Did we party tonight, or what?
We arrived at about 7pm, freakpirate and our friend, happened to see me and misguided across the street at the time we arrived, as luck would have it.
We entered the establishment and most of the teenies were already there. The great thing about having doors at 6 and two bands we don't really care about playing first. Me and freakyp hit the merch table first and got ourselves some great everytime I die shirts, and we stood in the legal age area for a while, and hung out until we got in place for Every Time I Die to start. The show was...a gong show. A lot of underaged kids, and unfortunately, the over aged ones were acting like douchebags too. Big mosh pits, circle pits, and pushing and shoving. The show started with some dick lighting his cigarette (smoking indoors is illegal in Edmonton - not to mention it is rude to do in a confined space such as a concert floor, as well it shows very poor respect to the band. Vocalists do not like cigarette smoke. It is a detriment to their instrument - ie their throat!)
"Don't like that up, what the fuck are you thinking."
"I'll do what I want."
"Put that fucking thing out you can't smoke in here, put it out."
"Oh yeah, come over here."
So I did. I walked up right beside the guy. And he moved away, and then subsequently about less than a minute later, extinguished his cigarette.
Aside from that, there was one shirtless and very drunk mosher than kept pushing through the crowd to go crowd surf and he must have pushed passed us about 100 times with no regard for personal space, ie he would just bowl us over, and those around us, who were being fairly repsectful. So finally freakpirate got in his face and he came back to fight freakpirate, which is when the guy pointed at my dear ol' freaky p. Well me, one to stand up for my crew, came right up to him and said "You don't point at my friend. You'd better take off right now or you'll face getting fucked up." He muttered something incoherent and took off.
A lot of people can talk shit, but when it comes to actually walking the walk, they won't step up to back it up.
That didn't ruin the show though.
CONGRATULATIONS EDMONTON
Unfortunately you're a big group of douchebag concert goers. The good thing is, there are a lot of you. This is the biggest crowd that Alexisonfire played to on this tour, which makes it likely one of their largest, if not THE largest show(s) they've played on a headlining tour. I would assume this is the same for Everytime I Die. I've found that both bands due to their touring together have now found success on their respective opposite borders. I heard from some american alexisonfire fans from this website, which surprised me, and the outpouring from people who were fans of Every Time I Die was huge. There were not many of them, but a few people who I know who are really into good music absolutely love this band. There are many more now in Canada, who had previously never heard of them that now know that they are a hard rock tour de force to be wreckoned with on any level of the playing field. In terms of international success, although it hasn't happened as quickly as it should be, Alexisonfire will easily be the next Thursday internationally, and Every Time I Die, may strike a following such as the Deftones have. The key here is that the distance in the scene is moving away from them in a pace that is difficult to keep up with. Deftones become ever more popular with each album, so much so that they have become dieties among mere mortal other bands, and the secret is their formula. The songs might change, might mature over time, but the formula of metal meets romanticism with some interesting eclectic infusion including hip hop, electronica, folk, makes the Deftones a band that will never be replicated. Thursday just set the bar with A City By The Light Divided for all screamo bands with things previously just never done in screamo before (distorted drums, and distorted melodic vocals, choirs in the background, etc). But let me just say that both these bands should be in the limelight and on the same bill as the previous prolific bands I've mentioned. Alexisonfire could share a double bill with Thursday, they've certainly earned that right musically, artistically and performance wise. However, it'll be interesting to see where Every Time I Die goes. These guys are more than just hard core or hard rock. It's been modernized, but not bastardized, the hooks are extremely catchy, and they're not afraid to experiment. The result is what critics and professional appreciators call "the best hard rock album since..." and that's where the sentence stops because they cannot think of what to put after that.
That being said, I'll review the bands I saw tonight.
Attack In Black
I didn't get to see much of their set, but what I heard was a cross between standard screamo hardcore and Panic At The Disco. Wasn't really impressed at all. This band is, and will always be generic, and will fade from our minds just as soon as we remembered there were better bands coming up next after them.
