Thank you iPod shuffle this morning for this under…
By Eric | August 19, 2013 9:21 am
Thank you iPod shuffle this morning for this under-rated, forgotten album. Always did like these guys!
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Tags: Systematic
06/18/2013 Filter (Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall)
By Eric | June 19, 2013 9:32 pm
[Ghostfeeder, Violet Mary and a couple other bands were on the bill as well.]
Another night, another late arrival. This time because the always-unpredictable first week of volleyball threw us an unannounced 7:40 and 8:30 doubleheader. Where the first opponent never showed up. Got done with game #2 in a reasonable amount of time, and shot down to Montage. Arrived during set change for Filter, so I couldn’t have timed it any better.
But enough about that crap. The show! Filter’s Short Bus was one of the first CD’s I ever bought, and while my interest in the band waned a little here and there (and has recently increased again with their last two albums), I’ve always considered myself a fan. Never got to see them live, however, until now. Filter *is* Richard Patrick, just as Trent Reznor *is* Nine Inch Nails, and the surrounding cast tends to change every couple years. The current group was the touring band from the Trouble with Angels tour, with guitarist Jonathan Radtke (who was formerly in Kill Hannah), bassist Phil Buckman, and drummer Jeff Friedl (who has toured with Ashes Divide, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer). And these guys were good. Everything sounded great (even with a problem with the kick drum mic for the first song or two), and damn if Richard Patrick doesn’t have energy. The place looked a little fuller, at least more tightly packed, than either Fuel or Drowning Pool, and he commanded the crowd as if it was a packed ampitheatre. He got up close and personal with everyone, constantly jumping up on the barrier, letting the crowd sing, and making sure the crowd was into it, even grabbing some fans phones/cameras during The Best Things, and filming the band and the audience!
[Look for a cameo from yours truly at 1:09!]
For being a smallish group, the crowd was pretty loud all night, and a good number of people knew the words, even to the deep cuts. There was a real nice spread over most of the catalog (oddly nothing from Trouble With Angels though), and near and dear to my heart: B-SIDES! Jurassitol (from The Crow: City of Angels soundtrack), a cover of Happy Together (which *bad fan alert* I had no idea they’d released, first on the soundtrack to Stepfather, and more famously on The Great Gatsby soundtrack), and then sort of a b-side/actually a big single Can’t You Trip Like I Do. They did a cool jam in the middle of “Dose”, and paid homage to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” during “So I Quit”. Naturally, everyone got sent home happy as they closed with Hey Man Nice Shot.
After the set, Richard jumped off stage over the barrier, through the crowd, and headed back to the merch table, where he proceeded to sign every item anyone had, took pictures with everyone that wanted one, and actually chatted with everyone for a second, beyond the usual “Hi, thanks for coming”. Actual conversations! I was very impressed with how gracious he was with the fans; I’m guessing its a little easier when the venue and crowd is smaller and more intimate. Personally, I just told him I’d been a fan for a long time, finally got to see them live, and talked about setlist construction!
[flickr]9087638463[/flickr]
Setlist:
Welcome to the Fold
The Take
Jurassitol
What Do You Say
We Hate It When You Get What You Want
(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do
Take a Picture
Surprise
Dose
Under
Happy Together
It’s Got To Be Right Now
Soldiers of Misfortune
The Best Things / So I Quit (War Pigs insert) /Hey Man Nice Shot
Topics: Concerts | 15 Comments »
Tags: 2013, Filter, Montage Music Hall, rochester
06/15/2013 Drowning Pool, Eye Empire (Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall)
By Eric | June 17, 2013 9:42 pm
[Exilia, Even The Dead Love A Parade, Agressive Betty, AFR, and One Sweet Lie were also on the bill.]
