Show Recap: Oh Sleeper @ Marquis Theater

Band: Oh Sleeper

Venue: Marquis Theater in Denver, CO

Date: October 1st, 2010

By BMer for IndieVisionMusic.com

My buddy Tahoe and I ventured down to Marquis Theater in Denver to catch Oh Sleeper and A Plea for Purging. With only four bands on the ticket we were excited to see some extended sets, plus Oh Sleeper hadn�t been to Denver since they released Son of the Morning, and last time they came through they had to modify their set due to some of their equipment getting stolen the night before in Salt Lake City, so they didn�t play any new songs.

We were both under the impression that The Bled were headlining but that was not the case, Oh Sleeper headlined and I�m not sure they�re ready to be headlining. I�m a huge fan of Oh Sleeper but I was not overly impressed with Son of the Morning, I feel like When I Am God was a much better record, at least lyrically. Either way their set is comprised of mostly tracks from Son of the Morning and they just don�t incite energy live like the older tracks did.

Oh Sleeper opened with Son of the Morning, a great opener with tons of energy. The venue wasn�t packed but there were a good amount of kids still left after The Bled finished. Everyone pushed to the stage to sing along and even though we were down on the floor, we never really were in danger of any physical harm. I�m an old man these days so I like to stand right on the edge of the pit, but rarely ever go in. There wasn�t really a pit this night, either because the kids were worn out or because Oh Sleeper doesn�t really play breakdown-style music.

After Son of the Morning they went into New Breed. You could tell that Shane Blay has been improving on his singing, while its still not that great live, he�s much better than when I saw them last year on Scream the Prayer Tour. It�s got to be tough to sing on key with everything so loud, but he was close most of the time. The other change I was trying to pay attention to was the new drummer, Zac Mayfield. He was solid most of the night but he has some big shoes to fill, previous drummer Matt Davis was a beast and the drumming on the last album was crazy. With a new drummer on-board I was surprised to hear the band go into World Without a Sun, the track on SOTM that basically showed off Matt�s drumming ability. The song sounded good, but not nearly as tight as the recording (which can be expected).

Between each song Micah took a chance to talk, something that usually bores me, I prefer less talk � more rock. I would soon realize the reason for so much talk; the band only played 7 or 8 songs, not many for the headliner. Now they decided to go into some older material starting with Charlatan�s Host, one of my favorites. The song was building up to the best part, where the band cuts out while Micah screams �Let not my words be ripped from the mouth of a horror!� but just as we were all about to throw it down Micah stops the band to orcganize the Wall of Death. Total momentum killer and really just a poor decision; the Wall of Death is pretty lame and works best at the beginning of songs when everyone is already standing around, not during the middle of one of your best songs.

Anyway, after Charlantan�s Host they played the crowd favorite, Vices Like Vipers which went crazy. After that the band took a second to leave the stage and apparently get different guitars. Looking back I guess this was their �encore�, Reveries of Flight was playing as a track and Shane was still on stage and began singing the song. I really like this track and was pumped to hear it live. Lucas, the bass player, returned to the stage to encourage everyone to sing louder and the song began to build. Finally the entire band was back and ripping through the second half of the song. This led directly into The Finisher, a fitting closer to a set and had the kids realized that this was the last song maybe it would have been more chaotic.

After that the house lights came on and I looked at Tahoe, we both weren�t sure if that was it and I told him that they didn�t really have any more songs they could play, so I doubted they would play anymore. I was right; their set included 7 or 8 songs, almost 30 minutes of music. It seemed really short and even though they played well, it just didn�t seem like enough.

Earlier in the evening A Plea for Purging rocked the crowd with what turned out to be either the longest set, or just short of The Bled�s set. Plea, a four-piece now that guitarist Tyler Wilson has left the band to continue school and get married, filled out the sound really well considering there was only one guitarist. Later Blake confirmed that Tyler�s parts are synced with the click track but it was tough to notice since Blake handled most of the lead parts. Visually there aren�t many bands that can keep your attention quite like Plea, with lead singer Andy moving gracefully back and forth at the front of the stage, looking sort of like Kirby from Nintendo. Behind Andy you have bassist John Wand swinging his hair like a propeller for large sections of songs. It�s just crazy to watch. At one point Andy challenged the crowed to complete 300 stage-dives during one song, I think we failed miserably but it was fun to watch.

