03/07/2009 Shinedown, Saliva, Halestorm (Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory)
By Eric | March 9, 2009 9:58 am
Back at the Armory for another show, and this one was much easier getting in, and there were far less people there. I was surprised they even had it at the Armory, I figured it would have been at someplace like Harro East, but no matter. Karl and Kelley arrived not soon after I did, and we drifted off to the left side to watch the openers, Halestorm.
A female-fronted four piece, Halestorm captured and held our interest throughout their 1/2 hour set. Lead singer Lizzy Hale has a set of lungs on her, and the rest of the band did an able job accompanying her on their heavy rock tunes. The drummer was especially expressive behind the kit, and actually had some chops to back it up. They sound pretty radio friendly, so I wouldn’t be surprised to be hearing more about them in the near future.
Saliva was up next, and I haven’t seen them since December of 2001 when they opened for Nickelback. They’ve put out four more albums since then, and have kinda flown under the radar. Seeing them live again was pretty cool, but even with knowing all of the songs, they all sounded a bit plodding and slow. Like everything should have been a half-step faster. The contingent of the crowd that were going to “get into it” did, and everyone else kinda stood around and bopped their head. Personally, I think it would have been more fun if they’d played the songs a bit faster, but that’s me. People seemed to recognize most of the songs, as the set was heavy on “hits”, although surprisingly, Saliva *didn’t* play anything off of “Back Into Your System”, including one of their bigger hits, “Always”, which I thought was kinda odd. And three of their eight songs were off their first album. It was enjoyable, it was entertaining, but it didn’t bring the house down. Saliva Setlist: Survival Of The Sickest, Click Click Boom, My Own Worst Enemy, Family Reunion. Superstar, Hunt You Down, Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Disease.
After the set change it was time for Shinedown. I haven’t seen them headline since Syracuse in 2005, and given their performance at KRock this summer, I was excited to see them again. The band band really pulls out the stops on their headlining shows, weaving the songs in with a couple of instrumental interludes, and a fairly rockin’ intro as well. The band sounded fantastic, the song selection was excellent (if not similar to what I saw over the summer), even throwing a B-side/bonus track in there (“I Own You”) ,and the pacing, while lulling at certain points, was overall okay. BUT. The same “but” that there always seems to be with Shinedown. Brent Smith can’t seem to hack all of the high notes on the songs. As was the story in that ’05 headlining show, and the ’05 KRock show, he takes anything close to the top of his range either down the octave, or lets the crowd sing. Nowhere was it more apparent than on “Call Me”, where it was more solo singing with less accompaniment, and it didn’t quite have the feeling that it does on the album. Again, the band sounded awesome, and when in range, the singing was fine too, but there were just a few too many times where I wanted to hear him belt some notes out, and it didn’t happen. Shinedown setlist: Cry For Help, Heroes, I Dare You, If You Only Knew, I Own You, Burning Bright, Call Me, Left Out, Sound Of Madness, The Crow and the Butterfly, Cyanide Sweet-Tooth Suicide, 45, Fly From The Inside. Encore: Second Chance, Save Me, Devour
I Own You
45
Second Chance
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Tags: 2009, Halestorm, Main Street Armory, rochester, Saliva, Shinedown
Shinedown show was great, hanging out with Karl an
By Eric | March 8, 2009 12:00 am
Shinedown show was great, hanging out with Karl and Kelley afterwards was great, and THE BILLS SIGNED T.O.??? Who saw that coming?
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NIN is coming to Darien Lake June 3rd!
By Eric | March 4, 2009 12:00 am
NIN is coming to Darien Lake June 3rd!
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Just got my Hip ticket for the Saturday 6/6 Artpar
By Eric | March 3, 2009 12:00 am
Just got my Hip ticket for the Saturday 6/6 Artpark show… PIT – ROW 1 BABY!!!
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Going to see STEMM and His Name Was Yesterday at M
By Eric | March 1, 2009 12:00 am
Going to see STEMM and His Name Was Yesterday at Montage tonight with Adam!
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New Lamb Of God = Great. New Papa Roach = Pretty G
By Eric | February 27, 2009 12:00 am
New Lamb Of God = Great. New Papa Roach = Pretty Good. New Chris Cornell = WTF!?! Samples? Beats? Timbaland? (But I secretly kinda like it!)
