10/11/2016 Hatebreed, DevilDriver, Devil You Know (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | October 13, 2016 11:00 pm
Talk about a stacked bill! It was awesome to see Devil You Know again, after seeing them in May at Montage. Their list was slightly shorter this time out, and I got to see A New Beginning, which they didn’t play at Montage. Some of the crowd actually knew a couple of the songs, almost everyone at least recognized Howard, and he was as snarky as ever between songs. The band sounded great, so it was a nice primer for the rest of the night.
Devil You Know Setlist:
Consume the Damned
Embracing the Torture
Seven Years Alone
Stay of Execution
A New Beginning
The Way We Die
Shut It Down
I was very interested to see Devildriver, as Jamey talks them up all the time, and they’d consistently been mentioned as one of the better metal bands around today. Much like I only took a passing interest in Coal Chamber, with Dez being the common thread, I only ever took that same passing interest in Devildriver. Unfortunately, the live show didn’t really change my mind much. DD were good, Dez absolutely knows how to work a crowd, the band sounded fine, but I really couldn’t get into it. Not sure why, other than to say that the songs just didn’t grab me. The people that were there to see them, however, got their money’s worth and seemed to be having a great time.
DevilDriver setlist:
Hold Back the Day
These Fighting Words
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Daybreak
I Could Care Less
Nothing’s Wrong?
My Night Sky
End of the Line
Before the Hangman’s Noose
Clouds Over California
Ruthless
Meet the Wretched
Hatebreed time! This was show #7 for me, and it was just as much fun as the other 6. I weaseled my way down to the front to be amongst the crazies, and had a great time in the process. Before the set began, I started talking to this guy that was in town from Europe for work (I want to say Austria, maybe Germany? Can’t remember.), and was a huge metal fan. He got really lucky with his timing, found out the show was happening and got in! This guy was all in for Hatebreed too, it was awesome to see. The band came out and opened with Destroy Everything, to give you an idea how the night was going to go. The next song was the only new one they’d play, but it was a banger in Looking Down The Barrel of Today. After that it was a hit parade, with a couple of the old tunes thrown in for good measure (Empty Promises, Under the Knife, Smash Your Enemies), Doomsayer is always a favorite, and they closed out with I Will Be Heard. As you can see in the video below, Jamey stopped the song halfway through to berate the security guards in the pit for being less than helpful. He wasn’t wrong; these dudes were a little less than cooperative for some reason. The crowd, on the other hand, was great, good pits with no garbage as far as I could tell. Good times!
Merch-wise, I got to chat with Francesco and Ryan from Devil You Know for a minute and bought a shirt, plus I managed to snag one of the limited print shirts Hatebreed made for the show with the custom Sabres graphics on it – pretty sweet!
I Will Be Heard
Hatebreed Setlist is not in order:
Destroy Everything
Looking Down the Barrel of Today
Everyone Bleeds Now
In Ashes They Shall Reap
Empty Promises
Under The Knife
To the Threshold
This Is Now
Tear It Down
Smash Your Enemies
Seven Enemies
Honor Never Dies
Doomsayer
Perseverance
Proven
As Diehard As They Come
Live for This
I Will Be Heard
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 10/11/2016 Hatebreed, DevilDriver, Devil You Know (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
Tags: 2016, Buffalo, Devil You Know, Hatebreed, Town Ballroom
Every Time I Die – 2016 – Low Teens
By Eric | October 1, 2016 6:00 pm
Artist: Every Time I Die
Title: Low Teens
Label: Epitaph
Released: Sep 23, 2016
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Fear And Trembling
#Glitches
#C++ (Love Will Get You Killed)
#Two Summers
#Awful Lot
#I Didn’t Want To Join Your Stupid Cult Anyway
#It Remembers
#Petal
#The Coin Has A Say
#Religion Of Speed
#Just As Real But Not As Brightly Lit
#1977
#Map Change
Review:
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Tags: 2016, Digipack, Epitaph, Every Time I Die, Standard
Clutch – 2008 – Full Fathom Five – Audio Field Recordings 2007-2008
By Eric | September 30, 2016 6:00 pm
Artist: Clutch
Title: Full Fathom Five – Audio Field Recordings 2007-2008
Label: Weathermaker
Released: Sep 9, 2008
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: CD
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#The Dragonfly
#Child Of The City
#The Devil & Me
#Texan Book Of The Dead
#Animal Farm
#The Mob Goes Wild
#Cypress Grove
#The Elephant Riders
#Ship Of Gold
#The Yeti
#Promoter (Of Earthbound Causes)
#10001110101
#Mr. Shiny Cadillackness
#Electric Worry
#One Eye Dollar
Review:
Tracks 1 to 3, 8 to 10: Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Small’s Theatre – 03.20.08
Tracks 4 and 5: Sayerville, NJ – Starland Ballroom – 12.29.07
Tracks 6 and 7: Sayerville, NJ – Starland Ballroom – 12.28.07
Tracks 11 to 15: Sydney, Australia – Hi-Fi – 12.15.07
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Clutch – 2008 – Full Fathom Five – Audio Field Recordings 2007-2008
Tags: 2008, CD, Clutch, Digipack, Weathermaker
09/28/2016 Clutch, Zakk Sabbath, Kyng (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | September 29, 2016 1:40 pm
This was a legitimate rock show! I’d come to be a pretty big Clutch fan in the last couple years, Zakk Wydle doing his Black Sabbath cover routine as direct support, and some serious hard rockers in Kyng as the first band on? Sign me up.