Andy also mentioned that it was some kid�s birthday and all he wanted for his birthday was a Wall of Death, so yes, for the first time of the night there was a Wall of Death. I don�t totally know all of the songs they played, but I�m certain they played Shiver, Golden Barriers, The Fall (Andy busted out a tambourine during this song), Malevolence, and The Eternal Female.

At least two of the bands mentioned that Denver was the biggest crowd yet on the tour which at first made us proud, but then looking around I was a little disappointed that other stops had less kids than this, since I don�t think there was all that many kids at the show in Denver. I wasn�t really into the other two bands on the tour; the opening band Let Live and also The Bled. A Plea for Purging is so good live and Oh Sleeper is definitely solid that if this tour stops in your neck of the woods you should check it out. It was less than $15 in Denver, and a chance to see Oh Sleeper live doesn�t come around that often.

SETLIST: Oh Sleeper
Son of the Morning
New Breed
World Without the Sun
Charlatan’s Host
Vices Life Vipers
Reveries of Flight
The Finisher

Show Recap: Comeback Kid @ Marquis Theater

What a fun night. Comeback Kid, my favorite band, was once again playing Denver, a city they've toured often. Unfortunately the last few times CBK have come through Denver they've been on some weird tours, including supporting Rise Against at Red Rock Amphitheater. I've seen them a few times over the years, and i was lucky enough to catch them on Scott Wade's last tour, in fact it was one of his last shows before he quit mid-tour. I am more of a fan of Scott's work as the lead singer than Andrew's, but between them both CBK is still solid.

This tour feature Set Your Goals as the headliner, a band that has as many haters as they do fans. I for one, am not really fan. The other bands in support were The Wonder Years and This Time Next Year, two bands that are alright. I had a soccer game this evening so i decided i would play, then jam down to Denver in time to catch CBK. My plan worked perfectly, as i was collecting my ticket from will call the crowd was filing outside for a smoke-break between the bands. as i headed inside i was just hoping that the break was before CBK, not after! But after seeing Andrew Neufield, frontman for CBK walking around with no sweat, i was confident that my timing couldn't have been better.

I killed some time before their set talking with a kid that recognized my Venia shirt, an up-and-coming Christian hardcore band out of Minneapolis. It was cool that he sought me out after seeing the shirt, not many kids know of Venia, yet. Anyway, i got a good spot on the stairs determined to catch at least one song on video before joining the fracas.

As usual Comeback Kid opened with False Idols Fall, a great song and a great opener. The energy was crazy, the venue was packed and the battle to be heard on the mic was on. If you want to know what happens at a hardcore show, basically every kid is battling to get a chance to scream some lines into the microphone, clawing their way to the stage, going over or through people on the way. After you cross the pit of hardcore dancers (think kung-fu meets roid-rage) you must work your way through the gang chorus, about 5-6 people deep at the front of the stage. then you must impress the singer enough that he'll pass you the mic, then you have to show that you know what you're doing and sing the right words. after that, you get your street cred! haha.

Anyway, after the opening song CBK barreled through their "hits" like Broadcasting, Die Tonite, All In A Year, Partners In Crime, Talk is Cheap, and i think Defeated. These songs are great for singalongs, and have sweet breakdowns as well. Andrew is a fine frontman, although he looks a little overwhelmed at times and in interviews he's admitted that he'd rather be on guitar than singing. Either way CBK was full of energy, and the crowd didn't disappoint with plenty of head-walkers and hardcore dancing, people were flying everywhere.

Comeback Kid took a moment to thank Denver for being a great place to play, and promised to come back in the fall after their new record comes out. Their last record was recorded in Fort Collins at the Blasting Room, but this time they opted to record in Canada (where they're from). After their little message the played Industry Standards, which was probably the least favorite song from their set, i'm not sure why they played it, but they did, and it only made the next song, Partners in Crime, even better.

