Monday, January 23, 2012

S.I.N. Tour - Highline Ballroom 1/21/12 [REVIEW]



The Strength In Numbers tour (S.I.N. abbreviated) hit New York City this past weekend, and I was fortunate enough to be there for the action. The sold out show consisted of headliners Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.) with openers Hit The Lights, Like Moths To Flames, Sparks The Rescue, My Arcadia, and The Action Blast. The tour line-up is very interesting because practically all the bands sound different in terms of sound! But in my opinion, it’s line-ups like that, that provide the most interesting shows.







         The line was already down the street and past the corner when I arrived around 2 in the afternoon. The fans dedication was to be commended as the venue was near the water and the weather was freezing to the point you couldn't feel anything in your body . Luckily myself and a few other fans had VIP tickets that allowed early entry plus access to D.R.U.G.S. sound check and meet and greet. The VIP’s were let in around 3:45 and the band graciously greeted everyone, “Welcome to soundcheck!” Craig Owens happily said. They began with a few impromptu jams and one sounded particularly like Careless Whisper, maybe I’m wrong but it did sound a lot like it. The band proceeded to perform “My Swagger Has A First Name” , Craig Owens enthusiastically said “Feel free to sing along if you know it!” The small group of fans singing overpowered the band, in a good way.

After the performance the band proceeded to take pictures and sign autographs for everyone there, thankfully we were lead upstairs to wait and then let in first to the floor. The room filled up quickly as doors opened at 5:15, and fans filled up the room quick, before long the crowd reached the back of the room. Around 5:30, the first band “The Action Blast” took the stage, hailing from Chicago, the six piece delivered an explosive performance and by the end of their set they received an ovation by the crowd. They will be on the S.I.N. tour until the Arizona show, so be sure to get there early! They did not disappoint!

My Arcadia took the stage after The Action Blast, and continued the momentum that had begun with the last set. Their euphoric performance raised the energy in the venue and lead singer Jacqui Sandell even received a Hello Kitty bracelet as a gift. After their set, the crowd was buzzing about their performance and most comments were about how impressed they were with Jacqui’s vocal range. Another band added last minute to the S.I.N. tour; they will be on the tour until the Philadelphia stop. You can watch a video of their intro below.



After My Arcadia, the band Sparks The Rescue took the stage, while not being of fan of their genre of music, the energy they brought in their performance made great for keeping up the energy that My Arcadia and The Action Blast had started. Major props to their guitarist who made a quick recovery after his guitar wasn’t working, the band were very appreciative of D.R.U.G.S. for the spot on the tour and thanked the crowd when the performance was finished.

After Sparks finished, was when the crowd began to push up toward the stage, being as there was no barricade, the front began to feel sandwiched between the crowd and the stage. The lights dimmed and Like Moths To Flames took the stage, and from the first riff the crowd began to get rowdy. From the lead singer jumping into the crowd, to fans crowdsurfing to the stage, to many objects being thrown back and forth across the floor, Like Moths To Flames brought the chaos. After their final song, the crowd was literally chanting “ONE MORE SONG, ONE MORE SONG.”. The crowd was more than warmed up for Hit The Lights & D.R.U.G.S. From The Action Blast, to Like Moths to Flames the show had been an uphill energy filled show.  Truly a great show, which goes back to what I had said earlier in this review, different genres of music can make the best shows. The question was, would Hit The Lights be able to continue the trend of delivering a high energy show?

When Hit The Lights began, it started off as passable, but as their set dragged on, I could feel the energy of the crowd dissipating. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Hit The Lights did not deliver, the lead singer even acknowledged the crowd asking what was going and even called the crowd pussies. The only high part of the set was someone dressed in a banana costume crowd surfed to the stage and that was towards the end.  The lead singer said they had been off the road for two years, maybe back then they were a great live act, but maybe somewhere in those two years they lost what they had in their live show.