Kyng was very good, a hard driving capital-R Rock band. I didn’t know any of their material, but was into it nonetheless. Perfect openers for this.
Zakk Sabbath was very very cool to see. Obviously, Zakk has the chops to pull this off, has the legacy with Ozzy, and he nailed it. I’m not the foremost expert on Sabbath by any means, but it sounded great to me; there were only 2 songs I really wasn’t familiar with. Zakk being Zakk!
Zakk Sabbath setlist:
Children of the Grave
Snowblind
War Pigs
Into the Void
Fairies Wear Boots
NIB
I was plenty excited for this show, since between seeing them at Montage back at the end of 2013 and now, I’d really delved into the Clutch catalog and become a big fan. They’d released Psychic Warfare in the meantime as well, so having the latest two albums as the ones I know the best came in handy, as 11 out of the 18 songs in the set were off of either Earth Rocker or Psychic Warfare. And the ones that weren’t were definite crowd pleasers like A Shogun Named Marcus, The Regulator, and The Mob Goes Wild. The band sounded great, the crowd was into it all night, and much like the last time I saw them, Neil Fallon commanded the crowd with ease. There isn’t much to review about this, other than it was a super fun night, and a super fun show! I capped it off by almost walking out of the venue with the wrong tour shirt – not sure if the guy misheard me, or I couldn’t point straight, or what. Got two steps away from the table and was like, this isn’t what I wanted!!
Clutch setlist:
Decapitation Blues
Burning Beard
Noble Savage
A Shogun Named Marcus
Struck Down
The Face
The Regulator
Sucker for the Witch
A Quick Death in Texas
Your Love Is Incarceration
X-Ray Visions
Firebirds!
Son of Virginia
The Mob Goes Wild
Electric Worry
One Eye Dollar
Encore:
D.C. Sound Attack!
The Wolf Man Kindly Requests…
Intro / Decapitation Blues
Shogun
Regulator
Sucker For The Witch
Quick Death in Texas
Your Love Is Incarceration
X-Ray Visions / Firebirds
Electric Worry / One Eyed Dollar
DC Sound Attack / Wolfman
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 09/28/2016 Clutch, Zakk Sabbath, Kyng (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
Tags: 2016, Buffalo, Clutch, kyng, Town Ballroom, zakk sabbath
Eric Hutchinson – 2014 – Almost Solo in NYC
By Eric | September 18, 2016 6:00 pm
Artist: Eric Hutchinson
Title: Almost Solo in NYC
Label: Let’s Break
Released: Oct 7, 2014
Packaging: Cardboard
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#OK It’s Alright With Me
#I’m a Foot Stomper
#Watching You Watch Him
#Watching You Eat Shrimp
#Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
#Emo in College
#Breakdown More
#Outside Villanova
#Amsterdam
#Shine on Me
#Rock & Roll
#Love Like You (Live at Pandora)
#A Little More (Live at Pandora)
Review:
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Tags: 2014, Cardboard, Eric Hutchinson, Let's Break, Standard
Eric Hutchinson – 2016 – Easy Street
By Eric | September 18, 2016 6:00 pm
Artist: Eric Hutchinson
Title: Easy Street
Label: Let’s Break
Released: Aug 26, 2016
Packaging: Cardboard
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Dear Me
#Good Rhythm
#Anyone Who Knows Me
#Lost in Paradise
#Alcatraz
#American Princess
#Bored to Death
#Same Old Thing
#Anyone Who Knows Me (KO Remix)
#Dear Me (KO Remix)
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Eric Hutchinson – 2016 – Easy Street
Tags: 2016, Cardboard, Eric Hutchinson, Let's Break, Standard
Gavin DeGraw – 2016 – Something Worth Saving
By Eric | September 16, 2016 6:00 pm
Artist: Gavin DeGraw
Title: Something Worth Saving
Label: RCA
Released: Sep 9, 2016
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#She Sets The City On Fire
#You Make My Heart Sing Louder
#Kite Like Girl
#Making Love With The Radio On
#Harder To Believe
#Say I Am
#How Lucky Can A Man Get
#New Love
#Annalee
#Something Worth Saving
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Gavin DeGraw – 2016 – Something Worth Saving