Nearing the end of their set, Andrew led the crowd in a singalong of the chorus for Wake the Dead; "you said you said you said, this time was gonna be different...WAKE UP THE DEAD!" a few times before the band blasted into the song. this is easily the most popular CBK song, and rightfully so, it's pretty epic. They usually always close with this song and we all thought this was the end of the set so the place went off. For some reason though, they decided to play one more track, Step Ahead, but most of the place had already decided they were done so it was a little awkward.

After they played i decided to go home, apparently i was not alone in that decision as many others headed for the door as well. Another solid effort by Comeback Kid, when the come through in Fall on a headlining tour it will be even better!

my video of False Idols Fall:
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False Idols Fall lyrics:
YOUR TIME IS UP
We’ve been counting down your days
Going over every false THING YOU SAY
We wish it could be different
We wished you stayed the same
Tearing down our idols
living life OUR OWN WAY
Taking the chance to say

All my heros are dead
All my heros are dead

Were we too blind to see you were only human like me
But we can’t help but feel
Empty words they're all you gave
Struggling to take back our days

They build you up to watch you fall
Can’t you see they can’t be what you want
You build them up to watch them fall

Where did we lose control
We thought it'd last forever

We're come and count away your days
Our heroes are not what they used to be (OUR IDOLS FALL)
Our heroes are not what they used to be (OUR IDOLS FALL AWAY)

Show Recap: We Came As Romans / Of Mice & Men / A Skylit Drive

Another sold out show at the Marquis Theater, crazy! I'm not used to so many people in this small venue, and while it makes for great energy, i'm short and can't see the band or the stage since the stage is only 2' high. times like these i think about asking Tahoe if i can sit on this shoulders, but well, that would just be awkward!

Anyway, last night was another sold out show, The Emptiness Tour featuring Alesana, supported by A Skylit Drive, The Word Alive, Of Mice & Men, and We Came As Romans. The order of the bands was really confusing to me since We Came As Romans was the opener. They had their first full-length album released last year and it was solid, one of my favorites. Of Mice & Men are releasing their first full-length in March so they don't even have (legal) music out yet, but yet they were playing after We Came As Romans . Then there's A Skylit Drive, a band that has been around for the last few years, but you could that they don't have a great following yet they played fourth. I would have had that all switched around.

Anyway, whatever, i can't change that although it did require me to leave early to get to the show since the one band, We Came As Romans , was playing first. I also got to leave early and get home before 10p since i don't really like Alesana.

The place was packed, with probably 90% of the crowd under 21 years old. Tahoe and I stayed in the fenced-off "adult" area so we could drink PBR and not deal with the little kids. We Came As Romans came on first and the crowd was totally into them. They opened with To Plant A Seed and the place went nuts. It’s always fun to feel the floor at the Marquis totally dipping due to tons of kids jumping up and down! Anyway, We Came As Romans have a great blend of screaming vocals contrasted with clean, in fact they have 2 lead singers, one is the screamer and the other does the clean. They write songs that are positive and fun to sing along with, super catchy choruses and they were in good form this night.

I think they had some of the best crowd support of the night, kids were singing the words very loudly and on To Plant A Seed the crowd kept singing the hook line “The first note that I ever sang” over and over even after the lead singer had stopped. I still can’t believe they were the opener this night.

It would have been a crowded stage with 2 singers, 2 guitars and a bass player and a drummer, but we were informed that their bass player had broken his toe so he played bass from off the stage. I have no idea why he couldn’t stand on stage but whatever, more room for the rest of the band to move around. We Came As Romans have one full-length released, which I felt was a top release from 2009 and they played To Plant A Seed, Roads That Don’t End, Broken Statues, Intentions, We Came As Romans Are The Reasons, and closed with Dreams. Tahoe said that he thought they lost steam through their set, but nonetheless he was impressed and I think he’s a fan now.





After We Came As Romans played it was Of Mice & Men’s turn. I’ve just recently starting checked these guys out, they’re a pretty new band which just released their debut full-length album a week ago. The story with Of Mice & Men is that the band was started by Austin, who was originally the lead singer with Attack Attack!, singing on their only full-length album and doing a pretty awesome job. For some reason he left the band and started Of Mice & Men, which is one of the reasons I checked them out, I enjoyed that Attack Attack! Record.