The moment had arrived, what everyone had been waiting in the freezing cold for, the anticipation could be felt in the air as the stage was being set for D.R.U.G.S., the crowd pushed torward the stage once again as well. The lights dimmed and Aaron Stern’s drum kit lit up as the dub step intro for “The Only Thing You Talk About” began. One by one the band took the stage and at the climax lead singer Craig Owens didn’t even need to start the intro, the crowd made sure of that by singing it for him.   Watch the video of their intro below
"The Only Thing You Talk About"
             
          The set was brutal in terms of energy, the band made an excellent setlist in terms which flowed perfectly with songs that had yet to be played live or played rarely such as "The Hangman", "Stop Reading, Start Doing Pushups", and even performed a b-Side "A Little Kiss & Tell".  The new song that was released last Monday "Scream If You're Crazy" was also played, Craig Owens lead the crowd in chants of "ohh ohhh yeah" and by the end of the song the crowd was louder than the band with the chanting! 

"Scream If You're Crazy"



             It should also be noted that this was one of the first shows that new bassist, Tai "Never Wrong, Always" Wright played with  D.R.U.G.S. after Adam Russell left the band. I have to give him props, he has big shoes to fill but seeing him play in person I was impressed he threw improvised a lot and it came off excellent, also he plays using his fingers instead of a pick! As fas as I'm concerned, he makes it work and is a great addition to the D.R.U.G.S. live show.  

             The encore was one of the most memorable I had ever seen in my five years of going to live shows, Craig Owens came out solo with an acoustic guitar, thanking the crowd and dedicated the song he was about to play to all those who had, or going through a struggle and began to play "Im Here To Take The Sky" acoustic. An amazing rendition and right before the second verse started, the rest of the band flawlessly joined in and finished the song with Owens. The band thanked the crowd and Owens asked the crowd if they were ready for one more song, going into one of the most intense speeches about the song they were about to perform. Pumping the crowd up by telling them to think about all the people who had done them wrong in their life, to take all the hate they had and unleash it at that moment, and then said "If You Think This Song Is About You, It Probably Is!".  Right when the song kicked in, all hell broke loose, and by the time the song had finished, guitarist Nick Martin had crowdsurfed and Craig Owens had lost his shirt. If the S.I.N. tour is hitting your city, please make it a point to go, you won't be disappointed. You can view a video of "I'm Here To Take The Sky" below as well as a picture of Tai Wright's stage setlist. Click HERE for the complete itinerary for the S.I.N. Tour. 

 "I'm Here To Take The Sky"

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Trivium & Kyng ACOUSTIC at Angel’s Rock Bar @ Power Plant Live! 1/14/12


98 Rock & Revenge Of The Riff Present Trivium & Kyng ACOUSTIC at Angel’s Rock Bar @ Power Plant Live!
By Richard Ramirez

The co-headling tour that consists of Swedish Metal band In Flames & Florida Metallers Trivium with openers Veil Of Maya & Kyng visited the Baltimore area Saturday night on January 14th 2012. Thanks to the good people of 98 Rock & Revenge of The Riff, Kyng & Trivium took an hour of their busy schedule & played a 3 song acoustic set each at Angels Bar on Power Plant Live.

Admission was free with tickets to the actual show later that night & fans gathered as early as noon to gain entry for this special treat of a show. At 4:30 when doors opened fans eagerly ran up the stairs to secure a spot for the event. The environment could only be described as a small bar but intimate with the stage overlooking the city of Baltimore.

Around 5:20, Los Angeles band, Kyng, took the stage. Prior to this performance I hadn't listened to any of their material but was blown away by their set. Lead singer, Eddie Veliz, vocal range was impressive especially on their closing song "Falling Down". You can watch the footage of the aforementioned song below.


After Kyng left the stage, Trivium quickly took the stage & began sound checking their guitars. It was not a full band show, but it was definitely one for the books. Lead vocalist, Matt Heafy, thanked the crowd for the support and also threw a quick shout out to 98 Rock. After about five minutes of tuning and DJ Christoff’s jokes, the band began their performance.

