Leprous is a Norwegian progressive metal band, and I’d never heard of them until recently. I’m not the biggest metalhead, but it has been slowly growing on me over the last couple years, so I was excited to see what the night would hold for me. Progressive metal is especially an interesting genre because it’s still kind of a big umbrella to cast yourself under. Sometimes I wonder if there are just too many subgenres in music—what do they even mean? 

Anyways, the band Wheel was first up, and before they took the stage, I met who had to be one of their biggest fans. He told me he traveled all over to see them play because that’s just how dedicated he was to their music. Wheel is a Finnish prog-metal band. The crowd definitely enjoyed them. It’s always fun when people support a show for the opener. I love watching the openers because you never know what new favorite you’ll find. 

When Leprous took the stage, it was a flash of lights and everyone cheered wildly. Honestly, this was probably one of the most tame metal shows I had been to, and it was interesting to experience. All the band members moved around the stage, headbanged and interacted with the audience. Their little conversations between songs and tuning moments were cute. I especially enjoyed the moment when they let the crowd pick between two songs of what they would play next, including a moment to call out those who might not know who they were. Guilty as charged! I was not the only one who was on the “never heard of these songs” crowd, so that was a little reassuring—ha. 

I was expecting there to be some moshing and maybe a few crowd surfers, but seeing the audience’s age ranged a little older, there was none. Everyone sang along, threw some horns in the air and cheered all night. There wasn’t much movement, really, but I could tell from watching the crowd that people enjoyed it. To be fair, it was also a Wednesday night—not exactly the best day to go hard and heavy at a show, especially if you work the next day. 

Overall, both bands that played at the show were good. Energy was high, and it’s always fun when bands travel the seas to play in the States. While that night of music is not in my general wavelength, I enjoyed them both.

?Cheer to Leprous and Wheel!