Unfortunately, before this tour started Austin had heart surgery and missed the whole tour, so the former front man from Sky Eats Plane, Jerry, was fronting Of Mice & Men. He was pretty entertaining, Tahoe and I both enjoyed his presence, he was very energetic and his voice was solid. After reading the message boards about the tour it turns out that Jerry doesn’t know the words to many of the Of Mice & Men songs, I couldn’t tell since I don’t know them either.

Anyway, they played most of the songs off their recent release. You tell this was a party band, with their A Milli intro and a cover of Lady Gaga’s Pokerface that had the whole place singing. The clean vocals were exceptionally good for a live performance; I think this band has some potential, they are currently signed to Rise Records.


The last band I went to see was A Skylit Drive out of Sacramento. They played fourth, which surprised me because they don’t have the following that some of the other bands had. They aren’t a great band, their albums are good but nothing special in my opinion. They are unique because their lead singer has a super-high voice, and he wears in-ear monitors live. But you can tell by my videos that the monitors weren’t helping him, he was terrible. In fact, the whole band was pretty bad, and the crowd had noticeably thinned out for their set. We left after their fifth song.








The other bands that played were Alesana, the headliner, and The Word Alive who played third. We were not impressed The Word Alive at all, their singer was weak. However we were impressed with their lead guitarist and his head-band, he was intense!

Show Recap: Miss May I / Our Last Night

Tahoe and I ventured down to the Marquis Theater to catch a handful of young metalcore bands. When i say "young" i mean that most of the members of Miss May I / Our Last Night probably haven't graduated high school yet, seriously, they're just kids. But these kids are pretty impressive and they hold their own in the metal scene.

We arrived about 30 minutes after the doors opened, just catching the last song of the first band; The Color Morale. The venue was surprisingly packed, i head it was sold out. i was expecting a small moderate crowd but maybe since the show was on a Friday night a lot of the minors were able to show up. plus it was an earlier start, 6:30, which meant the show was over by 11:00p. Anyway, the "adults" were definitely outnumbered and were forced to give way to the younger motivated crowd, Tahoe and I stayed safe behind the barrier with our beers.

The band we came to see was Miss May I, a very new metal band with some impressive talent, especially the drummer. We discovered MMI from HM Magazine, but despite recommendation from a faith-based group like HM, MMI is not a Christian band. They opened their set with Apologies Are For The Weak and it was quickly evident that the sound quality at the Marquis was lacking. MMI, unlike punk bands and straight hardcore bands, defines their sound on some intricate guitar and drum work, which was totally lost in the muddy sound at the Marquis. During the verses of most songs the sound was more of chaos than anything else, turning the set almost into a "breakdown band", most people just waiting for the breakdown of the song to really start rocking out.

The poor sound quality didn't discourage the band from going all out though. The crowd was definitely familiar with MMI and the whole place was dancing, and singing along with the few melodic choruses the band brings. MMI has the look of a typical metal band, with a lot of hair and a lot of head-banging. Unfortunately though, they have succumbed to the trendy new metal dance called "crab-core" and during parts of each song the choreographed head-banging was almost too predictable and corny. but that’s okay, i'm 27 yrs old so what do i know about cool anymore!

The band blasted through their set, playing mostly off of their only full-length release, with the only exception being their cover of Swing, originally written by Savage, which was also recorded on MMI's demo. The crowd definitely recognized that song. The other crowd favorite was Forgive and Forget. Miss May I were solid, definitely worth the price of admission.

Miss May I set:

apologies are for the weak
architect
not our tomorrow
swing
porcelian wings
dance of aera cura
forgive and forget

Our Last Night played right before Miss May I, they were the 2nd band to play out of 5. I've been a fan of Our Last Night for awhile now, they're a mix of metal and punk, which really appeals to me. I've been trying to see these guys live but never have. I'm not totally sure they really fit with this group of bands since OLN is not full-blown scremo/metal but they held their own. They're signed to prominent punk label Epitaph, and you can definitely hear elements of punk in the drumming. Unlike punk though the band incorporates a lot of technicality to each song, never leaving any part of any song "simple". Sometimes i feel lie this band has an identity crisis and can't figure out which genre they want to embrace, with harsh vocals, and singing/melodic vocals, sweeping metal guitar riffs and punk/hardcore drumming. the feel is never too heavy and they're definitely not a "breakdown band".