Cancer Bats
In spite of their stupid name, they put on a decent show. What was decent about it? Their music didn't suck. I think this was definitely their first time playing in front of such a large crowd, and you really have to recognize that you need to step it up for 5000+ fans over the 100 they played for in Red Deer or at many other shows they probably played. Keith from Every Time I Die dubbed them the best "rap rock hardcore heavy metal band" that he had ever heard. I figured that this was a playful joke. There was no rap, and the band was a cross between standard heavy metal and hard rock and hardcore. The result was this; this is a band doing something that has been done a lot before, but are moderately good at doing it. If they had one or two songs with a catchy hook I might pick up the CD, but they ended up sounding pretty generic to me. The lead singer was, as misguided put it, trying to hard to say "like me, like me" by trying to get the crowd involved a little too much. Also between every song he felt the need to qualify the upcoming with "this next song is (about, for, called)" and it became really annoying. Enjoy it while you can dude, you might have 5 years of this life if you're lucky. Cancer Bats will not become a houshold name. One day all the people who were at the concert will go into their closets, find the shirt they bought at the show and go "eww the cancer bats? That was so 2006."
Every Time I Die
If you have the Guttermouth Phenomenon disc, the one with the DVD preview of their upcoming DVD, you know that these guys put on a great show on stage. And that's exactly what they did.They raped the crowd, or caused the crowd to rape each other. Songs off their older cd's still caused great excitement, hell songs off their new cd that people didn't even know caused people to shed shirts, and beat the hell out of each other. I wish, however, that they'd actually listen to the music. All the great ones were there; guitared and feathered, the new black, floater, kill the music. All the songs you expected to hear if you loved them were there, and yes, you got to sing along to
"fuck you we're going to party tonight."
although the shirts they were selling said "fuck yeah we're going to party tonight."
misprint? am I wrong about the lyric? artistic liberties?
I felt that their set was definitely too short, especially with four full length albums over eight years. Basically, this is a long tour for these bands not used to playing semi-headlining sets like this, even after eight years. This is definitely a break out gig for ETID to be on tour with Alexis, and they should revel the chance. But unfortunately they do have to keep in their place, which is the ultimate opening act for AOF, and keep their set to a half hour or so. The set was great, and they changed up some of the songs by repeating a few of the versus, extending a few versions and really making it interesting to watch. This band is going places. This band is on the verge of exploding. Gutter Phenomenon is a breakout CD. Mark my words.
Alexisonfire
Let's face it, I've had plenty of chances to see this band. I don't even remember if I have seen them before but I probably have. They blow through town at least twice a year. Even if they don't go on a full tour, they'll cross their home country to keep their contrymen satisfied. I have to say though, unfortunately I was expecting more, and I think that's because of my disappointment with their latest album "crisis." There are some great songs on this album, but there are some definite throwaways. And this seems to be the case with Watch Out! and their Self Titled debut as well. However, I found the songs on Watch Out! to be much more artistic and well written, and the songs on their self titled were a lot harder. But they touched on very few songs from either of their previous albums and stuck to promoting Crisis, which made the show very boring for me. But that isn't to say that Alexisonfire doesn't put on a good stage show. If they didn't, 5000 fans would not have packed the shaw conference center to give them their biggest show of the fall '06 crisis tour. Dallas Green is always crisp on his vocals and guitar, and George is phenomenal on stage. I always though that he wouldn't have much to do being only the "screamer" but he definitely finds ways to make it interesting. I think he knocked his bass player down at one point. It was crazy. The guy doesn't always need to be singing, he has a stage presence. But to be quite honest, Green's popularity has surpassed that of the band itself. Now if you ask people to name one member of Alexisonfire 9/10 they'll be able to get Dallas Green and no one else. This is the result of his work with Never Ending White Lights and his own record City And Color "Sometimes" which must have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in canada, being one of the best acoustic/folk rock albums I have heard in some time. Dallas not only provides the smooth voice as the "lead singer" in Alexisonfire, but his guitar playing