Taste of Chaos Tour f/t The Used, Killswitch Engage, My Chemical Romance, Senses Fail, A Static Lullaby, Underoath - 2/23/05 - Partiot Center - Fairfax, VA
Nothing annoys me more than when shows are designed to cut off the opening acts. I will be the first to admit that im not a huge fan of the used or my chemical romance, but i did still want to go to this show. I am a big fan of the 4 "opening" bands, despite all being big enough to headline club tours themselves. Anyways, here is where the problem comes in. I invite you to take a look at exhibit A, the taste of chaos ticket...
Now i invite you to take a close look at the time on the ticket. 7pm. now, it really drives me bananas when the bands i want to see start before then. i get to the show at 6:45ish, technically early, to find out that i have already missed the 2 bands i was most coming to see. a static lullaby started at 6, and underoath started at 640. i caught a few songs of underoath, but this definitely put a damper on the entire night. what i did see of underoath was good, but a terrible crowd, and an empty arena for a venue just did not warrant itself to a band that is much better suited to play a tiny club with kids who actually know the songs. from there, senses fail came on and was ok. they are a solid band with solid, albeit generic, songs. there is just one slight problem. this band is very produced. vocalist buddy ___ really cant sing live. he can scream, but hitting notes or sustaining a tune is definitely not his strong point. the increased crowd participation and energetic performance allowed Senses Fail to play an above average set, despite the problems with the lead vocals.
Sadly, i stepped into the back for an interview with a static lullaby (which can be found in the interviews section of this website), and missed all but the last song by killswitch engage. the only note-worthy things were much more people then when i had originally left, and this kept the sound from bouncing around a little so the quality was better. also, one of the guitar players wasnt wearing any pants. either that or he was wearing those super tight bike shorts. either way, it was funny.
My Chemical Romance came on to a relatively full house (at least as full as it would get) and really did not impress me. THis band is the "next big thing" but really, really sucks. They have no outstanding good parts to their music, they are weird and over-dramatic and their singer may be the single ugliest person in the world. However, i do give them credit for living out their dreams and playing hard. They were energetic on stage and a lot of people were into them, even if i was not. A few things that did annoy me in particular about their set: they opened with "I'm Not Ok (I Promise)", the big single from their latest release which is getting mass radio play around the country. It raises the question, "arent you supposed to finish with your big song", and it coinfused me, but, hey, to each his own. From there, one of their guitar players almost decapitated me and another girl with a nice little swing of his guitar (like an axe) to chop down his constantly-falling-over mic stand. I was taking pictures from right in front of the stage (cheesy, i know) and the stage was, i dunno, about chest high on me. so when this guy swung his guitar, it literally missed my head by, at most, 8 inches. that kind of behavior is unacceptable...be aware of your surroundings. My final gripe with this band... the singer felt the need to dedicate a song to "all the ladies out there who have been knocked up... dont worry ladies, its a good thing, my mom had me when i was young and you shouldnt be afraid". who says that? did he even bother to look at the crowd he was addressing, which was predominently 16 and under? Obviously little thought went into this, either that, or the guy is just a retard and is all about statutory rape. It was funny, the whole crowd fell silent when he said "...have been knocked up"...everyone was in shock. oh well. on top of it all, this band just is not very good.
The Used was well, the Used. you either like them or you dont. i like a few songs by them, mostly off their first cd. They opened with "Take It Away", a song which is a solid opener. That was good. It was fast, it was energetic, it had emotion. But from there, the set dropped off a little. Only 3 songs total were played off the older Used cd, which in my opinion was much better. And those 3 songs were all slower, more emo-singles. In an hour+ set, it was basically the new disc with some goofy banter between songs. Burt's voice held up this time (last time i saw them he was a mess), so that was a plus, and the stage presence was really impressive. These guys knew how to work a crowd, even if the music they were playing wasnt great. Unlike My Chemical Romance, the Used knew exactlyu what the audience was and played right to it, using the "blink 182 cheap pop mentality" to get cheers and crowd participation. this method, of course, entails swearing as much as possible and making jokes about sex ("my pussy is so wet right now for this crowd!" being said by the male lead singer?) that amuse the high school mind. i take into account that i am one of the most "immature" people i know, but this was just ridiculous. every other word was the f-bomb, and between that it was just stupid stuff like bringing a male member of the crowd on stage and kissing him for finding a glove that was lost. When they were actually playing, they werent bad, despite a bad song selection, but the antics is really what pushed this performance into the sub-par performance standard.
OVERALL: 1 out of 5 stars. None of the bands i saw were terribly impressive and i was so annoyed with the start time that this show just sucked all around.
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