Just got home from Hatebreed / Chimaira. Raged wit
By Eric | August 1, 2009 12:00 am
Just got home from Hatebreed / Chimaira. Raged with Adam and Rich, show was AWESOME. Haven’t had that much fun at a show in a *long* time!
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07/30/2009 Rancid, Billy Talent, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Whitechapel (Hamburg, NY @ The Agri-Center)
By Eric | July 31, 2009 5:13 pm
[I didn’t stay for Rise Against.]
I was able to swing working a day at the Fairgrounds, thus ensuring I was already at the venue, would be there in plenty of time, and had great parking! I strolled in line and walked in within 10 minutes, grabbed a hot dog and an overpriced beer, and chilled for a half hour while the stages were prepared. Stages plural, as this was the combination of two tours in one, so they simply set up one stage at either end of the Agri-Center. Plently of room, and the plan was to go two bands on one stage, two on the other, then the “headliners” on each opposite stage once again, in a 2-2-1-1 type arrangement. It didn’t quite work out that way, as we were about to find out. I commenced watching Whitechapel, the first band on the right hand stage. These heavy dudes from Knoxville, Tennessee were no-nonsense death metal, and while I’m sure they’re great within their genre, it ain’t for me. No harm, no foul. During the set change, Adam and Kristen walked in, and their timing was impeccable, as 5 minutes after their arrival, it was time for All That Remains. A short, sweet, half-hour set, in which the band had the crowd riled up the entire time. Opening with This Calling right into Chiron, everyone got down and dirty right away. Forever in Your Hands, Six, and Become the Catalyst followed, and they closed up with Two Weeks. The band sounded tight, Phil was nailing the vocals, and the crowd was into it the whole time. Tons of people were either there for them, or at least somewhat familiar; they got quite the crowd pop.
Two Weeks
At this point Adam and I got our breath back, met back up with Kristen and wandered around as Billy Talent started on the opposite stage. Started. About 2 or 3 songs into their punky, Green Day-ish set, they stopped playing, because the barricade in front of the stage broke. As in, split apart (see Staind @ The Sideshow, circa 2000). At first it was announced that they’d need a half-hour to fix it, and bear with them. Five minutes after that, the promoter got up and said that Killswitch Engage agreed to go on early, and they’d be up next, back on the other stage! Needless to say, there was a mad rush over to that stage, as we got geared up for KsE. It was actually better this way, because Adam and I got all of our bands out of the way right off the hop! No pun intended, Killswitch came out, and, well, killed. Coming out to the recorded intro to My Last Serenade, they then kicked into the song proper, and the place went nuts. People jumping, moshing, a couple pits, pandemonium. And they sounded *great*. Next was Starting Over, Fixation on the Darkness, Reckoning, and my favorite b-side, This Fire Burns. Already drenched with sweat, they didn’t let up on us at all, despite all of the guys rocking sleeveless t-shirt tuxedos (which they were also selling!). Continuing with Take This Oath and Rose of Sharyn, we finally got somewhat of a respite with Light In A Darkened World. A huge singalong ensued with A Bid Farewell, and then during Life To Lifeless, I swore I was about to lose a contact lens. I cut straight across the front of the stage with one hand over my eye, got to the edge of the crowd, blinked a million times, and didn’t lose it. A helpful security guard double-checked for me with his flashlight, confirmed it somehow stayed in, and I went right back into the center of the pit where I was! Just in time for My Curse, and the 2nd biggest crowd frenzy of the night in The End Of Heartache. The closer, and BIGGEST mosh of the night, belonged to Holy Diver. As I said, the guys killed. Had a better time than at Water Street a year or two ago, just in sound, song selection, the crowd, all of it. Speaking of the crowd, not one idiot around me at all, everyone was awesome, helping people up, not throwing random elbows, etc. Just having a good time.
This Fire Burns
Adam and I found Kristen *again*, caught our breath just as Billy Talent was re-starting their set on the other side. They got to finish this time, and the three of us hung towards the back for Rancid’s set as well.
Rancid is not a band I would probably ever see if not for a package deal like this one. Punk’s not my thing, but I know these guys are pretty much respected and have been around since 1991, so they have to be doing something right. I’m guessing Tim Armstrong isn’t heralded for his vocal prowess, but I’m also guessing that no one cares. It’s punk, it simply doesn’t matter. The band seemed to be enjoying themselves up on the stage, and the crowd reaction was strong for them as well. They played the handful of singles I’d heard of (Salvation, Roots Radicals, Time Bomb, Ruby Soho) and a bunch of other tunes that the crowd ate up. Still not my scene, but I was impressed. After this, I was beat, and since the show was going long due to the barricade situation, and since it was 11pm, we cut out, not staying for Rise Against. We got our money’s worth for the bands we came for, and had a great time.
Time Bomb
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Tags: 2009, All That Remains, Billy Talent, Hamburg, Killswitch Engage, Rancid, The Agri-Center, Whitechapel
It’s metal time! Hot as balls in here already, and
By Eric | July 31, 2009 12:00 am
It’s metal time! Hot as balls in here already, and it’s only gonna get worse. Awaiting A Thousand Shades of Cold!