Anyway, they played a few of the popular songs of their full-length like I Have Fought a Measureless Battle, Symptoms of a Failing System (my favorite), and their closer, Recovery. The fact that Recovery is their closer really enforces the "identity crisis" i mentioned earlier since this track is slower and in my opinion pretty simply and boring. Check out my recording of it and let me know what you think.

The 4th band to play (after Miss May I) was I Set My Friends On Fire. I have never listened to these guys so i didn't know what to expect, and wasn't expecting too much. Apparently they're a 3 piece band; drums, guitar, and vocals. They fill the sound out pretty well and they had a track going along with them that helped improve the low-end. Neither Tahoe or I were very impressed, the band was definitely gimmicky, although they had really good crowd participation.

The headliner was Attack Attack!, a band that i haven't listened to for all that long. Their record, Someday Came Suddenly, is a pretty good listen, nothing too amazing but pretty solid. Just like Our Last Night, my favorite song Shred White and Blue apparently isn't the bands favorite song, since they played it 3rd in their set. The crowd which was mostly high school kids (and younger) liked the more melodic tracks. I don't really think this band has much staying power, they've already switched lead singers twice since their album came out in 2008. It also sounded like they play a little slower live which i find to be really annoying. Suffice to say Tahoe and I left after 3 tracks, the People's Elbow, Shred White and Blue, and another track i don't remember.

more discussion here

Here are the videos i took:

Our Last Night - Recovery

Miss May I - Forgive and Forget:


Miss May I - Apologies Are For The Week


Attack Attack! - Shred White and Blue


Attack Attack! - The People's Elbow

Show Recap: mewithoutYou @ Marquis

i've never been a big fan of mewithoutYou, i missed it when they started and gained popularity so i felt a little bit out of the loop. Despite that and the fact that their sound takes a little getting used to, i picked up their new album, It's all Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright and i really liked it, but not enough to go to the show.

Until Tahoe came through with an extra ticket and convinced me i should check it out. Best thing Tahoe has done since he signed my marriage certificate as a witness back in the day.

first of all, the show was at the Marquis Theater in downtown Denver, a venue that has become really popular for bands that aren't of large status. Most of the shows i go to down there the place is about 50-200 kids deep, and taking advantage of the PBR Tall Boys served at the bar. This night however, the entire place was full, we were standing at the back wall, with PBRs, and i couldn't even see the stage let alone the band members. from what i had been told, lead singer Aaron Weiss is crazy on stage and i wasn't about to miss that, so Tahoe bore a hole and i got close enough to feel the energy (i couldn't see so much since i'm a short-dude).

This was one of the best shows i've ever been to, seriously, and i only knew a handful of the songs. The energy in the place was crazy, the music was passionate, and the crowd was eating it up. Frontman Aaron was awesome, he reminds me of an instense folk-singer, his story-telling songs and nasal-ly voice were a trip to see. It's so hard to describe mewithoutYou, according to their Wiki they are a prog-rock band, a little bit folksy, a little bit hardcore. They're signed to Tooth & Nail records, a Christian label, but the music is exactly outspoken Jesus music. a lot of the lyrics are metaphors and stories and they take a little bit of brain-power to figure out.

The best way to describe this night would be "raw". the emotion and passion exuded by the band was amazing, it's sort of like how us "non-singers" might feel and sound like if we just let go of our pride and sang as loudly and crazy as we could. Aaron dances back and forth across the stage, swinging his arms in raw emotion, never worried about his apperance or crowd response. the band was handing out percussion instruments to the crowd during songs and it reminded me of a scene out of the Old Testament, maybe like David singing some Psalms in the streets. Powerful.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the crowd, most of the shows i go to end up in a "mosh" pit and everyone sort of rocks out, but this wasn't that style of music. a lot of people just watched in awe, not being able to look away from the antics of the band, some people raised their hands as one would during a worship service. Some danced, others focused on singing the lyrics as loudly as they could, it was an awesome thing to see.

