Show Recap: theAlmost/Emery 6/8/08

Last night Tahoe and I headed down to Cervantes Ballroom in Denver to catch a show. I didn't realize that 93.3 was promoting the show, as well as giving theAlmost some radio play, but nonetheless the place wasn't packed. the crowd could easily be described as high school / young college Christians. i would say that at least 75% of the crowd was christian. on top of that there were at least 5 moms there with their kids, as young as 12 by my estimate. Tahoe and I felt very old to say the least.

There were four bands on the the ticket; Army of Me, Envy on the Coast, Emery, and theAlmost. We knew the show wouldn't be intense, more of a rock show than anything, so with that in mind i wasn't holding my breath for the first 2 bands to be any good.

First up Army of Me was, to be kind, terrible! the sound was totally 'alternative' like a mix between Everclear and Wallflowers. the singer was trying to act like Eddie Vedder and looked like Kurt Cobain. the music was boring and unoriginal and i think i fell asleep standing up. I realize that the comparisons here are pretty good comparisons, well maybe in 1994, but this is 2008, that sound is old and boring now.

Next up was Envy on the Coast. i had never heard of these guys and once again i was not excited. the lead singer was rocking a rasta hat and dreads which i wasn't totally in to. but i would be proven wrong. these guys had the most energy of the night and the heaviest sound. The lead guitar player was switching between keys and guitar at a frantic pace and it worked. they sound like a heavy version of theAudition, some nice poppy vocals mixed with some heavy screams/yells, very loose sound with tons of energy. the music focused on energy before polish, even though their sound was great. The drummer was particularly good, as was the bass player, every song (5 in total) had very diverse and unique parts, but nothing seemed over-done. they played 5 songs, but the second song "Sugar Skulls" was easily the best one, the driving beat was impossible to resist. I'll be following these guys from now on.

Third up was Emery. at the beginning of the night i would say Emery was the band i was most excited to see. Tahoe and I moved from our bar perch to the crowd for Emery, expecting some chaos but that didn't happen. Emery were solid, playing mostly from their latest release More Than A Man and almost ignoring The Question (which was our favorite album unfortunately). I'm never sure what to expect from this band, sometimes they sound very heavy and intense and other times they are very poppy and easy-listening. We got the easy-listening version last night so it was good, but nothing spectacular. some songs i remember them playing: Party Song, Rock-N-Rule, Can't Stop the Killer, Don't Bore Us, and ending with Studying Politics.

Last up was theAlmost. Aaron from underOath started a side project with his homies from Dead Poetic and others and well, it exploded into a very successful rock band. with only one album out we kinda knew what to expect. The played almost the entire album and unfortunately with all the energy they brought, these songs are just simple rock songs and sometimes they lack energy. we were not disappointed though, Aaron is a great front man, his vocals were remarkable. i was expecting his voice to be raspy and worn out from touring but it wasn't, it was perfect and he was confident hitting every note all while hiding behind his ridiculously long red hair (reminded me of seeing Megadeath back in the day). I was wondering how they would handle the topic of Jesus in the set, and i was soon answered when Aaron spoke between songs giving credit to Jesus and offering to talk to anyone who was interested. The high point of the set was after covering Coldplays' Yellow they moved into Amazing Because It Is. during the chorus of Amazing Grace, the band completely dropped out and it was just the crowd singing, totally powerful!

All in all it was a fun night, nothing too crazy though. Probably the funniest moment of the night would have been when Envy on the Coast front man dropped the F-Bomb. it was dead quiet after that. all of the Christians were in shock, and the mother's as well. i thought it was hilarious. good times.