The band introduced the opening song "Built To Fall" and as a die-hard Trivium fan, the performance was delivered flawlessly. Heafy's voice sounded excellent along with the crowd singing along softly, truly a sight to behold, a video of the performance can be seen below.   Heafy encouraged the audience to sing along if they knew the words, they then played the song “Dying In Your Arms” taken from their second album “Ascendancy”,  Heafy introduced the song as “this one’s for the ladies”, again blown away how well some of the material translated to an acoustic format. Their last song of the set was the Iron Maiden classic “Iron Maiden”, proving that the band can cover a classic, put their own spin on it, and make it sound flawless. Footage of the performance can be seen below as well. The band thanked the crowd, 98 Rock and even took the time to take pictures and sign items after the performance. The band made the gig one worth to remember and they hadn’t even done the electric performance. Stay tuned for the review of the evening show. Thank you for reading! 
Built To Fall (Acoustic)


Iron Maiden (Acoustic)


TRIVIUM SETLIST
Built To Fall
Dying In Your Arms
Iron Maiden (Originally By Iron Maiden)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

FreQontrol & D.R.U.G.S. Live At The Fillmore Silver Spring

Monday evening on November 14th, 2011, Silver Spring was visited by the World War III Tour (Asking Alexandria, Borgore, We Came As Romans, Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.), and local opener FreQontrol) at the newly opened Fillmore Silver Spring. Fans began lining up as early as noon for the concert to be front row for this event and by as early as 4, the line was already going around the block.

The moment arrived when the doors opened at 6 pm sharp, fans charged the venue and quickly filled up the floor area. One could look around and see people wearing apparel of all the bands performing and discussing amongst themselves what songs they wanted to hear. Some fans were there just for We Came As Romans, some for D.R.U.G.S. and some were just hanging by the bar until the headliners, Asking Alexandria, took the stage.

The lights went off at 7 and local battle of the bands winner FreQontrol from Gaithersburg, Maryland, walked on stage and instantly had the crowd hypnotized. Sampling the hit song N*ggas in Paris by Jay-Z & Kanye West in their intro with some heavy guitar/drum's fused in, the band then segued into their first song, Escape. Front-man Issac Valenzuela yelled, "Are you ready to rage?!", mosh pits soon were forming in the center and the Fillmore felt like it was experiencing an earthquake. During the bridge, the whole crowd was pumping their fist as one, truly a site to behold. The band continued their set and was giving the crowd one of the best shows I've seen ever, Issac even jumped into the crowd to raise the energy into the crowd and also had the crowd participate a bouncing contest between the crowd to see who could jump higher. Finishing the set with the words "My attitude is virgin, I still don't give a f*ck." Despite having only a 20 minute set, if someone didn't know who FreQontrol was before that day, they know now. You can purchase their debut ep "In The Rising" on Itunes , follow them on Twitter and watch "Escape" from their set below. Be sure to Like them on Facebook as well!

The wait for Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows went by rather quickly, the lights dimmed and a remix of "The Only Thing You Talk About" began to play and right as it was about to reach the peak, the members of D.R.U.G.S ran on stage, pumping up the crowd. Lead singer Craig Owens bellowed the opening lyrics of "The Only Thing You Talk About" with the crowd singing along and right as he screamed the whole crowd went crazy taking the pit by storm. Anything great that can be said of their performance that evening would be an understatement. Moments such as Craig Owens walking ON the crowd during their performance of the song "Sex Life" or when bassist Adam Russell went into the crowd and performed on top of the bar during "Mr. Owl Ate My Metal Worm" to Craig Owens demanding a wall of death before their final song "If You Think This Song Is About You, It Probably Is". When the smoke cleared, the crowd was demanding for more, unfortunately since D.R.U.G.S. wasn't the headliner that request could not be accommodated. But to quote Craig Owens when they finished : "We are D.R.U.G.S. & we will see you f****** real soon!" You can view videos recorded at the show below, Like D.R.U.G.S. on Facebook & follow them on Twitter! Be sure to pick up their debut self-titled album on Itunes!




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IT LIVES. Reviews of new albums, concerts i attended and movies will be posted here. Enjoyyyy