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02/21/2009 Disturbed, Skindred, Caustic (Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory)
By Eric | February 23, 2009 4:59 pm
To preface this, the doors were supposed to open at 7pm, with the show at 8. Tiff and I rolled up on the Armory at about 7:15, and the line was already down the street and around the corner, and the doors didn’t look open yet. Traffic was crazy, because as luck would have it, there was a show at the Auditorium Theater across the street as well. So we twiddled our thumbs in traffic on Main Street and actually were able to pull into the church parking lot next door with no real problem. And surprisingly, there were tons of spots! We meandered back down the driveway, and since Tiff was on her crutches, everyone pretty much gave us a pass as we cut about 3/4 of the line. Milk it for all its worth! We still waited for about a half-hour to get in, and once inside, we grabbed one of the tables off to the left side, right by the doors, so Tiff could sit. It actually worked out rather well all night.
For those of you about to say, “Tiff doesn’t like Disturbed, why the hell did she go?”, the reason Tiff even came was because at the time of ticket purchase, Sevendust was on the bill, but due to the fact that they’re coming back with Black Label Society in April, they opted off this date. Only date with Disturbed they’re not playing. By the time we found that out, we already had the (somewhat expensive) tickets, and Tiff figured she’d come hang out and watch anyway, plus meet up with Adam and her friend Scott from work. Since there was no 7D, I wasn’t going to be “pitting” this one anyway, so it’s not like I was gonna be cranky not being in the middle of everything.
The first band, Caustic, was on as we walked in. Unbeknownst to me, they’re an upstate NY band, and apparently have some of their songs featured on the WEC MMA shows. They were pretty good, standard-fare metal, but we only caught like two songs. I’m sure a full set would probably hold my interest.
Skindred was up next, and I’ve heard a couple tunes before (“Nobody” in particular), so I kinda knew what to expect. They brought their best “Roots Rock Riot” and had the entire crowd bouncing for most of their 40-min set. The ragga-punk-roots-whatever you wanna call it was a lot of fun. I have no clue about order, nor if this is complete, but songs I was able to gather were “Roots Rock Riot”, “Trouble”, “Rat Race”, “Pressure”, and “Nobody”. There may have been one or two more. Definitely a good time with these UK boys!
Nobody
Then it was Disturbed time. The place was pretty much packed (not sure if it sold out or not, but it had to be close), and Adam and Scott had joined us by this point. After the canned intro music, the guys came out and ripped into Perfect Insanity. The set, (and setlist, for that matter) was quite similar to what Adam and I saw at Mayhem in July, with two additions and two switches. The first six songs were identical, and the last five were the same as well. In the middle, we got Land Of Confusion, Deify, Divide, and Haunted (as opposed to Mayhem, where we didn’t get any of those, and got Ten Thousand Fists and Criminal instead). They sounded great again, Draiman was cracking in one or two spots, but overall the vocals were strong as well. Big crowd pops, and the pit looked way more active than at any point at Mayhem. It’s always a different perspective standing on the sidelines vs. being in the middle of it all, and you get to see things you normally wouldn’t. Like security “escorting” people out the doors we were camped next to. And by “escorting”, I mean “opening the door with the dude’s face”. And a chick fight too, notable for the one girl wrapping her arms around the doorframe post, wailing, “I PAID A LOT OF MONEY FOR THIS TICKET! YOU CAN’T THROW ME OUT!”. Yes honey, yes they can. A little bit of everything on this night!
Intro / Perfect Insanity / Liberate
Overall, another excellent show, only minorly dampened by the lack of Sevendust. And Tiff’s a trooper for making it through a Disturbed show with nary a complaint!
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Tags: 2009, Caustic, Disturbed, Main Street Armory, rochester, Skindred
Going to get Down With The Sickness… Seeing Dist
By Eric | February 21, 2009 12:00 am
Going to get Down With The Sickness… Seeing Disturbed at the Armory tonight!
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The Sell-Out Gets An iPod
By Eric | February 17, 2009 8:04 pm
I caved. Hook, line, sinker. I bought a 120GB iPod Classic (6th gen.)
After my beloved Archos died, I tried a host of other MP3 players, including the Creative Zen, and the SanDisk Sansa that I got for free from the Woot Off. Both had their good and bad points, but chief among the bad for both was the fact that 8GB just wasn’t enough. After being able to carry every song I own around with me, being forced to whittle it down to 7% just didn’t cut it. The other big negative to the others, including the Archos, was car integration, or rather, lack thereof. You just can’t beat the iPod as far as the wealth of car mounts, chargers, and accessories in general. So armed with a couple of Best Buy gift cards from Christmas, I winced and plunked down for the iPod, and in the next day or two I’ll most likely own a Griffin Tuneflex Aux also.
As a side note, though, as a new iPod owner, my shit now no longer stinks, I have accepted Steve Jobs as my savior, Justin Long is my new role model, and my smugness factor is now through the roof.
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All this reliving high-school stuff has made me di
By Eric | February 11, 2009 12:00 am
All this reliving high-school stuff has made me dig into the archives and listen to some Bush this afternoon (as in Gavin Rossdale, not W!)
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