Usually, shows at the Montage are completely slanted towards “later”. The locals usually go until 9:00-10:00 or so, then the national acts take over and play until midnight or later. So naturally, the one night we’re out in Buffalo a little later, and I don’t arrive until 9ish, is the night the nationals start earlier. I missed half of Eye Empire’s set, allegedly because (and this was posted on Montage’s Facebook page): “DP’s tour manager who made one of the local bands play AFTER Drowning Pool finished their set and who tried to make the venue have the locals go on at 6pm when there was only 2 of us standing at the doors LOL”. So after waiting 2+ years to see these guys (after a couple of false starts too), I missed the first four out of the nine they played, all songs I love, but hey, I got to see the other five. For performing in front of a rather small crowd, they didn’t lack for energy or enthusiasm at all. DC was belting everything out, Corey was beating his bass like a rented mule, BC was all over the place, dreads swinging, and Ryan was hitting the drums as hard as anything. The two new songs (Monday and War Isn’t Over) were great, and I got to completely rock out to I Pray, so all was not lost. The fun was just beginning, however…
Ignite
Eye Empire setlist:
Ignite
Idiot
Great Deceiver
More Than Fate
Bull In A China Shop – got there during this
Angels and Demons
Monday
War Isn’t Over Yet
I Pray
This next part needs a little bit of background. As I said, I’d been waiting 2+ years to see Eye Empire. They’re a sort-of supergroup, as singer Don Carpenter was in Submursed, guitarist BC Kochmit was in Switched (and one of the last incarnations of Dark New Day, plus the ill-fated Violent Plan), and bass player Corey Lowery has done time with Switched, Stuck Mojo, Stereomud, and Dark New Day. They self released Moment of Impact back in December of 2010, and then I actually got to meet BC when he moonlighted for Sevendust that next month during Music as a Weapon. They then released the definitive version called Impact as a 2-disc set in June of 2012. This is all relevant to my review, because I brought my indie disc to get signed by the boys. I brought it up to BC, told him great show, long-time fan, etc. He first exclaimed, “Ok, a Doubledrive shirt? Wow!”. He then proceeded to make a joke about my air guitar playing during “I Pray” (completely warranted), and upon opening up my disc to sign it, he peeks under the disc to check out what number it was. I have #264 out of the first pressing of 1000. BC said that was one of the lowest numbers he’d seen out in the wild! (After admitting the band kept #1-10 and a couple other ones haha.) Since there weren’t a ton of people there, I pretty much got to shoot the bull with him, drummer Ryan Bennett, and Drowning Pool’s merch guy for quite awhile. I mentioned meeting him at the Sevendust show, and he goes “Holy shit… I definitely remember you, you were the only person that came through the meet and greet at any of the shows and mentioned Eye Empire!” BC’s an awesome guy, and half the discussion wasn’t even about music, rather computer stuff! But the music part was very enlightening to me, as I got to ask stuff that the standard interviewers never do, and BC wasn’t shy about the answers! We even got up to the bar to do a shot out of blinking, light-up shot glasses. Now there’s a gimmick. I got to chat with bass player Corey Lowery briefly as well, who also was like, “DoubleDrive? That’s old school!” (It should be noted that Corey played with 1/2 of Doubledrive, Donnie Hamby and Troy McLawhorn in Still Rain, and Troy was in Dark New Day as well.) Super friendly dudes, can’t say enough about them. So despite missing half the set of the band I came to see, I think hanging out with BC more than made up for it!
@woopop absolute pleasure hanging with ya and yip yappin man! #LRS
— BC Kochmit (@BCKochmit) June 16, 2013
But lest you think I have the market cornered on band dedication, check out the artwork on this guy! I actually took this picture with BC’s phone!
Hanging with our boy Don in Rochester NY! #empire #tats #lrs http://t.co/HsydQvipcN
— EYƎ EMPIRƎ (@EyeEmpire) June 16, 2013
Oh yeah, there was the headliner yet to play! Drowning Pool has kinda done the Spinal Tap thing, only with singers. Current frontman Jason Moreno is singer number four, after the untimely passing of Dave Williams, then his replacement, then the dude from Soil (who apparently is a less-than-stellar person from multiple accounts). But Moreno definitely has “it” as a frontman. He sounded good, did the old stuff just as well as the new stuff he’s a part of, and worked the still-smallish crowd well. This was DP show number 4 for me, I got to see them way back in the day (2001) in Buffalo (before Sinner was even out), once more at K-Rockathon later that year, then not again until Cruefest in 2009. I was talking to BC during the first half of the set, and then I wandered into the main room to watch the second half. The band sounded pretty good, the people that were there got into it, and predictably, everyone went nuts for Bodies at the end. Their set was a pretty good mix of old and new, and while I’ve never been an uber-fan, it was fun for what it was. “I wanna live my life like it’s Saturday night”, indeed!