Tags: 2016, Gavin DeGraw, Jewel Case, RCA, Standard
Prophets Of Rage – 2016 – The Party’s Over
By Eric | September 14, 2016 6:00 pm
Artist: Prophets Of Rage
Title: The Party’s Over
Label: Caroline
Released: Aug 26, 2016
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Prophets Of Rage – 2016 – The Party’s Over
Tags: 2016, Caroline, Jewel Case, Prophets Of Rage, Standard
08/31/2016 Prophets Of Rage, Wakrat (Niagara Falls, NY @ Rapids Theatre)
By Eric | September 2, 2016 9:34 am
When it was announced that 3/4 of Rage Against The Machine would be getting together with B-Real from Cypress Hill and Chuck D from Public Enemy (along with PE’s DJ Lord, and with Zack de la Rocha’s blessing) as Prophets Of Rage, I know I was excited to see how they would look and sound, but I figured it would be a limited, west-coast only type of thing. Then they announced a big “Make America Rage Again” tour, which was cool, but it wasn’t coming anywhere close. But THEN a Buffalo/Niagara Falls date? I wasn’t going to miss this! I think this one came together very quickly, as the show was added very late in the tour, and tickets went on sale only a week prior. So late, in fact, that this date was not on the tour shirts! Sandwiched in-between shows in much bigger venues in Quebec City and Michigan, and from a look at the schedule, this may very well have been the only “club” date on the entire tour, as the Rapids holds about 1700 people. Having never seen RATM (I did get to see Audioslave on the first album in Toronto), Cypress Hill, nor Public Enemy, this was a chance to get a taste of all three.
I got to the venue well after the doors opened, and was able to walk right in. Everyone was jammed towards the middle and back of the place, and there was surprisingly a lot of room up front. I ended up about three people deep off the barrier, with plenty of space around me, and that didn’t change once the openers hit the stage. Apparently AWOLNATION had been opening most of the shows, but our opener was Wakrat, Tim Commerford’s new/other band. I’ve seen them described as alt-punk, and I guess I’d agree with that. Truthfully, I wasn’t all that impressed. I think they were trying to be political, but the message was rather simplistic, a bit scattered, and I wasn’t picking up what they were putting down. I’m not sure if Tim C. is the lyric writer or not, but he was the lead singer, and it was okay, but not great. But regardless, it was something to pass the time before the big show. Dave found me just as Wakrat ended, so it was great to have someone to talk to during set change too.
After the set change was complete, we got about a 10-15 minute DJ set from DJ Lord, including a ton of recognizable hip-hop and rap tracks, and even some rock and metal thrown in there for good measure. It definitely kept the crowd entertained until the band came out amidst the sound of an air raid siren, then broke out into the eponymous song, Prophets of Rage. The PE song, as reworked by the band, is a banger, but I got the feeling that not too many people knew it because while more densely packed, the crowd didn’t really go nuts, instead preferring to all take out their phones and shoot photos and videos thought. Just when I thought the crowd would be that lame all night, Guerrilla Radio was next, and people went berserk. Whoever wasn’t bouncing around for that certainly was for Bombtrack, and we were off and running. B-Real and Chuck D both were on point both in spitting the lyrics and crowd hype and participation. Obviously as the entire band are seasoned performance veterans, I really shouldn’t have expected anything less, but both guys were fantastic with their own interplay, weaving in and out of the verses and not stepping over each other on the mic. They also alternated spending time up on the barrier, letting the crowd sing, and B-Real even went crowdsurfing at one point. Both the two frontmen and the rest of the band gave a Grade A performance, as Tom, Brad, and Tim all maintained a super-high level of energy all night.
