Synchronized stage moves are hilarious. I can just imagine Amon Amarth rehearsing circle headbanging in unison. “I’ll stand here. You stand over there. No, dummy, we do it counterclockwise!” The result? The “Runes to My Memory” video. The synchronized guitar flip at 0:58 in Attack Attack!’s “Stick Stickly” video has become legendary. Judas Priest’s “Hot Rockin’” video, aside from being literally flamingly homoerotic, has unusually fast synchronized guitar waving at 2:40. When Cephalic Carnage play “Black Metal Sabbath” live, they often do slow synchronized guitar waving that evokes a rotating lawn sprinkler. I saw this once and literally doubled over laughing.
Chimaira have perhaps the cheesiest synchronized stage moves ever. Their song “Severed” seems to be a showcase for choreographed shenanigans. This first video, which I would guess comes from the band’s nu-metal years, features synchronized jumps. They occur at 0:42, 1:17, 2:03, and 2:14.
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/2kwCV-lFVQ4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0
A second video features synchronized violent guitar waving at 0:51.
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/eLbBQ1nywug&hl=en&fs=1&
At some point, the band must have had a conversation like this:
Member 1: Um, I think we should drop the jumps from “Severed.”
Member 2: Yeah, we’ve been doing them for two years now.
Member 3: No way, man, it looks cool when we all do them together.
Member 4: Wait, how about this instead? [Waves guitar back and forth]
Members 1-3: Whoa.
[Members 2-4 spend next half hour practicing waving guitars in unison.]
I love guitar choreography (Accept were great at this in the '80s). I remember a few years ago seeing a band way at the bottom of a bill at Nokia – I can't even remember their name now, and they got dropped after a single album on Roadrunner, but they did the thing where the guitar players lean back against each other while soloing, which I love. My favorite thing, though, has always been something I saw hardcore bands do years ago (the last group I saw do it was Sum 41), which is what I call "little jump-little jump-big jump," and it's exactly what it sounds like. The guitarist and bassist (and sometimes the singer, too) hop straight up and down twice, then jump straight up as high as they can. It looks awesome. I think some anti-showbiz bands (High On Fire, say) should adopt this.
This kinda thing should not be happening in metal. That's what smile rock is for…
If partying is the reason for the music (Van Halen, ZZ TOP, Supersuckers), sure. Go ahead. But aggression and partying do not mix very well.
@Miskatonic. Municipal Waste seems to do it just fine.
If I'm not mistaken, Municipal Waste has an album called The Art of Partying. Of course they do it just fine.
Choreographed jumps only work for posi-core bands.
What's all this bullshit now?
Why doesn't the lead singer of Chimaira participate in the hopping? Too cool to join in? Or perhaps too fat?
Phil – back-to-back guitar playing ("the beast with one back", perhaps?) might deserve a post of its own.
I must admit, I was digging Attack Attack's crouch/synchronized headbanging and *wow* hops. Crab crouching and frog hops, I guess? The kids sure do love weird stuff.
Severed!
pretty lame to go and single out chimaira out of all bands. while it might be silly, their choreographed shit was very minimal, not to mention they stopped doing it a good 6 years ago. not to mention they are fucking awesome to begin with, so its excusable. go pick on black metal bands for looking like tools or attack attack just being themselves.
To be (ever so slightly) fair to Judas Priest, their guitars were on fire, so perhaps the waving was just to try and extinguish the flames.
Who am I kidding. Those flames were never going to be extinguished.
Cosmo-
How on earth did you forget to mention Behemoth. Those guys are so automated with their moves it's like watching a performance of the Rockafire Band at Showbiz Pizza (google it).
If you're going to talk about choreographed stage moves, you need to watch some old STATUS QUO live footage. I swear they invented it all in the 70s…
What I hate even more is when a band member or two decide to take a drink of water and spit it up in the air during a spot in the song. That is CHEESY. I've seen bands from all genres do this either in videos or live and it's stupid so stop!
Anon – That Rock-a-Fire Band is one of the most surreal things I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing.
Sean – I tracked down some live Status Quo on YouTube. The music was intolerable, but the synchronized moves most definitely weren't.
Path – "Spitting water in the air" could be a blog post in and of itself.
now, spitting fire, though….
suicide silence are quickly cornering the market on syncronized hopping and counter-clockwise headbanging/spinning…