Drowning Pool setlist:
Intro
Step Up
Sinner
Think
Pity
Die for Nothing
37 Stitches
Enemy
Reminded
Follow
Tear Away
One Finger and a Fist
Saturday Night
Feel Like I Do
Bodies
Step Up
Sinner
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Tags: 2013, Drowning Pool, Eye Empire, Montage Music Hall, rochester
06/13/2013 Lamb Of God, Decapitated (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
By Eric | June 17, 2013 8:44 pm
[The Acacia Strain opened, missed them.]
As per usual, I arrived after putting Nate to bed, so I missed The Acacia Strain, but got there just as Decapitated was starting up. I don’t know what it is about Poland, but they crank out some super-heavy metal bands (see Behemoth). These guys weren’t as theatrical as Behemoth, but Decapitated were just as brutal and impressive. I like their brand of metal a little better, so I was pretty entertained by their set. Doing a little setlist.fm sleuthing, it looks like their set hasn’t varied much lately, so I’m pretty confident I saw the following list (because I don’t know for sure!):
Silence
Pest
Day 69
404
Post(?) Organic
Carnival is Forever
Homo Sum
A View From a Hole
Spheres of Madness
As this show approached, I was finding it hard to believe that this was only going to be the 4th time seeing LoG, and I hadn’t seen them since they opened for Metallica in Buffalo back in late 2009. I’m pretty sure this is the first proper tour (save for a couple one-off dates) they’ve done since Randy got through all his legal stuff in Prague, so I’m pretty sure they were well-rested and ready to rock. And boy howdy did they! Easily the best of the now 4 times I’d see them, the band sounded as tight as ever, Randy was his usual wandering self all over the stage, and the crowd was definitely into it. And just like the Hatebreed crowds, no idiots that I could see, and I was in the thick of it; ended up about three deep off the barrier. The setlist read almost like a greatest hits, as LoG played all the favorites, and the crowd ate it up. Stupid little detail highlight for me: on the LED video boards they had, every time Randy would do a “Wooooo!” during his between-song banter, they’d flash a Ric Flair clip up on the boards! It never got old LOL. Needless to say, I had a great time, the band looked like they did too, and the crowd surely did.
Desolation
Walk With Me In Hell
Omerta
Contractor (look for someone’s big head around the 2:50 mark lol)
Redneck
LoG Setlist:
Desolation
Ghost Walking
Walk with Me in Hell
Set to Fail
Ruin
Now You’ve Got Something to Die For
11th Hour
The Undertow
Omerta
Contractor
Encore:
The Passing
In Your Words
Laid to Rest
Redneck
Black Label
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Tags: 2013, Decapitated, Lamb of God, rochester, Water Street Music Hall
06/07/2013 Fuel, Laura Wilde, Melia, Starlight Cities (Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall)
By Eric | June 10, 2013 11:04 am
[One Sweet Lie was on the bill also, didn’t arrive in time to see them.]
I arrived as Starlight Cities came on. They’re a Rochester-based pop-rock band, and were pretty good. A perfect fit to open for Fuel for sure. Not too heavy, not too light, band sounded good, the singer could sing; I’d definitely check them out again. My Syracuse concert buddies Kiersten and Pete showed up with their friends during the set break, so it was cool to catch up with them for a little bit. Melia was up next, and she’s Rochester-based as well, with an eye towards having a national indie career. It was a little odd, as she’s apparently 21, and the rest of her band was about 45+. There’s looking pro, and then there’s looking contrived, and I thought their set looked contrived. All of the stage actions, the banter, it just all seemed kinda forced. The songs were good, and the band sounded good, but the whole packaged felt manufactured to me. Which brings me to the direct support: Laura Wilde. She’s an Aussie ex-pat who moved to L.A. to get her music career going. She tried very hard to project a sort of “safe punk” vibe (read: “ROCK AND ROLL YEAH!” but too clean and polished), and while her musical/guitar chops were pretty good, the whole package was just kinda “meh” to me. Her bass player looked like he should have been in a real punk band, not the facsimile he was actually in.