is up there with the best of 'em, and I'm sure if you asked him to rip off a kerry king or Joe Satriani riff, he'd have no trouble. He writes well, he plays well, he sings well, and he can do it in multiple genres. I will definitely say that City and Color is better than anything Chris Carabbas and Dashboard put out. Don't believe me, go listen to City And Color, and stand corrected. Fuck, Chris can barely sing anymore. The last single, although being emo genious as usual, the fucker could barely stay on key. Back to the initial problem, where people are really fans of alexisonfire they know george and they love george, but to they love dallas more? I know that I barely looked ad george, all eyes were pinned on my current musical idol, Dallas Green, a man after my own heart who can sing, write, play guitar, and either do it while exploding your head with the iron fist pummelling of driving metal rifs and solos, or can win our heart over with the sweetest acoustic lullaby. No Transitory was one of the songs that I'm glad they played, a fair schwack of stuff off the new album, and finished off with Accidents. I am disappointed that I did not hear Sharks And Danger. As a band, writing an album is all about being the artist, being true to yourself. But performing, you're there to put on a show to those that payed good money to watch you rock their socks. And if you avoid playing some of their favorite songs, that's a kick in the pants. I also found it strange that there was no Encore. These guys have three albums, they definitely have the material for it. One thing I'll say, is that when I see Thrice, these guys mix it up pretty good from Illusion Of Safety to Vihessu, and always close with everyone's favorite extended version of deadbolt. They know what their fans want. I don't know if Alexisonfire does. Their biggest crowd doesn't get an encore? Doesn't get sharks and danger? We care about you guys, but do you care about us.
Where's Moneen?
Some of you will be seeing Moneen instead of Every Time I Die. Moneen is actually one of those originators of the hardcore melodic and sometimes screamo genre that is so popular now. I first saw them open for the Eric's Trip Reunion Tour in 2001. This is a band that's been around, but has taken a phenomenally long time to have any kind of increasing success. Opening for Eric's Trip was a band that most music snobs in the scene knew and liked. Moneen now is a band that many more music snobs in the scene know and like, but their popularity has been anything less than breakout. More of just a slow incline of awareness. I can't explain why. Like I said, with foundations earlier than 2001, they should be headlining shows as big as AOF at this point, but it's just not happening.
Mosh Pit Ettiquite
People are just not getting this.
-if you start a circle pit, stay in the circle. Don't go bouncing off unwilling concert goers trying to stay on the edge and draw them in and make them part of the violence
-pushing forward will not get you anywhere. If there is no route to be had, find an alternative route.
-don't push people coming out of the crowd or off the floor. These people probably aren't feeling well, they can't breathe, their being crushed, their sick or injured. Have the courtesy to let them out as quick as you can so they can get to air if they need it. Definitely don't use someone's escape as an excuse to try and but through the path they just came out of.
-Try not to put people up crowd surfing. This is a bastard thing to do to the people around you. And if someone gets dropped, get them up, check them out.
-look out for one another. Be polite. Check with the people around you, they have as much of a right to the show as you do. Maybe you're smacking into them, pushing into them, stepping on your toes or can't see around you. Give them a little good karma. Karma goes around.
-be aware of the people around you. Don't make them unwilling participants in your little slamdance contest you decided to have arbitrarily where you stand. Generally there's always a circle pit at these types of shows designated for that kind of behaviour. GO THERE!
It's really just common sense, but people just do not get it at all.
Final Count
All in All, This show gets a 6.5 from me. I was hyped to see Every Time I Die, but their set was too short, and I couldn't enjoy it because of mosh dicks that weren't following the above ettiquite. Ultimately I thought that Alexisonfire could have tried harder, and put together a better set list, and at least a two or three song encore.
How Does That Compare
AFI - 8 - Their last show was at the shaw, and they put on an exeptionally exciting stage show as they usually do, but they ran their gauntlet of albums, all the way back to "Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes" and there may even have been a song or two from "Very Proud Of You" on there. Because of AFI's mix of punk and this emo-core they've developed in the last couple of albums the crowd was subdued by a few songs too, which kept them in check.