"Oh, my God! I do not exist we faithfully insist while watching sink the heavy ship of everything we knew If ever you come near I'll hold up high a mirror Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as You"






sorry, my videos aren't the greatest visual quality, it was tough to get close enough to see:

In A Sweater Poorly Knit:


Goodbye, I!

Show Recap: Death By Stereo @ Marquis

Isaac and I went down to the Marquis to catch punk rockers Death By Stereo the other night, us and about 50 other people total. Death By Stereo has never really had a big following, at least nowhere else except their home of SoCal, and every time we see them in Denver there's never a big turnout. This night was the same, especially since the show was only announced a few weeks ago, and there wasn't anything but local bands on the tickets (Killings Kings, Crooked Ways, and Boldtype).

i don't want to spend too much time on the local bands, but they weren't impressive. Crooked Ways seems to have an identity crisis and can't tell what kind of punk band they want to be. not to mention they really have no talent on guitar which makes the music way too predictable and boring. Boldtype is sort of like your non-serious punkers like NOFX, Blink-182 or the Vandals. I don't like those bands, and i don't like Boldtype.

Death By Stereo on the other hand is amazing! I don't know why people don't get into these guys, they're just amazing musicians and very energetic. They have a punk sound, with a big dash of metal thrown in thanks to the finger-tapping of the guitarist. even finger-tapping while having a High Life poured down his throat by lead singer Efrem. impressive.

Anyway, Efrem is one of the best frontmen i've ever seen. not only are his vocals pretty good, he is quite a showman, always running around and making ridiculous faces. He is great at passing the mic, thankfully, and that gave Isaac and I a chance to share our amazing vocals with everyone. He runs around in the pit, mic chord and all, making people have to duck to keep from being decapitated. And he's always pointing at people and making eye contact, which i thought he was only doing with his friends until he gave me the wink the the gun!

They played all of the usual songs and two news, they're currently finished recording in Fort Collins. They also playing Emo Holocaust and mentioned that they had re-recorded the song for the new album. Maris the Great was also on hand, and his introduction was hilarious. the last time DBS played Denver was about 3 years ago, and Maris was understandably upset that they hadn't been back sooner. He announced that he was planning on "killing" DBS the next night before their Colorado Springs show, and that we were the last audience to see them alive. If you don't Maris, he's an old punk rocker, dressed in crazy garb, and he interviews bands before killing them. i don't really know what else to say about that.
Anyway DBS played a longer set than usual, it felt like they played for an hour, but i think that had to do with the fact that 2 separate fights broke out. This is what i love about the punk/hardcore scene, and what most people don't know or understand. While these shows can get pretty crazy, and there are bodies running into each other and people sometimes getting hurt, its almost never with intent and never encouraged, by the band or the fans. As soon as the first fight broke out (i'm assuming the combination of PBR Tall Boys and more room than usual due to a small turnout) Efrem stopped the band immediately and called for the fight to stop. he stated that if you wanted to fight you had to fight JJ the bassist for the band. He made the point that we needed to be united and together we needed to fight "them". After his little speech the band busted right back into the song as if they simply pressed pause.

Probably like 1.5 songs later another little fight broke out a little to the side of the room and Efrem stopped the band again. He asked everyone what the deal was, and stated that they just wanted to have some fun and that there was no reason to be fighting. This is a common view by most punk bands and a lot of hardcore bands. While the music encourages people to run around and go crazy, it doesn't encourage fighting or punching people. if you don't want to be bumped or kicked, you need to move further away from the stage, and if you're looking to throw punches to purposely hurt people, well, you're going to have to answer to the bands, or a lot of the band's friends. If you want to hurt people go to a Slipknot concert, get drunk and high, and get your jock-mosh on.

Anyway, DBS was great. They finished their set and left the stage. Thankfully they didn't play an encore because they are lame these days. Instead the next thing i know Efrem has his arm around me and Isaac and is talking to everyone still left in the pit. We talked to him about their upcoming show with Suicidal Tendencies and why they hadn't played Denver in such a long time. It was pretty cool to get to talk to the band so easily, another great aspect of punk rock and small venues.

