Sepultura w/ Equaleft – Porto, Portugal
Sepultura, Equaleft
Hard Club, Porto (PT)
4th July 2017
Promoted by Prime Artists
Drummer Marquito left Equaleft last October but when your former band is invited to open for Sepultura, you must return for (another) last gig.
Everybody came out of the shadows, apparently – media included. So we were divided in groups and each shot one of the first three songs. My only concern was regarding the exchange between songs but the situation was handled smoothly. So kudos to Prime Artists and the Hard Club staff – thanks to them, we all had a shot at covering such memorable show.
It was the closing of a chapter in Equaleft’s book, marking the last gig promoting “Adapt & Survive”. If memory serves me well, they’d said that already a few months ago, but just like Marquito, they couldn’t say no to Sepultura. I believe this time it was really the last one, though, as I know a new record is taking a solid shape, with a new drummer who will be announced soon. But that night was still just for what are already considered classics among the national underground – the intrepid “Invigorate” (featuring the mandatory Star Wars lightsabre), the groovy “Tremble”, the eccentric “Maniac” or the classy “Uncover The Masks”. And in the end, “their trademark” box of cookies was distributed among the fans.
There were a lot of Equaleft t-shirts in the crowd, but when Derrick Green himself goes on stage wearing one… damn, even I felt proud – hence the need of mentioning this little detail. Regarding what really matters: when you’ve been in a band for over 30 years and “big” for almost as long, one hour and a half always seems awfully short, especially after the release of another album. The trick is finding the right balance between new and old and, of course, performing both like there was no tomorrow. Guess who were able to do just that? (Okay, I confess I’d rather watch them play “Troops Of Doom” than “Inner Self”, but we can’t always have our way, and the near sold-out venue went bananas screaming along “nonconformity in my inner self / only I guide my inner self”, so who am I to complain?). Also, if you’ve read my live reports before, you probably know how I disapprove of solos; Sepultura seem to share this opinion as Andreas Kisser proved his skills – as if he still needed to – by playing the instrumental “Iceberg Dances”, out of the latest “Machine Messiah” the band’s currently promoting.
“I Am The Enemy” kicked it off, “Roots Bloody Roots” (what else?) finished it up, in-between Derrick told us “this is your fucking territory” and that he wanted to see us all arise, and Andreas dedicated “Sepultura Under My Skin” to Moonspell and F.C.Porto – the first for being good friends and representing Portugal’s metal throughout the world, the same way Sepultura do with Brazil’s; the latter… well, we all know how football is big in Brazil.
It was such a brutal show that no one even took offense when Derrick mistook Porto for Lisboa. Of course he was booed loudly, but his apologies were so immediate and genuine – plus, he’d said Porto several times during the evening – that it turned out more of a funny moment than an actual fail. Therefore, a perfect night.
Gallery at our Facebook page here.
Text & photos by Renata “Pieni” Lino
Valkyrian Music 
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