The Impossibility of Ascendancy

By Eric | April 22, 2005 12:58 pm

And so your hero went to the big metal show in Buffalo last night. Chimaira, Stemm, Trivium, and The Killing played at the Icon, and this is one of the most fun shows I’ve been to in quite awhile, beating the Soulfly show hands down. I’ll do the full review on the concert page later, but suffice to say that all the bands sounded great, and even though I wasn’t too keen on The Killing, the other bands shredded. Trivium was even nice enough to let Stemm play direct support in their hometown. RAWK!

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04/21/2005 Chimaira, Stemm, Trivium, The Killing (Buffalo, NY @ The Icon)

By Eric | April 21, 2005 11:59 pm

What a show. Chimaira announced the dates for some warm-up shows before their big summer run on Sounds of the Underground back in early March, and I salivated over this show for almost a month and a half. It was totally worth it. The Killing were up first, and they were okay. Didn’t tickle my fancy, but they certainly didn’t suck either. But the next three bands were the whole reason for going.

Since this show was in Buffalo, Trivium and Chimaira were gracious enough to let Stemm have the direct support slot, therefore Trivium was up next. Probably one of the youngest groups to hit the metal scene, the boys from Florida came out and rocked the spot. They’re every bit as good in person as they are on the albums. They came out to the instrumental opener “End Of Everything”, and kicked right into “Rain”. I don’t remember the order after this, but they did “Drowned and Torn Asunder”, “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr”, “Suffocating Sight”, “A Gunshot To The Head of Trepidation” and closed with “Like Light To The Flies”. There may have been one more, I can’t remember. Regardless, the crowd was certainly into the band, and the band was into the crowd as well. Just an all-out tight performance.

Next up were the hometown boys, Stemm. I think they got better even from when I saw them with Soulfly. The crowd went bezerk for them, and I think they fed off of that, plus the fact that they’re showing off for the Chimaira boys. I’m pretty sure they played everything off the EP, and especially sweet was the fact that Mark Hunter (Chimaira’s singer) came out and did his part on “13 Years”, and rather enthusiastically I might add. Stemm finished up their set with Monster, and the crowd went nuts, plus the bass player did a stage dive (bass and all) at the end, which only fired everyone up more. Then an extended lull before the mighty Chimaira.

Everyone jammed to the front, and they let everyone blow their wad right away, opening with “Pure Hatred” then right into “Severed”. Chris came out from behind his rig for some screaming, and then proceeded to stage dive practically right on top of me! Good thing he ain’t that heavy. 🙂 Then they came back with the first three tracks from TIOR in order, “Cleansation”, “The Impossibility of Reason”, and “The Pictures In The Gold Room”. Those three sound great together. A quick pause, then “Let Go”, “The Dehumanizing Process”, and “Eyes of a Criminal”. Then Mark tells us that as a treat, we’re gonna get some old stuff. We got “This Present Darkness”, and then as Mark put it, the rarest of the rare Chimaira tracks, a song they’ve only ever played once prior, “Gag”! Talk about awesome. As if that wasn’t enough, we got a new song too! “Nothing Remains” had not one, but two solos in it! “Jade” was next, and then the anticipation for the closer… “Power Trip”. TJ from Stemm came out for the closer as well, so we got double the intensity and screaming. It was a hell of a show, and I think I lost a couple pounds in sweat, but it was totally worth it!

[flickr-gallery pagination=”0″ mode=”tag” tags=”2005-04-21″ tag_mode=”all”]

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What A Tool

By Eric | April 15, 2005 10:44 am

We’re trying for more than one entry per week here. We just might make it.

I put my mp3 receiver into the new car last night. What should have taken 20 minutes took about an hour and a half (counting intermission). Here’s some highlights.

The trim piece surrounding the climate controls and the radio pulls right off of the dashboard (this is even easier than the 2001 was, no screws this time!), disconnect the wiring harnesses, and then its 4 screws to take the radio out. Easy as pie, right? I got three out… and the 4th one just did not want to go anywhere. After nearly destroying any and every phillips head screwdriver I had, and cursing a blue streak (or four or five), I called time-out and went shopping with Tiff.

Time out? Shopping? What the…? You WUSS! GET BACK IN THERE!

