Show Recap: August Burns Red @ Cervantes

One of my favorite new bands came through Denver last night, August Burns Red. It was the first night of their tour with Acacia Strain, Impending Doom, and Mychildren Mybride, and unfortunate supporting cast, but nonetheless it was a chance for ABR to headline.

I've only recently gotten into ABR, a little before their latest album Constellations was released. I love their sound, it probably sounds closest to As I Lay Dying with the intricate guitar work and killer drumming. The new album is amazing, and i was excited to see them play the songs live. I have seen ABR one time before this, at Sonshine this past summer, and i have to be honest i didn't expect to see such fan support at Sonshine. I didn't really get to pay attention to band at Sonshine because Alan and I were too busy doing our two-step. Since i have an injured leg as an excuse, i just watched last night and took it all in.

ABR came out to a packed Cervantes, Tahoe and I both agree that it's probably the most people we've seen at the small venue, more than were at The Almost show with Emery. The crowd was energized too, and you could tell by the welcome they gave ABR. I don't know all of ABR's songs that well yet, so bear with me if i name the wrong song. I'm pretty sure they opened with White Washed.

The first thing you really notice about ABR is that they don't have the typical look of a metalcore band, ya know, like long hair, big earrings, tigh pants, tattoos, etc. Instead, both guitarist look like college students, one was sporting a polo shirt, while the other had on a baseball-style t-shirt. Neither had crazy hair or tattoos from what i could see. The only member who really looked the part was the bassist. Lead singer Jake Luhrs was also more on the subtle side, short hair and all. Nope, these guys aren't playing music to look cool, they're playing for the music and the message. They play very intricate guitar parts and spend a lot of time navel-gazing, and they were solid.

Also part of the show was the large August Burns Red banner and strobe lights that for some reason seem to be much more effective in this show than previous times i've seen bands use them. Either way the energy was amazing, and Cervantes was letting the kids do whatever they wanted including a lot of stage-diving and crowd-surfing. and a huge pit of dancers too. it was great.

The band plugged through most of their hits including Thirty and Seven, Meddler, Barbarian, Back Burner, Existence, and The Truth of a Liar. The last song of their set was Composure. It seemed to be a short set for a headliner so i was sure they'd play 2-3 songs in their encore. For the last song they asked the crowd to join them on stage which was pretty cool at first. you couldn't see the band with all the kids on stage, probably 30-40 people up there. the band starting playing Composure and you could tell they were struggling. About a minute into the song all of the music stopped, there hadn't been much vocals since i'm sure the mic was being passed around. anyway, the music stops and all you hear is the drums. House lights came on and security started throwing kids off the stage.

After about 5 minutes of louder than usual prompting from the crowd for the band to play "one more song" Jake came out and addressed the crowd. He informed us that while everyone was on stage somebody threw a water bottle onto the mixing board and essentially blew it up. so unless it could fixed/replaced, there would be no more music. This was a total bummer as i was sure we'd hear at least 2-3 more songs. some people stuck around but we bailed. after a twitter search it appears that they were not able to play another song.

here's video of the last song, and then Jake explaining the issue:


All in all it was a great show, we got there late just in time to catch Acacia Strain, the only non-Christian band on the tour. They were plenty vulgar and offensive, never missing a chance to use the F-word, and their music wasn't creative at all, just heavy east-coast influence hardcore. The singer sounded like a velociraptor at times and was totally indiscernible. His quote of the night was "We'd like to thank August Burns Red for bringing us on their tour, and letting us spread our disgusting negativity. Jesus effing Christ!". yea, they were lame.

August Burns Red is a bad that people can appreciate without knowing the music. They're just so talented, and willing to discuss their message of Christ with the fans. Jake offered to talk to anyone after the show about their beliefs, and left it at that, which i thought worked pretty well considering a large portion of the crowd were fans of Acacia Strain and could probably use the positive message that ABR brings.

The Almost have a creative idea for CDs

Christian rock band The Almost is releasing their 2nd album this November, it will be titled Monster, Monster. This will be the follow-up to the very successful debut album Southern Weather. In case you live under a rock, The Almost was formed by underOATH drummer Aaron Gillespie (and he's still in underOATH as well).