I'm sure Death By Stereo will be back in Denver really soon since they'll have a new record out pretty soon and i'm sure they'll tour it for the rest of the year. Here's a song off their live record Death Alive:


Death Alive

Set List (in no particular order):
The Plague
No Cuts, No Buts, No Coconuts
Beyond the Blinders
Looking Out For #1
Forget Regret
This Curse of Days
Sing Along With the Patriotic Punks
Shh, it'll Be Our Little Secret
Let Down and Alone
Emo Holocaust
I Give My Life
Holding $60 on a Burning Bridge
Wasted Words (last song)

2 New songs that i don't know the names of

Show Recap: Comeback Kid @ Marquis 3/3/08

Oh man, i haven't been to a show in a couple of months, and it was worth the wait

Last night Isaac and I took in a great show at the Marquis Theatre in downtown Denver, Comeback Kid and Crime in Stereo. i'm hurting today.

First Band - Crooked Way: These guys were alright, they're from Denver and you could tell that they were a little raw. They were taking the place of Daggermouth who dropped off the tour about a week ago. Anyway, they were reminiscent of old Comeback Kid, Bane and Champion, good vocals, average guitar work/riffs, and pretty week drumming. They just didn't have any creativity and lacked energy.

Second Band - Steel Nation: Brutal. typical tough-guy east coast hardcore, and man this set was intense. Isaac and i feared for our lives when a fight broke out about halfway through the set between some tough-tattooed dudes. The music was heavy and thumping, and the vocals were very intense, but i wasn't able to identify any of the words. These kinds of bands are what turn people off to hardcore/punk music. They had a pretty good crowd response so apparently they've got a following, i'm just not tough-enough for them

Third Band - Crime in Stereo: I was impressed with CIS. Definitely the most laid-back band of the night, apparently CIS had some van trouble and arrived at the venue about an hour before performing. This band is more pop-punk than hardcore, but they have a pretty good following. they played well, the singer's voice was pretty tired and he failed to hit some notes which came across pretty bad but besides that they played most of the good songs like Sudan, I Stateside and others.

Last Band - Comeback Kid: This was the 3rd time i've seen CBK and it might have been the best. This was their first headlining tour in Denver and that made a huge difference. Andrew has totally improved as a frontman, and he was able to maintain energy throughout the entire set despite the altitude and sheer energy CBK requires. the set featured songs from all three albums and it was almost obvious that the new album hasn't quite hit it off with fans, they played Broadcasting, Defeated and Giv'r and those were the 3 weakest songs of the set. highlights woulds have to be All In A Year, False Idols Fall, Talk is Cheap and the closer Wake the Dead. I was planning on bringing a lot of people to this show since CBK is the shining example of great sing-along hardcore, but that didn't happen.

All in all it was a long wait for one great set. i should have stayed home to skip the first 2 bands but whatever. Keep your ear out for Comeback Kid, they've made some appearances on MTV2 and i'm sure they'll continue to gain momentum.

Chasing Victory show Recap

awful

First show I've ever walked out of during the set of the band i came to see.

Who records a hardcore sounding album and then plays the songs 2-3 bbm slower live? people weren't hardcore dancing in the crowd, they were swing dancing. I'm not lying. it was embarrassing.

i heard 5 songs and that was enough. no energy, just boring, and disappointing.

On top of that, Chasing Victory has a new cd coming out May 8th titled Chasing Victory describes the cd as STP-esque (as in Stone Temple Pilots). Who makes that album?

The last time i was let down by a band would have been...um...Straight Faced in 2000 after their final and terrible release Pulling Teeth.

SILVER LINING: I got to the show as doors opened knowing that Chasing Victory was playing early in the set. the first band Life In Your Way, were playing and they blew me away. solid hardcore with some great choruses and positive message. My friend Jeremy had just given me a cd with a bunch of bands on it and apparently Life In Your Way was on it, therefore, it was on my ipod. so that was cool. i got to check them out on the way home!

anyway, Chasing Victory, terrible,