Well i feel a lot older today
Last Saturday night my homie Tahoe and I stayed up past our bedtimes and saw Haste the Day play on the Garage Stage at HeavenFest. it was great!
Let me start by saying that HeavenFest appeared to be a success, lots of people, good bands, good sponsors and good parking (for band members!). Unfortunately of all the bands that played the H'Fest (jeremy camp, skillet, seventh slumber...) there was only one band i wanted to see; Haste the Day!
HTD was slotted to be the last band of the night on the Garage Stage, performing after K-Max of DC Talk fame, and therefore TAhoe got a glimpse of a few things lame on the evening. Apparently K-Max is like spoken word type stuff, and we only lasted about 2 minutes before heading back outside to wait for HTD. As K-Max wrapped up a mass of youth group kids took over the garage. The MC warned people to be safe, and that they were expecting a large number of people for the show. she was right, it was packed.
For those of you who might remember the Jesus Freak tour by DC Talk back in the day, you know, where Christian teenagers found a chance to "mosh" to what amounted to heavy alternative rock back then. this show wasn't much different, a ton of sub-16 year olds crashed the stage, and there was Tahoe and I, old dudes, arms crossed, serious faces, ready to destroy any kid that came into the Radius Of Doom that is often created by Tahoe!
HTD finally took the stage about 15 minutes late since the sound guy had no idea what was going on. the crowd was very anxious due to the +100 degree room and some live rap music by some random hip-hop group (who brings up a rap group to perform for a bunch of metal-heads?) anyway, HTD took the stage, opening with Pressure the Hinges which was amazing. the plugged through a few of the hits off their latest album including Minor Prophets and Needles and the place was going nuts. these new songs have such heavy outro's you could help but head-band (thing of wiping your chin on your left shoulder, repeat to the beat of the drums).
The first song almost resulted in the death of 10 teenagers when Tahoe slipped on some water and went down in the pit, almost losing his glasses, and if that happens you can be sure to see a Hulk-Smash moment!
Haste the Day is amazing live, and they haven't missed a beat since replacing longtime guitarist Jason. His replacement didn't miss a note all night! and Jimmy Ryan's replacement, Stephen is amazing live, his growling voice is less harsh than Jimmy's but it mesh's quite well with the great melody/harmony lines usually found in the chorus on HTD songs. Everyone seems to be in good voice on the night
After playing the newest songs, HTD switched back to play some oldies like Walk On which was solid. Next up they played Blue 42 and American Love. At this point you could start to see who really knew Haste the Day and who was there to 'mosh' and be tool. I also noticed something else at this point; the crowd was dominated by girls, probably a 2-1 ratio. this might be good news if you're a 15 yr old trying to decide what you'd rather look at more, the girls in their tank-tops or the band. Tahoe and I aren't 15 anymore and to be honest, that many girls in the pit makes things a little awkward. We stood our ground as mobs of 15 yr old girls pogo-sticked around us, luckily nobody messes with Tahoe, so i just stand next to him so i don't sucked into a circle pit made of a bunch of little kids and hurt somebody, yea thats right, i spared the kids that night.
As for the music, Haste just plugged away, smiling at each other as they rocked out. Stephen even took a moment to thank God for His grace and mercy, which was awesome to hear, even if it was to Christian crowd at HeavenFest and not a "secular" venue. the best musical note of the night probably came during American Love, the outro is a slow sing along and the whole crowd was singing along "Never should have let you, promise me, You'll stay with me forever" and then the places went crazy (at least who was still left).
Haste the Day is so reliable live, they play their songs really well and even through a handful of technical difficulties they just kept going. They play most of their hits though i'd like to hear Perfect Night, Stitches or White Collar live, and maybe we would have if there weren't so many problems during sound-check.
4 comments:
hey there. my name is Luke and I am the producer of Heaven Fest. thanks for blogging about HTD. They were the band I was most looking forward to seeing and I had to miss them because of some issues that came up. You wouldn't happen to get any video of them would you?
-Luke
luke@heavenfest.com
hey luke, you probably don't remember me, but i'm the bassist for 519, the worship band your dad used to play drums for.
anyway, unfortunately i did not get any video, the only video i have been able to find is a 30 second clip on myspace taken from a cell phone.
let me know if you need anything else!
Youth-group kids are going to mosh. They can't help it. Everyone has to start somewhere. All it takes is a head/head collision, or a broken ankle (both of which I saw that night) before proper respect is given to the "pit area" by the kiddies.
This post makes me want to listen to this band even though they are totally out of my realm of taste.
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