript\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t