She had to pick some stuff up at Target, so I accompanied her, and then went to the only place that could help me, Chase Pitkin. One right angle screwdriver later…


This thing saved the day (and the neighbors ears).

…we were back, and by the glow of only the dome light, I took out the screw securing the bracket to the radio, and got the radio out. I then proceeded to wrench on the bracket until I got it free from the remaining screw (yay for slots!), and finally got the screw out.

Since the wiring harness didn’t change from 01 to 05, all my existing work was able to be used again. I didn’t even need the mounting kit from the old car either. The brackets screwed right to the radio, and in it went. Popped the trim piece back on, and we in bidness!

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Death by Soulfly

By Eric | March 4, 2005 10:16 am

I’ll have the review up shortly, but the Soulfly show last night was a good time, much better than the hed p.e. show last week. Max and the boys rocked the spot, God Forbid was pretty good, and Stemm (the local Niagara Falls boys) have come a long way since I saw them like 4 years ago. I guess getting in tight with Chimaira did them some good 🙂

The other opener however, Death By Stereo, suffered from what I like to call OLSTWTHTSTHHS. (Our Lead Singer Tries Way Too Hard To Show That He’s Hardcore Syndrome) It’s an affliction that a lot of bands have when their music isn’t that great, or in this case, passable but boring. Thank God for earplugs.

Looking forward to the weekend. Just because. 🙂

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03/03/2005 Soulfly, God Forbid, Death By Stereo, Stemm (Buffalo, NY @ The Icon)

By Eric | March 3, 2005 11:59 pm

Twas a night for the rock. I got into the place just as Stemm was starting, and these guys have come a long way since the last time I saw them, interestingly enough opening for Soulfly in Rochester back in 2002. They only played a handful of songs, but they rocked hard, and sounded quite good. I picked up their 5 song CD after the show, and it sounded great.

Stemm setlist: My Own Blood, 13 Years, Incomplete, Till I Die, On The Surface, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Monster

So after Stemm, we were treated to Death By Stereo. I use treated lightly. These guys SUCK ASS. This band suffers from what I like to call OLSTWTHTSTHHS (Our Lead Singer Tries Way Too Hard To Show That He’s Hardcore Syndrome). Jumping out into the crowd with a corded mic and nearly strangling people isn’t exactly the way to gain any fans. Boring riffs, boring songs, etc. Thankfully God Forbid was after them, and totally made up for it. They played an energetic set, got the crowd into it. I only knew about two or three songs, but that didn’t matter much, they rocked.

Then it was time for Soulfly. Max, Bobby Burns (of Primer55 fame), Marc Rizzo and Joe Nunez came out and ripped it up. Opening with Prophecy, into Seek and Strike, Living Sacrifice, Born Again Anarchist, and Downstroy before finally taking a breather. They alternated between the Sepultura and Soulfly with Spit, Jumpdafuckup/Bring It, Refuse/Resist, and Execution Style. Another breather, then a Nailbomb track, Sum Of Your Achievements, a new song called Frontline, Porrada, then another new song with Max’s stepson Richie, Stay Strong, into Tree of Pain. Another break, then Defeat U, Mars, Back to the Primitive, and Brasil. Back for a two song encore, with the crowd pleaser No, and closed the night out with Eye For An Eye. A fun show, a fun night, it sounded great, and the crowd was awesome too, hardly any idiots.

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The MP3 Survey

By Eric | February 28, 2005 9:31 pm

have Itunes? have time to waste?
Well, not Itunes per se, but enough mp3s and enough time to waste… lets go!

How many songs total?
11,702 songs, 1179.66 hours, 62.6 GB

Sort by song name – first and last:
$300 – Soul Coughing (yay for symbols!)
Zumbi – Soulfly

Sort by Artist – first and last:
12 Stones
ZZ Top

Sort by Time – first and last:
0:04 – Vanilla Ice – Yo Vanilla!
17:02 – Iron Butterfly – Innagaddadavida
(I have a couple full concerts that I’m not counting)

Sort by Album – first and last:
1000 Yard Stare – Doubledrive
ZZ Top’s First Album – ZZ Top (yes, thats the title!)

I’m assuming these are in the titles:
Find “sex,” how many songs show up? 19

Find “death,” how many songs show up? 19

Find “love”, how many songs show up? 252

Find “peace”, how many songs show up? 266 (only 11 of which were not Our Lady Peace songs)

Find “rock”, how many songs show up? 131

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NIN!!! (oh, and Music Scandal City!)