[RANDOM ASIDE]
I’m on 19+ years of going to concerts (this was show #347), and yet I’m still seeing and experiencing things I’ve never seen before. Like I said, I was about three deep off the barrier when the show started, and through the first song and a half, everyone was cool; moving, bouncing, having a good time. During Guerrilla Radio, this little skinny 5’6″ dude that looked like he’d be more at home at a DMB show tries to worm his way up front through a bunch of us. No sale from me and a couple other people. Nothing out of the ordinary. But then, instead, a 6’3″, 225-lb dude (not necessarily jacked, mind you, just big) goes to do the same thing, we sorta reject him, he gets through, and when he realizes we’re not just going to move for him, turns around and wants to fight. Me, of course. (It’s always me.) He then proceeds to pull through the little guy and get him up front, as you’d normally see a guy do with his girlfriend in these cases. That’s a bit weird. Little dude is admittedly really into the show, and the big guy is doing a poor job of faking the funk, obviously didn’t know the songs. Once Bombtrack starts and the crowd really starts warming up, big guy goes into what I’d call “girlfriend protection mode” on the little guy, doing the cocoon thing. Song ends, big guy turns around to me, says something to the effect of “Yo man, we cool, good luck up here”, and he and the little guy disappear out the back of the crowd! Like, what just happened? Was the big guy his friend, his boyfriend, or Dave and I’s theory, literal hired muscle? Like this little guy brought this big guy with him to be able to survive up front and then thought better of it? I was dumbfounded. I’ve never seen anything like that at a show before. First time for everything.
[/RANDOM ASIDE]
The setlist was of course heavy on RATM tunes, and they nailed all the hits and crowd favorites. They also sprinkled in a little Audioslave, as they used Cochise as the backing for PE’s “She Watch Channel Zero”. The only full Cypress Hill song we got was Rock Superstar, which was great, and then as if to give the band a bit of a breather, B-Real and Chuck D kept trading off during a Cypress/PE medley of Hand on the Pump, Can’t Truss It, Insane in the Brain, Bring The Noise, Ain’t Goin Out Like That, Terrordome, and then something that didn’t show up on any other setlists I saw, Jump Around! House of Pain was tight with Cypress Hill, so no real surprise that B-Real handled it. That led right into Sleep Now In The Fire, and we were back to the crowd frenzy. They saved the best for last, of course, as between Bulls on Parade and Killing In The Name, most of the crowd lost their minds. Definitely some healthy mosh pits for these two, and all night really.
Surprisingly, given the political nature of most of the songs, and the obvious feelings of the band members, the banter from the stage was rather positive, speaking to change in general rather than picking a side, which was refreshing. So I think everyone left happy, and to be certain this was a “wring your shirt out at the end of the night” sort of show. The band sounded fantastic, B-Real and Chuck D, like I said above, were spot on, and the crowd was equal to it. There was no mailing it in, no “oh its a smaller show” type of vibe of any kind. This was worth the trip and the ticket price for sure.
Intro / Prophets of Rage
Bombtrack
Jump Around / Sleep Now In The Fire
Bulls on Parade
Killing In The Name
Some first person perspective on Killing in the Name:
Setlist:
DJ Lord Intro
Prophets of Rage
Guerrilla Radio
Bombtrack
Miuzi Weighs a Ton
People of the Sun
Take the Power Back
Cochise / She Watch Channel Zero?!
Testify
(Rock) Superstar
Hand on the Pump / Can’t Truss It / Insane in the Brain / Bring the Noise / I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That / Welcome to the Terrordome / Jump Around
Sleep Now in the Fire
Bullet in the Head
Shut ‘Em Down
No Sleep Till Brooklyn / Fight the Power
Know Your Enemy
The Party’s Over
Bulls on Parade
Killing in the Name
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 08/31/2016 Prophets Of Rage, Wakrat (Niagara Falls, NY @ Rapids Theatre)
Tags: 2016, Cypress Hill, Niagara Falls, Prophets Of Rage, Public Enemy, Rage Against The Machine, Rapids Theatre, Wakrat
Gemini Syndrome – 2016 – Memento Mori
By Eric | August 20, 2016 6:00 pm
Artist: Gemini Syndrome
Title: Memento Mori
Label: Another Century
Released: Aug 19, 2016
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed? Autographed
Tracklist:
#Anonymous
#Remember We Die
#Zealot
#Gravedigger
#On Point
#La Devastante Verità
#Sorry Not Sorry
#Eternity
#Alive Inside
#Inception
#Lucido Somnium
#Say Goodnight
#Awaken
#Ordo ab Chao
#Brought to Light
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Gemini Syndrome – 2016 – Memento Mori
Tags: 2016, Another Century, Autographed, Digipack, Gemini Syndrome, Standard