02/23/2010 Cold, Nonpoint, Day Of Fire, Edisun, Augustine (Syracuse, NY @ Westcott Theater)
By Eric | February 24, 2010 12:30 pm
I rolled in from work, and wandered into the line-less venue as Augustine was finishing up. I only saw about half of the last song, so I have no idea how they were. Edisun was next up, and they’re a pretty straight-up rock band from New Jersey (Edison, NJ, surprised? Not me!) the NYC/CT area. The singer almost sounded like Daryl Taberski from Snapcase to me at times. Very strange mix, but the band sounded alright, and they held my interest for their half-hour set. Unbeknownst to me at the show, one of Edisun’s guitar players was Jonathan Svec, formerly of Splender.
Next up was Day Of Fire, a band from Nashville fronted by Josh Brown, the former singer for Full Devil Jacket. DOF’s music is in a similar vein, and certainly Brown’s voice hasn’t changed, so their set was pretty enjoyable as well. Color me surprised as anyone though that Brown acknowledged his FDJ roots and the band even played a FDJ song! I don’t think there were too many people singing along with Fastblack, but you can be damn sure I was one of them! Before the song, one other guy in the crowd yelled out for “Where Did You Go?” so there was some crowd recognition there. As I said, the Day Of Fire tunes were fairly rockin’ as well, and had some good grooves to them.
As I’m milling around near the merch tables, who do I find but my old ETC buddy Nick! For better or worse, the last time I saw Nick was the last time I saw Nonpoint, at the old Steel Music Hall, back in 2004. Funny how that works. We made our way down front, the Nonpoint guys come out, and they had just as much energy as I remember from back in ’04. They blasted into Broken Bones, and then got the crowd really whipped up with What A Day. They continued with a good mix across all of their albums, including two new songs from the forthcoming new album, including the new single, Miracle. Then, in the surprise of the night, Joey Belladonna of Anthrax fame was in the house, and he came up for a rowdy take on Anthrax’s Got The Time, which got the crowd hyped. Elias came back and Nonpoint closed their set with Bullet With A Name. Tons of energy, the band sounded great, Elias sounded great, the crowd gave the love right back. I even managed to snag the setlist from the soundboard after the set. Six years between Nonpoint shows is too long!
Nonpoint setlist: Broken Bones, What A Day, Endure, Miracle, Circles, Hands Off, Lucky Number 13, Victim, In The Air Tonight, Got The Time (Anthrax cover with Joey Belladonna), Bullet With A Name.
What A Day
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It’d been six years since I’d seen Cold as well, and that made me even more anxious to see them! After talking with a couple guys who were super-huge Cold die-hard fans during set change, Cold themselves came out to a huge crowd roar. It doesn’t seem like anyone has forgotten about these guys at all, even though it’s been since 2005 that they’ve released a proper album. The crowd largely sang along with every song all night, and while there’s again two new guitar players, the core of Scooter, Jeremy and Sam are still there, and the whole band sounded fantastic. Scooter’s voice was spot-on, and the song mix was decently spread over all the albums, including two new songs off of the upcoming “Epic” album. “Welcome To My World” and “The Web” (which turned into “What Happens Now” once Superfiction was released) were the new tracks, and they sounded pretty damn cool, The Web especially. They’re also still playing “With My Mind”, which the die-hards were all about. Scooter kept commenting all night about how appreciative he was of the crowd coming out, and it certainly seemed like the entire band was very happy to be up there, touring again, and interacting with the crowd. It was a Cold show like I remember them being, and it was a blast. The crowd was great all night, but especially during Nonpoint and Cold, no real idiots, everyone was cool, having a good time.
Cold setlist: With My Mind, Anatomy Of A Tidal Wave, End Of The World, No One, Back Home, Another Pill, Remedy, Go Away, Welcome To My World, Send In The Clowns, When Angels Fly Away, The Web, Stupid Girl, Just Got Wicked, Anti-Love Song
With My Mind
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Nonpoint’s “new” (since 2008) guitar player Zach was at the merch booth after the show, so I got him to sign the setlist, and I also caught Josh Brown from Day of Fire long enough to get an autograph on the ticket stub. Both were gracious with me, and the rest of the fans, and it made for a great concert night (that could have just as easily happened in 2000 as 2010!)
[flickr]6936046256[/flickr] [flickr]7082121099[/flickr]
Topics: Concerts | 2 Comments »
Tags: 2010, Augustine, Cold, Day Of Fire, Edisun, Nonpoint, Syracuse, Westcott Theater
Um, am I the only one that didn’t know FLAW was go
By Eric | February 24, 2010 12:00 am
Um, am I the only one that didn’t know FLAW was going to be at Montage this Friday night? This is totally Nu-Metal ’99-’00 Week!
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Getting psyched to see a pair of favorite bands I
By Eric | February 23, 2010 12:00 am
Getting psyched to see a pair of favorite bands I haven’t seen since ’04: Nonpoint and COLD in Syracuse tonight! Cannot wait!