Taste Of Chaos - 9 - Would have scored a perfect 10 if it wasn't for how bad rexall was. I had to throw out a bottle of water in order to get in to the place (that was sealed) and buy another bottle of water that was just a coke cup of water, then was told to throw it out before I could go on the floor which I payed something like $40 to be on. They should have never moved it from the Shaw Conference Center. Thursday played an amazing set with songs ranging from Full Collapse to stuff off their new City by A Light Divided which at the time hadn't come out yet. Thrice played a great set with songs as far back as illusion of safety, and closed with the extended version of Deadbolt that has become so popular after a bootlegged copy of them playing it at CGBG's made the internet rounds. The Deftones then shut the place down and blew the place up by playing an amazing set that had no particular focus on their self titled album (which is old anyway - the new one comes out extremely soon), and had a great mix of songs off of all their albums. The highlight of course was in the encore where the final two songs were 7 words that bled into Engine Number Nine, to absolutley fuck the crowd up and kill all of us so that we could never say that there would be a show this good again.
My Chemical Romance - 8 - One Of The better shaw shows I attended. MCR wasn't especially interesting but it was the first time I saw thrice, and no one was such a jerk I couldn't enjoy it.
Was It Worth It?
If Every Time I Die comes again, then no, it wasn't worth the $35+ service charge for the tickets. I'd rather see Alexis on a non-promotional tour where they feel they have a little more freedom, and I'd rather see both bands at a smaller venue, I'd especiallly like to see Every Time I Die in an 18+ venue. But as Dasha says, bands that popular no longer do that because it's unprofitable. They might locally, but that's about it. I know that I'll never get to see the Grade type shows I used to, where Grade would come in, and play an amazing set to a closet full of 200 people, an no one acted like a jerk, and everywhere you could see the band, and enjoy the music. Everytime I Die would probably be best enjoyed in this situation by people like me who are just too old for that pit shit. Let's hope that they do come back. I know AOF will, but I'm hoping I get the chance to see Every Time I Die in a place where the sound is a little better, there's a little more space so I'm not crushed (or conversely an 18+ more intimate venue) , and to see AOF when they're not promoting an album so that their setlist might be a little better.
We arrived at about 7pm, freakpirate and our friend, happened to see me and misguided across the street at the time we arrived, as luck would have it.
We entered the establishment and most of the teenies were already there. The great thing about having doors at 6 and two bands we don't really care about playing first. Me and freakyp hit the merch table first and got ourselves some great everytime I die shirts, and we stood in the legal age area for a while, and hung out until we got in place for Every Time I Die to start. The show was...a gong show. A lot of underaged kids, and unfortunately, the over aged ones were acting like douchebags too. Big mosh pits, circle pits, and pushing and shoving. The show started with some dick lighting his cigarette (smoking indoors is illegal in Edmonton - not to mention it is rude to do in a confined space such as a concert floor, as well it shows very poor respect to the band. Vocalists do not like cigarette smoke. It is a detriment to their instrument - ie their throat!)
"Don't like that up, what the fuck are you thinking."
"I'll do what I want."
"Put that fucking thing out you can't smoke in here, put it out."
"Oh yeah, come over here."
So I did. I walked up right beside the guy. And he moved away, and then subsequently about less than a minute later, extinguished his cigarette.
Aside from that, there was one shirtless and very drunk mosher than kept pushing through the crowd to go crowd surf and he must have pushed passed us about 100 times with no regard for personal space, ie he would just bowl us over, and those around us, who were being fairly repsectful. So finally freakpirate got in his face and he came back to fight freakpirate, which is when the guy pointed at my dear ol' freaky p. Well me, one to stand up for my crew, came right up to him and said "You don't point at my friend. You'd better take off right now or you'll face getting fucked up." He muttered something incoherent and took off.
A lot of people can talk shit, but when it comes to actually walking the walk, they won't step up to back it up.
That didn't ruin the show though.
