Live Review: Taste Of Chaos - Vodafone Arena, Melbourne

Taste Of Chaos 2007

October 23^rd

@ Vodafone Arena, Melbourne

Once again the traveling circus

that is the Taste Of Chaos tour had rolled around. The general consensus

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!