By Eric | February 27, 2005 8:35 am

Nine Inch Nails is playing the Kool Haus in Toronto on May 9th and 10th! Presales start March 1st! YAY!!!!

So there’s a couple more scandals now… Tripp Eisen from Static-X loves underage girls, although it didn’t seem like Static-X was doing much lately anyway, but at least someone was!

And then Fred Durst got his homemade porno stolen from his computer. I saw the video, and while I guess it meets the definition of “hardcore”, it aint that great. Fred needs some help with his camera work methinks.

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Breaking up about Hed-ing to Lewis Black

By Eric | February 25, 2005 11:30 am

The review of the hed pe show will be up shortly, suffice to say it wasn’t nearly as good as it’s been in the past.

I did just find out though that Lewis Black is coming to the Riviera Theater on Friday March 18th. And I’m certainly going to that, which means I have a ticket to get rid of for the Breaking Benjamin, Theory of a Deadman, Exies show at Infinity in Williamsville the same night. Anyone want it? I’ll get rid of it dirt cheap!

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02/23/2005 (hed)pe, Indexcase, Three Minutes of Hate (Buffalo, NY @ Showplace Theater)

By Eric | February 23, 2005 11:59 pm

I left straight from work, and rolled in at about 7:30, strolled right in the door. Took a spot by the bar, and got ready for the first band. Three Minutes of Hate is a local metal band, and they weren’t half-bad. The singer had a decent scream, and the guitar was okay. It’s just too bad that the songs never seemed to get off the ground, and the cool riffs were few and far between. But they were decent.

Indexcase was next, and their gimmick was having every band member wear nothing but white. (Didn’t 30 Seconds to Mars do this?) These guys were alright also, sort of a metal-lite. The singer wasn’t quite in tune the whole time though, he was complaining about the flu, so that might have been it. The band sounded pretty good though, the musicianship was tight.

Then it was time for hed. There’s been a couple of reviews of their new album, saying they’ve taken a downhill turn. And as much as I hate to say it, those people are right. The performance was okay, but nothing like I remember seeing them during the tour for Broke. Even though the original bassist and DJ are still there, the show seemed like it was Jahred up on his soapbox with 4 guys behind him. He was spewing a lot of political stuff, and it was as if a lot of it was stream of consciousness type rhetoric, “I just thought of this, and oh yeah, screw the establishment too.” The old familiar songs were fun, but still were uninspired. And the new ones were kind of repetitive, not too much going on in them. The new guitar player can play, and play well, but its almost like his talent is wasted with hed. The show was fun and a good time, but not a great time like I’ve had in the past. I can’t say I’ll be breaking down the door to see hed again.

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Squeezing the Shine out of the Theory

By Eric | February 21, 2005 10:42 pm

Last night was the trip to the ‘Cuse for the Shinedown / Theory of a Deadman show. I’ll have a review up shortly, but in the meantime I’ll give a quick synopsis:
The ride to Syracuse, good.
Standing in line in the freezing cold, bad.
Only being in line for 15 minutes, good.
Venue being small, good.
Venue having two levels, the smaller of which was closer to the stage, kinda bad.
Sight lines if not right up front, bad.
No Address, the opener, okay.
Theory of a Deadman, awesome.
Shinedown, huge disappointment.
The singer missed practically every high note in the 5 songs I stayed for. Either “let the crowd sing”, or took everything down the octave. The band sounded great, however, the singer burned whatever points that got them. They were much better last time. The crap vocals, combined with the snow, convinced me to leave early. The roads weren’t quite plowed yet, 690 to 90 was marginal through Waterloo, where it was fine all the way to Farmington, until it got crappy again, and stayed that way all the way home. I left at 10:30, didn’t get home till 12:30. It wasn’t that adventurous, just slow going.

A small part of this extended time was getting out of my parking spot. Everyone parked in and around an abandoned gas station, which was fine. I was under the canopy, which was even better. What sucked was trying to navigate around all the other parked cars. I had to squeeze out between two vehicles with about 2 inches on each side. No scratches!! A fine piece of driving if I do say so myself.

Amidst all this, Tiff handed in her final exam for class today, so she’s done for the quarter… yay for her!

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