70000 TONS OF METAL 2019 HIGHLIGHT : VAN CANTO
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; my favourite part of 70,000 Tons of Metal is being able to see bands I never thought I would be able to see perform. I am not a big Van Canto fan, but when they were announced I knew I had to make it to at least one of their sets. Because how often do you get to see a band singing a cappella metal in a lifetime?
While I missed Van Canto’s first set, their second one happened to be wedged right in the middle of a few hours of very elusive free time for me, so I made my way to the theater and took a seat — I wanted to watch from afar and see the whole picture, something I don’t normally do. Their sound check was probably the most hilarious and entertaining sound check I have ever witnessed. No guitars, all ran-dan-dan! “Man am I glad I decided to come check this out”, I thought.
While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I think any metal fan would do well to see Van Canto perform at least once, even if you don’t listen to their albums. Records are done in multiple takes, edited, cut and quartered before being ready. But to see this band do what they do LIVE is nothing short of impressive. How they are able to harmonize all this rakkatakka without fucking up boggles the mind!
Their set saw an intermission where the band invited one of the photographers on stage, eventually for him to propose to his girlfriend in front of the whole crowd, in German while the band translated for the attendees (who obviously figured out what was going on). Every year it seems someone gets engaged with the help of a band on this cruise, but this was the first time I witnessed one of those proposals. It was a sweet moment.
Back to Van Canto itself, I’m super glad I got to see them. It’s not a band I would have traveled to Europe to go see so I didn’t think I’d ever get to witness this cheesy but impressive spectacle live. I was kind of sad they didn’t play “To Sing A Metal Song” which I think should be a staple live song for them, but altogether I am very happy I got to witness the crazy concept that is an a capella metal band. It was definitely a highlight of this year’s edition!
