Special report and photos by Mark Gromen

The end of the four-day long holiday weekend (November 30th) saw Philadelphia's Electric Factory invaded by Britain's ambassadors of guitar histrionics DRAGONFORCE, paired with Finland's furry red and black striped tigers TURISAS. Turisas only got to perform six songs, but they picked their strongest repertoire, singer Mathias Nygard winning the hearts of the sparse crowd with his comments about local Yuengling brewery ("Is this a Chinese beer? It's actually quite good!)and female accordion player Netta Skog giving her all despite suffering a "broken knee" earlier in the tour. After opening with 'Battle Metal', the Finnish warriors played 'A Portage To The Unknown', 'Once More', the instrumental ho-down 'Jarisleif', 'Rasputin' and the closing sing-along 'To Homgard And Beyond'. Dragonforce had twin ramps flanking sides of the stage and a central walkway for singer ZP Theart, quite the set-up for smaller venues. Guitarists Herman Li and Sam Trotman jumped, kicked and twirled across the stage, flipping their guitars in all directions. After the opening 'Heroes Of Our Time, keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov strapped on a portable model for 'Operation Ground And Pound', joining the guitarists center stage. Hitting new album Ultra Beatdown pretty hard, the setlist also included 'Reasons To Live', 'Fury Of The Storm', 'The Warrior Inside', 'Revolution Deathsquad', a solo by Pruzhanov, 'Soldiers Of The Wasteland', 'The Last Journey Home' and a 'My Spirit Will Go On' finale. Energetic and entertaining!