CONGRATULATIONS EDMONTON
Unfortunately you're a big group of douchebag concert goers. The good thing is, there are a lot of you. This is the biggest crowd that Alexisonfire played to on this tour, which makes it likely one of their largest, if not THE largest show(s) they've played on a headlining tour. I would assume this is the same for Everytime I Die. I've found that both bands due to their touring together have now found success on their respective opposite borders. I heard from some american alexisonfire fans from this website, which surprised me, and the outpouring from people who were fans of Every Time I Die was huge. There were not many of them, but a few people who I know who are really into good music absolutely love this band. There are many more now in Canada, who had previously never heard of them that now know that they are a hard rock tour de force to be wreckoned with on any level of the playing field. In terms of international success, although it hasn't happened as quickly as it should be, Alexisonfire will easily be the next Thursday internationally, and Every Time I Die, may strike a following such as the Deftones have. The key here is that the distance in the scene is moving away from them in a pace that is difficult to keep up with. Deftones become ever more popular with each album, so much so that they have become dieties among mere mortal other bands, and the secret is their formula. The songs might change, might mature over time, but the formula of metal meets romanticism with some interesting eclectic infusion including hip hop, electronica, folk, makes the Deftones a band that will never be replicated. Thursday just set the bar with A City By The Light Divided for all screamo bands with things previously just never done in screamo before (distorted drums, and distorted melodic vocals, choirs in the background, etc). But let me just say that both these bands should be in the limelight and on the same bill as the previous prolific bands I've mentioned. Alexisonfire could share a double bill with Thursday, they've certainly earned that right musically, artistically and performance wise. However, it'll be interesting to see where Every Time I Die goes. These guys are more than just hard core or hard rock. It's been modernized, but not bastardized, the hooks are extremely catchy, and they're not afraid to experiment. The result is what critics and professional appreciators call "the best hard rock album since..." and that's where the sentence stops because they cannot think of what to put after that.
That being said, I'll review the bands I saw tonight.
Attack In Black
I didn't get to see much of their set, but what I heard was a cross between standard screamo hardcore and Panic At The Disco. Wasn't really impressed at all. This band is, and will always be generic, and will fade from our minds just as soon as we remembered there were better bands coming up next after them.
Cancer Bats
In spite of their stupid name, they put on a decent show. What was decent about it? Their music didn't suck. I think this was definitely their first time playing in front of such a large crowd, and you really have to recognize that you need to step it up for 5000+ fans over the 100 they played for in Red Deer or at many other shows they probably played. Keith from Every Time I Die dubbed them the best "rap rock hardcore heavy metal band" that he had ever heard. I figured that this was a playful joke. There was no rap, and the band was a cross between standard heavy metal and hard rock and hardcore. The result was this; this is a band doing something that has been done a lot before, but are moderately good at doing it. If they had one or two songs with a catchy hook I might pick up the CD, but they ended up sounding pretty generic to me. The lead singer was, as misguided put it, trying to hard to say "like me, like me" by trying to get the crowd involved a little too much. Also between every song he felt the need to qualify the upcoming with "this next song is (about, for, called)" and it became really annoying. Enjoy it while you can dude, you might have 5 years of this life if you're lucky. Cancer Bats will not become a houshold name. One day all the people who were at the concert will go into their closets, find the shirt they bought at the show and go "eww the cancer bats? That was so 2006."
Every Time I Die
If you have the Guttermouth Phenomenon disc, the one with the DVD preview of their upcoming DVD, you know that these guys put on a great show on stage. And that's exactly what they did.They raped the crowd, or caused the crowd to rape each other. Songs off their older cd's still caused great excitement, hell songs off their new cd that people didn't even know caused people to shed shirts, and beat the hell out of each other. I wish, however, that they'd actually listen to the music. All the great ones were there; guitared and feathered, the new black, floater, kill the music. All the songs you expected to hear if you loved them were there, and yes, you got to sing along to
"fuck you we're going to party tonight."
although the shirts they were selling said "fuck yeah we're going to party tonight."
misprint? am I wrong about the lyric? artistic liberties?
I felt that their set was definitely too short, especially with four full length albums over eight years. Basically, this is a long tour for these bands not used to playing semi-headlining sets like this, even after eight years. This is definitely a break out gig for ETID to be on tour with Alexis, and they should revel the chance. But unfortunately they do have to keep in their place, which is the ultimate opening act for AOF, and keep their set to a half hour or so. The set was great, and they changed up some of the songs by repeating a few of the versus, extending a few versions and really making it interesting to watch. This band is going places. This band is on the verge of exploding. Gutter Phenomenon is a breakout CD. Mark my words.