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I favorited a YouTube video — Sixpin – Take Me Do
By Eric | February 23, 2010 12:00 am
I favorited a YouTube video — Sixpin – Take Me Down http://youtu.be/nYdZOS4sJLk?a
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I favorited a YouTube video — GRAVITY KILLS EDGE
By Eric | February 19, 2010 12:00 am
I favorited a YouTube video — GRAVITY KILLS EDGE BIRTHDAY BASH 2007 http://youtu.be/pRtZXO6JB4s?a
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“Writing’s On The Wall” just came up on random. Wh
By Eric | February 16, 2010 12:00 am
“Writing’s On The Wall” just came up on random. When will Jeff Martin pull his head out of his ass and get The Tea Party back together?!
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Pretty sure I passed B.B. King’s tour bus on the w
By Eric | February 15, 2010 12:00 am
Pretty sure I passed B.B. King’s tour bus on the way home tonight. Also pretty sure that’s as close as I’ll ever get to him!
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Finally put some of those Xmas iTunes cards to goo
By Eric | February 13, 2010 12:00 am
Finally put some of those Xmas iTunes cards to good use: got some music and some iPhone apps. The Nonpoint acoustic EP is damn good!
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02/11/2010 Five Finger Death Punch, Shadows Fall, God Forbid (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | February 12, 2010 1:43 pm
[2 Cents was also on the bill, but I didn’t catch them.]
Phill and I made our way down the 90 to the Ballroom, and walked as the stage was just getting set for God Forbid. We hung back on the top level to take in their half-hour set, which was probably the best place for us. I’d seen God Forbid open up for Soulfly back in ’05 at the Icon, and while I liked them enough then, this time around I wasn’t totally impressed. I can’t even really describe it, as there wasn’t anything really wrong with their set, and the songs were okay, but the whole package was just kinda, “eh”. Didn’t really grab my interest much.
Phill and I moved down to the floor for Shadows Fall, and having seen them in Syracuse in October, I was expecting good things. And I got good things! They came out to the recorded “Path To Imminent Ruin” intro, and ripped into My Demise. The set continued along at a great pace, mixing stuff from the new Retribution disc and The War Within, an older tune from Art of Balance, and interestingly, nothing from Threads of Life. Which was fine, because King of Nothing was still in the set, and they did an awesome cover of Ozzy’s Bark At The Moon (as it’s one of the bonus tracks on the new album). Definitely had the energy level on high for the whole set, and even though guitarist Matt Bachand told me at the merch table that they had some sound issues, I thought they sounded better than Syracuse. The whole band was into the set, into the crowd, and there was a good amount of people in the crowd giving it back to them. Fun, fun, fun!
Shadows Fall setlist: The Path to Imminent Ruin, My Demise, Thoughts Without Words, Still I Rise, What Drives The Weak, King of Nothing, Inspiration On Demand, A Public Execution, Bark At The Moon, The Light That Blinds.
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We retreated up to the middle level all the way to the right for FFDP. We had a perfect vantage point to see the _packed_ floor (the show sold out!) as the band came out. Do these guys ever know how to capitvate a crowd! The set was very similar to the Syracuse show, opening with Burn It Down into The Way Of The Fist. Lead singer Ivan Moody was very interactive with the crowd, and sounded quite appreciative of the crowd response. The one new song in the set, No One Gets Left Behind, was impressive, as was the singalong on Bad Company. During the middle of White Knuckles, Ivan brought up two little kids on stage (one was 9, one was 12) and showed them off as “the future of heavy metal fans”. He dropped an f-bomb during his little speech, and mentioned how he has a self-imposed fine with his daughter, such that he pays a dollar every time he swears. So he implored the fans to pay his fine for him, asking for two dollars. I think the kids ended up with about 10 bucks apiece by the end of it! They got to stay up on stage through the end of the song, and now have a freakin’ awesome concert memory! A couple of songs later, while introducing Dying Breed, Ivan mentioned how he wanted to meet every person on the floor, encouraging the crowd surfers to come to the front, while imploring both the security at the barrier to take care of the fans and the fans themselves to respect the security guards. Pretty cool in my book, and it worked, because no one got stupid with it! Rather surprising, and there was only one idiot who tried to get on stage, and quickly got shut down in that endeavor. Naturally, the one song encore was The Bleeding, and the crowd ate it up. FFDP sounded better than Syracuse also, and again, the band/crowd interaction was great to see. My lone complaint still holds: the set was too short. More songs guys! MORE SONGS! But overall, another excellent show by the Death Punch crew.
FFDP setlist: Burn it Down, Salvation, The Way of the Fist, Hard to See, No One Gets Left Behind, Bad Company, White Knuckles, Never Enough, Dying Breed, Meet the Monster. Encore: The Bleeding.
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After the show, we shuffled back to the merch table, where I picked up a Shads shirt and chatted with their guitarist Matt, and then managed to grab a picture with Shad’s lead singer Brian Fair! I’d met him at the ‘Cuse show too, and he’s a cool dude for sure; him and their other guitarist Jon were gracious with every fan that approached them, which I always say makes even good bands even better. Another super-fun metal show at the Ballroom!
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Tags: 2010, Buffalo, Five Finger Death Punch, God Forbid, Shadows Fall, Town Ballroom
Me with Brian Fair (@brianshadfall) from Shadows F
By Eric | February 12, 2010 12:00 am
Me with Brian Fair (@brianshadfall) from Shadows Fall! http://twitpic.com/12ravb
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