Mercenary + A Midsummer Night's Dream

I think I'm finally beginning to understand the concept of metal. It probably won't ever be my favourite genre of music, but going to a metal gig once in a while isn't that bad. The gig yesterday was only my second gig of that kind, so headbanging and hand gestures probably seemed a bit half-arsed for my part, but hey, at least I tried. Metal is all about energy, power and anger. It's sweaty and loud and people like to fight and throw each other around in front of the stage. Not really what I'd like from every gig I go to but it's pretty entertaining in the right doses. And yesterday was just the right amount; had the gig been just a few minutes longer, I think I would have turned from excited to a little bored but luckily that wasn't how it turned out. The support band just kind of looked and sounded like my stereotype of a bad metal band, but hoohay, they didn't play for that long. Then Mercenary entered the stage, and they're in that, I guess - correct me if I'm wrong, I really don't know a lot about metal - slightly more melodic and less hard metal category, which I think was probably also a part of the reason why I tend to enjoy their gigs instead of covering up my ears and hiding in a corner, and made my night better. Also, Mikkel, the lead singer (who I've mentioned before, since he's actually a member of my family) has a quite strong and intense voice, that I think it would be rather interesting to hear in another genre as well. Most of the night I felt out a bit of place, since my friend Line and I were surrounded by (mostly male) people in Iron Maiden and Metallica shirts and I had decided to go the gig in a dress. But the band did their part, we did ours and it was good fun.
Earlier in the day I'd been to see a modern staging of the classic Shakespeare play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' with music by a pretty prominent Danish composer (who only Danish readers of this blog will know, so that's irrelevant), that I'd just like to mention how impressed and blown away I was by. Since I know a few of the performing people involved in the play I almost felt privileged afterwards for actually being friends with such talented people. It's all over now but I had a very, very good time watching the extremely beautiful set design, listening to the both cheeky and serious music and being impressed by the fact that this was actually staged in our little town of Viborg. But you know, the point is that I went to a heavy metal gig a few hours after - a bit weird, but also quite wonderful, how you can attend two such different things in one day.