Alexisonfire
Let's face it, I've had plenty of chances to see this band. I don't even remember if I have seen them before but I probably have. They blow through town at least twice a year. Even if they don't go on a full tour, they'll cross their home country to keep their contrymen satisfied. I have to say though, unfortunately I was expecting more, and I think that's because of my disappointment with their latest album "crisis." There are some great songs on this album, but there are some definite throwaways. And this seems to be the case with Watch Out! and their Self Titled debut as well. However, I found the songs on Watch Out! to be much more artistic and well written, and the songs on their self titled were a lot harder. But they touched on very few songs from either of their previous albums and stuck to promoting Crisis, which made the show very boring for me. But that isn't to say that Alexisonfire doesn't put on a good stage show. If they didn't, 5000 fans would not have packed the shaw conference center to give them their biggest show of the fall '06 crisis tour. Dallas Green is always crisp on his vocals and guitar, and George is phenomenal on stage. I always though that he wouldn't have much to do being only the "screamer" but he definitely finds ways to make it interesting. I think he knocked his bass player down at one point. It was crazy. The guy doesn't always need to be singing, he has a stage presence. But to be quite honest, Green's popularity has surpassed that of the band itself. Now if you ask people to name one member of Alexisonfire 9/10 they'll be able to get Dallas Green and no one else. This is the result of his work with Never Ending White Lights and his own record City And Color "Sometimes" which must have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in canada, being one of the best acoustic/folk rock albums I have heard in some time. Dallas not only provides the smooth voice as the "lead singer" in Alexisonfire, but his guitar playing is up there with the best of 'em, and I'm sure if you asked him to rip off a kerry king or Joe Satriani riff, he'd have no trouble. He writes well, he plays well, he sings well, and he can do it in multiple genres. I will definitely say that City and Color is better than anything Chris Carabbas and Dashboard put out. Don't believe me, go listen to City And Color, and stand corrected. Fuck, Chris can barely sing anymore. The last single, although being emo genious as usual, the fucker could barely stay on key. Back to the initial problem, where people are really fans of alexisonfire they know george and they love george, but to they love dallas more? I know that I barely looked ad george, all eyes were pinned on my current musical idol, Dallas Green, a man after my own heart who can sing, write, play guitar, and either do it while exploding your head with the iron fist pummelling of driving metal rifs and solos, or can win our heart over with the sweetest acoustic lullaby. No Transitory was one of the songs that I'm glad they played, a fair schwack of stuff off the new album, and finished off with Accidents. I am disappointed that I did not hear Sharks And Danger. As a band, writing an album is all about being the artist, being true to yourself. But performing, you're there to put on a show to those that payed good money to watch you rock their socks. And if you avoid playing some of their favorite songs, that's a kick in the pants. I also found it strange that there was no Encore. These guys have three albums, they definitely have the material for it. One thing I'll say, is that when I see Thrice, these guys mix it up pretty good from Illusion Of Safety to Vihessu, and always close with everyone's favorite extended version of deadbolt. They know what their fans want. I don't know if Alexisonfire does. Their biggest crowd doesn't get an encore? Doesn't get sharks and danger? We care about you guys, but do you care about us.
Where's Moneen?
Some of you will be seeing Moneen instead of Every Time I Die. Moneen is actually one of those originators of the hardcore melodic and sometimes screamo genre that is so popular now. I first saw them open for the Eric's Trip Reunion Tour in 2001. This is a band that's been around, but has taken a phenomenally long time to have any kind of increasing success. Opening for Eric's Trip was a band that most music snobs in the scene knew and liked. Moneen now is a band that many more music snobs in the scene know and like, but their popularity has been anything less than breakout. More of just a slow incline of awareness. I can't explain why. Like I said, with foundations earlier than 2001, they should be headlining shows as big as AOF at this point, but it's just not happening.
