Having been a Rainbowdragoneyesfan for a good few years, I never thought I’d actually get the chance to see him live, as he’s a small niche artist based in the US, but life can be full of surprises – and 2014 marked his debut trip to the UK as part of the Piratefest tour. Some may know him as one third of the best pirate band about, Swashbuckle, under the moniker of Legendary Pirate King Eric “The” Brown, but as Rainbowdragoneyes, he creates 8-bit chip-tune music with a GameBoy – talk about unique!
Coming onstage wearing corpse paint on his face, he started the set with The Blade Chose Me and it was a great opener, really building things up, and everything just progressed well from there as he encouraged people to put their hooks (a curved index finger) in the air and was often getting everyone to clap and wave their arms about to the music.
With great inclusions in the set such as Creatures Ov Deception and Fortune’s Dividend, for which he encouraged the crowd to start a mosh pit and told us to headbang along to, it was a perfect setlist that featured all of his best songs. He even played his cover of Swashbuckle’s Cruise Ship Terror, which was excellent to witness.
The set ended with Fortress Ov Frost and it really finished it on a high as it’s definitely one of his most memorable songs with a massive chorus begging to be sung along to, and it really left an impression on me live, packing even more punch than its recorded counterpart.
As a whole, it was an excellent performance – it was just a shame he didn’t have longer as it definitely felt like he had more to give!
9/10
