18 November 2008

Five FInger Death Punch/In This Moment/Bury Your Dead/Split the Enemy/Howitzer @ The Marquee 11/18/2008



Howitzer opened the show, but as often happens I got there a touch late (mostly due to the traffic to get parked...now I know how it feels to see an actually popular band at The Marquee!), so I missed them for the most part. They sounded alright from what I heard in line though.

Split the Enemy was a sort of Metalcore/Post-Hardcore hybrid band, and to be honest I could have really liked this if it weren't so generic. A lot of songs seemed like one 5 minute breakdown and I'm sorry but that's just too much. I finally sort of saw what people get out of the whole breakdown thing, but that's not all you can do when you write music.

Bury Your Dead played really bad music. Really really bad music. Not only was it generic, it was so uninspired I think I actually died a little inside seeing a band like this on stage. The problem is, they're great live. The music sucks, but the band is a lot of fun. They were the best at involving the crowd out of any band all night, up to and including a wall of death. The crowd interaction was top notch, and you could really tell when they were at their merch booth afterwards and everyone was stopping by to say hi. They make quite an impression.

In This Moment was the band I actually came to see, and they were enjoyable, but the problem with this band is they have some sort of identity crisis going on. They think they're a Metalcore band sometimes, but sometimes they think they're more of a Pop Power Metal band or, as I describe it, Paramore goes metal. Though admittedly Haley is cuter and more talented than Maria. So all of the songs where Maria sticks to clean vocals and pretty, catchy songs, they rock. For the songs where she screams and the try to be hardcore, they aren't so good. Hopefully their next album moves totally in the pop direction, I dig it.

Five Finger Death Punch made me question the sanity of the average music listener. There were many times during their show when I felt like leaving. When they went on a rant about how great it is that our troops are fighting for our freedoms and they wanted a moment of silence so whatever, cool, to each their own I guess. But the crowd chants of "USA!" made me start edging towards the door. Then the tough guy attitude and preaching from the stage that you should be hurting other people in the crowd made me again question why I was still at this show. But, offensive as these things were, in the end none of them made me leave. Why I eventually left was solely due to the lack of quality being played, which is really a shame. The instrumentalists can play fine, but this band can't write a good song to save their lives. I think in the end that fact is what prompted my early departure from the show. But in all honesty...I can't fathom why so many people love this band. When I heard a single by them a year or so ago, I thought it was alright, but the sound was unlike what I saw at this show, to my dismay.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, you certainly have a right to your opinion. haha

But the fact that you went to the show to see In This Moment says a lot in itself. And that's my opinion.

If I didn't have a life- I would write a review of your review. But I do. So I won't.

But thanks for making me laugh anyway!!

Later.

Anonymous said...

Well, you certainly have a right to your opinion. haha

But the fact that you went to the show to see In This Moment says a lot in itself. And that's my opinion.

If I didn't have a life- I would write a review of your review. But I do. So I won't.

But thanks for making me laugh anyway!!

Later.

Anonymous said...

oops. sorry for posting twice.

Vince said...

No worries...the combination of your comment and looking at your myspace was the best thing I have done in months.

I don't have people prove my points for me often enough.