Mosh Pit Ettiquite
People are just not getting this.
-if you start a circle pit, stay in the circle. Don't go bouncing off unwilling concert goers trying to stay on the edge and draw them in and make them part of the violence
-pushing forward will not get you anywhere. If there is no route to be had, find an alternative route.
-don't push people coming out of the crowd or off the floor. These people probably aren't feeling well, they can't breathe, their being crushed, their sick or injured. Have the courtesy to let them out as quick as you can so they can get to air if they need it. Definitely don't use someone's escape as an excuse to try and but through the path they just came out of.
-Try not to put people up crowd surfing. This is a bastard thing to do to the people around you. And if someone gets dropped, get them up, check them out.
-look out for one another. Be polite. Check with the people around you, they have as much of a right to the show as you do. Maybe you're smacking into them, pushing into them, stepping on your toes or can't see around you. Give them a little good karma. Karma goes around.
-be aware of the people around you. Don't make them unwilling participants in your little slamdance contest you decided to have arbitrarily where you stand. Generally there's always a circle pit at these types of shows designated for that kind of behaviour. GO THERE!
It's really just common sense, but people just do not get it at all.
Final Count
All in All, This show gets a 6.5 from me. I was hyped to see Every Time I Die, but their set was too short, and I couldn't enjoy it because of mosh dicks that weren't following the above ettiquite. Ultimately I thought that Alexisonfire could have tried harder, and put together a better set list, and at least a two or three song encore.
How Does That Compare
AFI - 8 - Their last show was at the shaw, and they put on an exeptionally exciting stage show as they usually do, but they ran their gauntlet of albums, all the way back to "Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes" and there may even have been a song or two from "Very Proud Of You" on there. Because of AFI's mix of punk and this emo-core they've developed in the last couple of albums the crowd was subdued by a few songs too, which kept them in check.
Taste Of Chaos - 9 - Would have scored a perfect 10 if it wasn't for how bad rexall was. I had to throw out a bottle of water in order to get in to the place (that was sealed) and buy another bottle of water that was just a coke cup of water, then was told to throw it out before I could go on the floor which I payed something like $40 to be on. They should have never moved it from the Shaw Conference Center. Thursday played an amazing set with songs ranging from Full Collapse to stuff off their new City by A Light Divided which at the time hadn't come out yet. Thrice played a great set with songs as far back as illusion of safety, and closed with the extended version of Deadbolt that has become so popular after a bootlegged copy of them playing it at CGBG's made the internet rounds. The Deftones then shut the place down and blew the place up by playing an amazing set that had no particular focus on their self titled album (which is old anyway - the new one comes out extremely soon), and had a great mix of songs off of all their albums. The highlight of course was in the encore where the final two songs were 7 words that bled into Engine Number Nine, to absolutley fuck the crowd up and kill all of us so that we could never say that there would be a show this good again.
My Chemical Romance - 8 - One Of The better shaw shows I attended. MCR wasn't especially interesting but it was the first time I saw thrice, and no one was such a jerk I couldn't enjoy it.
Was It Worth It?
If Every Time I Die comes again, then no, it wasn't worth the $35+ service charge for the tickets. I'd rather see Alexis on a non-promotional tour where they feel they have a little more freedom, and I'd rather see both bands at a smaller venue, I'd especiallly like to see Every Time I Die in an 18+ venue. But as Dasha says, bands that popular no longer do that because it's unprofitable. They might locally, but that's about it. I know that I'll never get to see the Grade type shows I used to, where Grade would come in, and play an amazing set to a closet full of 200 people, an no one acted like a jerk, and everywhere you could see the band, and enjoy the music. Everytime I Die would probably be best enjoyed in this situation by people like me who are just too old for that pit shit. Let's hope that they do come back. I know AOF will, but I'm hoping I get the chance to see Every Time I Die in a place where the sound is a little better, there's a little more space so I'm not crushed (or conversely an 18+ more intimate venue) , and to see AOF when they're not promoting an album so that their setlist might be a little better.
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hahaha jk
Fresno SCCA