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Woke up sore from last nights show, and I get to d
By Eric | July 31, 2009 12:00 am
Woke up sore from last nights show, and I get to do it all over again tonight… @Hatebreed / @Chimairaband at Water Street!
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Due to the barricade thing, kse went on next. Good
By Eric | July 31, 2009 12:00 am
Due to the barricade thing, kse went on next. Good thing, I had more energy! They rocked! m/
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Billy Talent just broke the barricade. Half hour d
By Eric | July 30, 2009 12:00 am
Billy Talent just broke the barricade. Half hour delay. @philthatremains & crew killed!
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Just got to the end of the long-ass line. Mad humi
By Eric | July 30, 2009 12:00 am
Just got to the end of the long-ass line. Mad humid out here, gonna be worse inside!
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Working @ Fairgrounds for the day, then I can just
By Eric | July 30, 2009 12:00 am
Working @ Fairgrounds for the day, then I can just walk across the parking lot to see @kseofficial and @philthatremains tear it up!
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07/25/2009 The Tragically Hip (Rochester, NY @ The Highland Bowl)
By Eric | July 27, 2009 9:30 pm
The Hip in my very own backyard. Almost literally, as the Highland Bowl is almost like having the band play in your yard with 3500 of your closest friends! I had raced over to Tom’s place just in time to catch the van-cab with the crew (saved me from trying to find a parking spot!) and we waited a whole 5 minutes in line I think before getting in. We got about five rows back from the barrier, laughing and joking with the people around us. Good people around us too. Right around the 7 o’clock hour, the Hip came out to the strains of The Depression Suite. The fans were into it from the get-go, but soon after the start of the show, we got to find out who was *really* into it. Why? The rain! It had been forecast, but it held off for the first six songs or so. As New Orleans Is Sinking got going, so did the rain. By the time that had ended and It’s A Good Life… started, we were in a full-on torrential downpour. (Check the videos below!) Which mattered not to neither the die-hards down front (we were standing in four inches of water the whole night) nor the band, especially Gordie, who came out into the rain with his guitar to essentially join us. He commented on the weather throughout the night, in fact, and I think drawing some inspiration from it. This was followed by a WATS song that I didn’t hear at Artpark, The Exact Feeling. The rain did nothing to curtail the volume of the singing along during Meridian and Love Is A First, which closed out the first set. By this time, the rain had pretty much subsided, so we just got to stand soaked for the rest of the show. I don’t think anyone really cared at that point.
Twist My Arm
New Orleans Is Sinking
It’s A Good Life… Part 1
It’s A Good Life… Part 2
Another shot of It’s a good Life…
100th Meridian
The boys came back out, and I got to see a song that in my previous 7 shows I hadn’t seen; Thompson Girl! And acoustically! Other highlights of set #2 were hearing Gus again, as I’d seen it on the IBE tour and not since, and also Courage, simply because it’s a favorite of mine. “If you gotta go, you go now, or else you have to stay all night”, Gordie reminded us at one point, and stay most of us did. We’d wormed our way down to two or three rows back from the barrier due to people leaving, and the view was fantastic. With rare exception, the crowd around us was fantastic as well. To say nothing of the band. The encore was almost the same as my Saturday Artpark show, with Struggle and Little Bones.
Wheat Kings
The Last Recluse
Now The Struggle Has a Name
Little Bones
It’s been said elsewhere that the setlist on this night was nothing to write home about, and save for Thompson Girl (personally), they’d be right, but this night was not about the setlist, and way more about the fans, the band, and the elements. And how they all came together to transform an already great Hip show into something even better. A shared experience, and a show where years from now, you can look back and say, “I was there for that!”
I only took one picture before my phone got wet:
But flickr user literarymind has a few good ones!
First Set
01: The Depression Suite
02: In View
03: Giftshop
04: Ahead By A Century
05: Twist My Arm
06: Morning Moon
07: New Orleans Is Sinking
08: It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken
09: The Exact Feeling
10: At The 100th Meridian
11: Love Is A First
Second Set
01: Thompson Girl (Acoustic)
02: Coffee Girl (Acoustic)
03: Wheat Kings (Acoustic)
04: Spring Time In Vienna (?)
05: Bobcaygeon
06: Nautical Disaster
07: Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park
08: The Last Recluse
09: Courage
10: Frozen In My Tracks
11: My Music At Work
12: Blow At High Dough
Encore
13: Now The Struggle Has A Name
14: Little Bones
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/25/2009 The Tragically Hip (Rochester, NY @ The Highland Bowl)
Tags: 2009, rochester, The Highland Bowl, The Tragically Hip
Hip show = awesome. Damp iPhone = not so awesome.
By Eric | July 26, 2009 12:00 am
Hip show = awesome. Damp iPhone = not so awesome. Hoping the bag-of-rice trick works, as I have the red light / dim display thing going on.
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Tags: music, twitter