"Having seen Rise Against twice before I was expecting big things and I wasn't disappointed..."
Taste Of Chaos 2007
October 23rd
@ Vodafone Arena, Melbourne
Once again the traveling circus
that is the Taste Of Chaos tour had rolled around. The general consensus
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was that the lineup wasn't as strong as previous years but try telling
that to the few thousand kids who were milling around Vodafone Arena
hours before the doors were due to be opened.
I arrived expecting to see
the much hyped Gallows first up, but for some unexplained reason The
Bled were given the task of warming the mid week crowd up. I'm a massive
fan of The Bled and their performance at The Hi Fi Bar last year was
absolutely amazing, however they were let down by a terrible mix. I'm
well aware of the fact that arenas don't produce the best acoustics
but the guitar sound was so bad I could hardly make out which song was
what. Regardless, the band gave it their all and played with the intensity
that I expected.
Drop Dead, Gorgeous were the
next of the US acts and they were absolutely terrible. I thoroughly
enjoyed their last record “In Vogue” but in the live setting the
band really struggled. There was nothing natural about their stage presence
and they came off as just another group who've spent more time on their
moves and hair than perfecting their instruments. A word of advice for
the singer... if you're going to include clean vocals on your albums
it might be a good idea to actually learn how to sing.
Big things were expected from
UK lads Gallows and they didn't disappoint. Their on stage energy was
infectious and they sounded a lot better than the first few bands had.
Putting aside what you may think of the band's music they certainly
know how to work a crowd. I think Frank Carter would take great pleasure
in me stating that he is an obnoxious little bastard on stage... and
that's Gallows angle. Do I believe that they're the saviours of punk
rock? No. Are they as dangerous as every music magazine in the civilized
world says they are? Of course not. They are however an incredibly entertaining
band who know how to illicit a reaction from an audience and my hat
goes off to the cheeky British buggers because I thought they were great!
Considering how low key their
last Australian tour was I was surprised by the amount of kids losing
their shit to Aiden. I don't have anything positive to say about their
music but they are another band who know how to put on a good show so
good on them.
Having seen Rise Against twice
before I was expecting big things and I wasn't disappointed. Their set
was a no frills, high energy show and what's more, the sound was great!
It was also refreshing to see so many young kids enjoying the set...
maybe there's still hope! The set list covered material from their last
three albums and I think you'd struggle to find a punter who didn't
enjoy what they had just heard.
Even though Carpathian are
on the entire TOC tour they were relegated to the local stage which
I thought was a bit rough, but what can you do!? Although the sound
was pretty muddy there was a large crowd gathered and they made a lot
of noise for the Mornington Peninsula crew. The new song they played
was pretty cool as well so I'm interested to see what Carpathian can
come up with for album number two.
That leaves us with The Used.
Having toured Australia in May I thought it may have been a little soon
for a return trip but the crowd was clearly buzzing to seem Bert and
Co play tonight. With an array of weird stage props (and some dude walking
around with a box on his head prior to the band taking the stage)
it was evident that The Used were going to make the most of their headlining
spot. Their sound was absolutely massive and the crowd reacted as I
had expected them to. The kids just can't seem to get enough of Bert
McCracken but something was definitely lacking for me. I really enjoyed
The Used's first record but everything they've done since then seems
to be lacking any real spark and I think it translates to the band's
live shows. I'm not saying they were particularly bad, it was just a
bit plain.
Not a bad night all in all
but fingers crossed Gallows come back for a run of headlining shows
really soon!