Anyway, her set came and went, and finally it was time for Fuel! Brett and his band of merrymen were a little different than the show I saw at Water Street in 2010, Brad Stewart is still playing bass, but now he’s got Andy Andersson on guitar (and this guy can PLAY), and a brand new drummer, Bryan Keeling. They came out and ripped into Last Time, then stayed with Something Like Human for Empty Spaces and Prove. We actually got Falls on Me this time (they kept away from Natural Selection in 2010), and while most of the set was the same as the 2010 show, we also got Innocent this time. They played a really cool extended intro to Hideaway also. I was a little surprised that we didn’t get to hear any new tunes, as they’ve been playing some off and on from the upcoming album. No matter, they sounded great, and looked happy to be there despite a smallish crowd that wasn’t terribly lively. No complaints from this corner!
Speaking of the crowd, what an odd mix. There were a lot of 45+ set, cougars with and without young and old dudes, and a then handful of my 30ish demographic. Very weird crowd, most of them not very into it, but were just “there to be there”. A lot of people stayed on the periphery of the floor. Needless to say I got very close to the stage, and was virtually untouched all night. There were two guys off to the right side that were legit _rocking out_ during the entire Fuel set, but they were the exception rather than the rule.
“Highlight”/”I’m old” moment of the night: Naturally, I’m “that guy” and wearing the Sunburn 98-99 Tour shirt.
Some younger guy comes up to me after the show (and the house lights are back on) and asks, “Did you get that shirt here tonight?” LOL. Does this shirt *look* like I got it here tonight? It’s beyond faded, there’s holes in it, and the silkscreening is cracking everywhere. This shirt is 15 years old, my friend. Pete goes, “How old are you? The shirt’s probably older than you are!” Dude claimed he was 30, I’d say 23 tops. Either way, a little bit of a chuckle at someone else’s lack-of-knowledge expense.
Fuel Setlist:
Last Time
Empty Spaces
Prove
Falls on Me
Bad Day
Sunburn
Shimmer
Bittersweet
Untitled
Jesus or a Gun
Hideaway
Encore:
Innocent
Hemorrhage (In My Hands)
Someone else has a couple of much better pictures here: Facebook pics
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Tags: 2013, Fuel, Laura Wilde, Melia, Montage Music Hall, rochester, Starlight Cities
05/24/2013 Hollywood Undead, American Fangs (Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory)
By Eric | May 31, 2013 4:29 pm
[Stellar Corpses, Beware of Darkness also on the bill, didn’t see them.]
I’m not the world’s biggest Hollywood Undead fan, but I like them well enough, had the time and energy on the Friday night of a long weekend to go, so I said “what the hell”. I was taken quite aback as I rolled up on the Armory, seeing as there was no line outside, plenty of parking behind the Auditorium Theater (and for free!), and no real evidence there was a show happening. Definitely no hassle getting in, and I’d say the place was about half full. Probably more people than would have fit at Water Street, so it’s not like there was nobody there, in fact it was a pretty healthy crowd I’d say, but the Armory kinda looked empty. (Not sure there’s a good in-between venue anymore (Harro East isn’t really doing shows I don’t think).) Anyway, first time ever at the Armory with no beer lines! Walk right up to the counter? UNHEARD OF. This was probably also due to the fact that Hollywood Undead has a much younger audience than most of the stuff I go see, so while there were a good number of adults, there were a TON of kids at this show (read, teenagers). I guess I didn’t realize just how young their fanbase skewed.
