I just got back from their show in Ft. Lauderdale a few minutes ago. It was intense! The first thing I noticed was how old the members seemed, especially Terrance Hobbs. He's bald up to about halfway up his head. I was also surprised because Mike Smith cut his hair. I was expecting a poor show, but boy was I wrong. I kept thinking they were ending their set because they played each song with particular ferocity. Frank Mullen sounds far better live. At least twice as good. I thought I was a decent vocalist until I heard him. Their set was perfect. All of their classic songs and one new one. They opened with "Liege of Inveracity". I was very pleased. However, the mosh pit didn't start until about 2 or 3 minutes into the song. There was a circle where the pit should've been but no one entered. I went in and saw some short black kid with huge arms on the other side. He gave me a look and we commenced a sort of headbutting dominance ritual. We each rammed into each other with our arms as hard as possible. We did this about 15 times then people started jumping in and the pit formed. The pits throughout the show were quite unusual. People usually only jumped in for about 10 seconds at a time to avoid getting too tired. I hadn't figured out this technique and moshed at full intensity throughout the song, until I slipped on some spilled drink. That really threw me out of a moshing mood because all of a sudden exhaustion set in. I currently have bronchitis and the thick cloud of pot smoke made it hard to breathe. I had also eaten a ham and cheese sandwich which didn't agree with me and I threw up. I drank some water and rested for about 3 songs and jumped back in. The pit was disappointingly small. Rarely were more than 10 people involved at a time at any point in the show. I had to wait out a while to get back into the pit because there was some 250 pound moron swinging his fists around. I jumped in when "Infecting the Crypts" came on. I didn't get so tired this time, but I had to leave because I couldn't take anymore blows to my stomach, especially since I needed to pee. They closed with "Depths of Depravity" and did a wall of death. It was probably the most memorable moment of the entire night. A lot of people got involved in this pit and it never died down like had been happening. I extremely regret not participating because I couldn't make it to the bathroom.
I started with a description of Suffocation's set, but here are the other bands and a description of the venue. Thy Will Be Done opened, followed by Goatwhore, Suffocation, and then Devildriver. The venue is not particularly big, but there was probably close to a thousand people in there. The first thing I noticed was the smell of pot. It wasn't strong at first, but apparently everyone was waiting for Suffocation to come on to smoke. The smell took some getting used to, and I could barely stay in the crowded area because i couldn't stand the smoke. When I got there, Goatwhore was playing their second to last song. I thought I was only missing Thy Will be Done, but apparently they played a short set so Goatwhore was on. Based on what I heard, I didn't miss much. They didn't have much stage presence either. The sound of the venue amplified mostly drums and bass guitar and vocals. These instruments were crystal clear and sounded perfect. The problem was that the guitars were nearly inaudible other than when playing on the 6th string. For Suffocation, it didn't matter much because Mullen carried that show. The crowd for Suffocation wasn't as energetic as the one for Devildriver, but the performance by Suffocation was definitely more energetic. I participated far more in the Devildriver moshpits, but mostly because they were bigger and were more energetic.
In conclusion, everyone should go see Suffocation live. They're on tour, and I posted tour dates in the News forum a while back.
http://www.anus.com/metal/hall/index.php/topic,7685.0.htmlSIDE NOTE: I bought a Suffocation shirt there. I wanted to get a "Human Waste" shirt but they only had them in XXL, so I got one that said "PROVOKING THE DISTURBED." I got it signed by Guy Marchais, Mike Smith, and Terrance Hobbs. I especially wanted a Frank Mullen one, but I couldn't find him.
SIDE NOTE 2: I saw some kid around 8 years old in there. Had a laugh.