So American Fangs opened; they’re a pretty straight-forward hard rock band, and were decent. None of the songs were particularly memorable, but they had a lot of energy, got the crowd riled up a bit. A solid opening band.
HU came out to a fairly raucous response, and started with Undead, which got everyone into it right off the hop. They spread the set out over the three albums, and sounded pretty damn good doing it. During Comin’ In Hot they brought up some young kid to sing with them, and while you could tell he was a little nervous, he wasn’t *that* nervous, and busted out a good deal of the lyrics! Kudos to that kid. The lead singer for American Fangs came out during Another Way Out to sing along too. They had a ton of energy, the kids in the crowd were having a good time, and like I said when I saw them at K-Rockathon a couple years ago, the fact that there’s live instruments, and everyone takes turns playing stuff, impresses me. They could easily just put 5 guys out in front of a backing track and call it a day, but they don’t. Plus their drummer was none other than Darren Pfeiffer, he of Goldfinger fame! It was a decently long 16-song set, for me, something to go see on a Friday night, and an all-around good time.
Hollywood Undead setlist:
————————-
Undead
Tendencies
Been to Hell
Dead Bite
California
City
Comin’ in Hot – with the little kid
My Town
Bullet
Sell Your Soul
Paradise Lost
Another Way Out – with American Fangs lead singer
Young
Hear Me Now
Encore:
Everywhere I Go
We Are
Undead
Dead Bite / Been To Hell / Tendencies / Undead (the sound sucks, and he spliced the songs together in backwards order for some reason)
Comin In Hot – with the little kid
Everywhere I Go
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Tags: 2013, American Fangs, Hollywood Undead, Main Street Armory, rochester
05/18/2013 Korn, Mindset Evolution, Love and Death (Big Flats, NY @ Tag’s Summer Stage)
By Eric | May 23, 2013 8:49 pm
My second show at Tag’s, and my second show with Tiff’s cousins and their friends. Talk about a good time. Nu-metal heaven… Korn, and HEAD’S BACK! We tailgated through most of Love and Death (Head’s other band), and all I could think of was “these guys sound like Adema”. From the parking lot they didn’t sound bad, just generic. We filed into the place during set change, and parked ourselves in a nice center spot, probably 20 people deep, for Mindset Evolution. These guys weren’t too bad either, pretty much your standard hard rock band that you’d hear on XM-Octane. Nothing particularly stood out, but its not like I was praying for it to end either. A good opener.
Mindset Evolution – Hopeless
Of course, the natives are getting restless by this point. Time for our trip down nu-metal nostalgia lane. as the unmistakable cymbal hits of Blind started. ARE YOU READY??? The place went predictably nuts. 16-year-old Eric came out of hiding, as the first four tunes were Blind, Ball Tongue, Twist, and Chi! Right about this time, one of the girls in our crew had made it up to the front with her boyfriend, then retreated back to us. She wanted to head back to the front. BF wasn’t enthused, and I never need a second invitation to “head for the barricade”… So up front we went! Spent the rest of the show, about 1 or 2 folks off the barrier. Really good crowd, everyone into it, lots of singing/screaming along, no idiots (around us anyway), and we had fantastic sightlines. As for the tunes, the balance of the set was a good spread of hits from the entire catalog, but still leaned old-school (Shoots & Ladders, Helmet in the Bush, No Place to Hide, Need To, Lies). Nothing from Korn III, Untitled, and only Coming Undone from SYOTOS. Not that this guy is complaining. I’ll take the old stuff any day. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Korn sound bad live (this was Korn show #6), and this was no exception. Jon was all over the place, the rest of the guys looked like they were having fun up there, and the crowd was loud. Recipe for a great show.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a little anecdote from the end of the show… We’re milling around waiting to gather the whole group together, and the guitar player for Mindset Evolution walks past, so I told him good show, fun to see you guys, etc., he’s talking to us for a second when some obviously drunk guy stumbles up to him and practically yells “GIMME A DRUMSTICK MAN!”. Beyond the hilarity of his, er, directness, asking the guitar player for a drumstick usually ain’t getting you too far! A pick, sure, but a drumstick? The poor kid is trying to explain that he’s the guitar player, but the guy doesn’t give up that easily; he finally ambles away, muttering “I just wanted a f#$%ing drumstick man…” Good luck with that!
Setlist:
Blind
Ball Tongue [Lodi Dodi / It Takes Two insert]
Twist
Chi
Falling Away from Me
Narcissistic Cannibal
Dead Bodies Everywhere
Coming Undone
Did My Time
Shoots And Ladders / Somebody Someone
Here To Stay
Helmet In The Bush
No Place to Hide
Need To
Lies
Another Brick In The Wall
Encore:
Get Up!
Got The Life
Freak On A Leash
Blind
Another Brick In The Wall
Get Up
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Tags: 2013, Big Flats, Korn, Love and Death, Mindset Evolution, Tag’s Summer Stage
So this happened last night! @hatebreed VIP! @Wate
By Eric | April 19, 2013 12:25 pm
So this happened last night! @hatebreed VIP! @WaterStreetNY http://t.co/5mNAzMMyt0
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04/18/2013 Hatebreed, Every Time I Die, Terror, Job For A Cowboy (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
By Eric | April 18, 2013 11:59 pm
[This Is Hell was the first band on, but I missed them.]
I walked in pretty much just as Job For A Cowboy were ending their set, so I barely saw them. Not enough to form an impression. But for the rest of the night, one word: ENERGY. I’d seen Terror once before (2007 with Chimaira) and enjoyed them then, and same thing here. I don’t know any of the songs, but there were a bunch of people that sure did, and they looked to be having quite the time. A fun half-hour warmup for what was to come.
Terror – Live By The Code
My hometown boys in Every Time I Die were up next, and it was the usual mayhem you’d expect. The kids went berzerk, and there was a good size pit in the middle of the floor for most of the set. A good spread over the last couple albums, with some oldies thrown in for good measure, and a cool little Pantera medley with Domination and This Love. I neglected to write down the setlist, and it doesn’t look like anyone else did either, so I don’t have the track-by-track breakdown. I got to chat with Andy for a second before the set, so it was cool to say hi and talk some old-school NT backyard wrestling too!
ETID – Underwater Bimbos From Outerspace
I somehow managed to walk right up to the barrier during the set change, dead center. Fine by me! Hatebreed came out and launched into Put It To The Torch, then went to the old stuff with Empty Promises and A Call For Blood, and we were off and running. Another sprint through the “hits” (if you can call them that) of the HB catalog, tons of fun, great crowd for the most part (Jamey admonished some kids fighting behind us at one point), and per usual, the band sounded great. After we all went hoarse during “I Will Be Heard”, I got to stick around after the show and do the VIP meet and greet. Always fun to get to say hi to the band, and in this case get some cool swag to go with it! All the guys were super nice to everyone, laughing and joking, and made it worth the time and money to do the VIP. Another great Hatebreed show!
Hatebreed setlist (it’s not in complete order, and I didn’t write it down 🙁 Boo.)
Put It to the Torch
Empty Promises
A Call for Blood
Doomsayer
Tear It Down
Everyone Bleeds Now
In Ashes They Shall Reap
Last Breath
Indivisible
Smash Your Enemies
Dead Man Breathing
As Diehard As They Come
Perseverance
Honor Never Dies
This Is Now
Live for This
I Will Be Heard
Hatebreed – Put It To The Torch / Empty Promises / A Call For Blood
As Diehard As They Come
Hatebreed – Everyone Bleeds Now
Hatebreed – In Ashes They Shall Reap
A bunch of pics on the After Dark facebook page here.
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Tags: 2013, Every Time I Die, Hatebreed, Job For A Cowboy, rochester, Terror, Water Street Music Hall
Help make it happen for ‘Chimaira *CROWN OF PHANTO
By Eric | April 18, 2013 4:00 pm
Help make it happen for ‘Chimaira *CROWN OF PHANTOMS* Fan Edition CD-DVD’ http://t.co/hGDCvCTMlI #indiegogo via @indiegogo
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Tags: music, twitter