Here is the press release about the new album and it's creative idea:

The album (Monster, Monster) is slated for release on Nov. 3, but will be preceded by a Limited Edition special five-track EP entitled the Monster EP, featuring three album cuts and two B-sides. The EP will be available on Oct. 6 exclusively at Hot Topic stores, the band’s website, as well as on the band’s upcoming tour. The Monster EP will come in a special two-disc digi-pack, with a choice of five different covers. In an unprecedented new model for music delivery, EMI and Hot Topic will offer this Limited Edition EP packaging, which includes one disc with the EP’s music and a second blank CD with Monster Monster’s full-length artwork, lyrics and printed track listing on the physical CD, but no music. Fans will be able to download every song through a special promotional code on the day of actual physical release, Nov. 3, from ShockHound.com the MP3, merch and editorial site (http://www.ShockHound.com/ ), which is a division of Hot Topic, Inc. The version streeting on Nov. 3 will not include the special five-cover packaging or the Limited Edition EP.

Show Recap: Heavenfest

This is going to be a lot shorter than i had anticipated. Very rarely do i post negative reviews, but somehow i've gone to back-to-back shows and have been disappointed. Heavenfest had the potential to be great, and maybe it was for a lot of people (like 30,000+) but it was a bummer for me.

Last year a friend of ours started Heavenfest in Brighton, Colorado, bringing together a full-slate of Christian music, multiple stages, vendors, organizations and anything/everything Christian for a one day festival. The music festival is becoming more and more popular these days, and Heavenfest has shown a lot of promise. Last years's event brought in about 12,000 people and appeared to be a success.

This year Luke was able to bring in some pretty popular bands; Third Day, Skillet, Kutless, Disciple along with some solid, lesser known bands like Glen Packiam, Glorious Unseen, and Phil Wickham. The event was promoted as "80 bands, 8 stages, 8 areas" and they definitely had enough entertainment to make anyone happy. but might have been the biggest problem too.

Last year the Northern Hills Christian Church was able to accommodate 12,000 people pretty well. Our band 519 played on the worship stage earlier in the day and we got in and out of the event pretty easily, and later that evening Tahoe and I came back to catch Haste the Day and once again had no problem getting parked and whatnot. The event is only about 2 miles from where i live so its a short drive!

This year however, Heavenfest was anticipating a bigger crowd. they encouraged people to exit the freeway an exit that was a little north of the venue to help and relieve the traffic if possible. Living 2 miles away i figured we could leave and get into Heavenfest pretty quick, i had ordered my tickets online and we were prepared. the first band i wanted to see was Glorious Unseen and they were playing at 3p so we left our house just after 230p. We got through the main gate at 4p! Traffic was crazy, a total disaster. Heavenfest was in no way prepared for 30,000 people and the traffic was just the beginning.

If you want to relieve traffic you need to park cars fast, and have multiple lots and entrances. Heavenfest did not. Once we were finally parked we had to walk at least half a mile to the only entrance to the event. failure number 2. you have to have at least 2-3 different points where people can get in. you have one entrance where you're checking bags, selling tickets, will call, and everyone else also has to go through this gate? i just sat in my car for an hour, walked through a dirt parking lot for half a mile, and now i'm standing in the direct sun for another 20 minutes just to get in?? all of this with my family (one 2.5 year old) and there were definitely a ton of other little kids. fail.

So once we finally get in Kassie and I are sweating profusely, and there's no shade really anywhere. we've already missed Glorious Unseen's entire 45 minute set so all we wanted to was get to shade so went into the church building. lucky for us the next performer we wanted to see was Phil Wickham and he was performing on the worship stage inside the church. we were about 40 minutes early for his set so we got a good seat and tried to entertain Addie. I decided i wanted to catch a little of Sho Baraka / Tedashi so i grabbed Addie and headed over to the HipHop stage. Well they were way behind on the schedule there so we had to get back for Phil Wickham before Sho even took the stage. fail. you have to stay on schedule. more on that later.

Phil Wickham took the stage with no band, just him and his guitar, and he was amazing. Even Addie liked it and was raising her little hands as Phil led us in worship! it was totally worth the trip right there.

After Phil Wickham we had over an hour to kill before Third Day on the main stage. Canton Jones was supposed to be on the Hip Hop stage but once again, he was nowhere to be found during his scheduled time. so we decided to walk around and check out the booths. there was some pretty cool stuff so that was fun. then we hung out by the free water station and let Addie run around. About 30 minutes before Third Day was scheduled to perform we headed over to the main stage area. I've never seen Third Day live and i've always wanted to, its on my list along with Garth Brooks and Millencolin.

As we moved into a good close spot to the stage, Jon Vermilya took the stage for a 15 minute "join Compassion Intl or die" pledge. I noticed that the rain clouds were moving in and realized that we were about to get really muddy, i was not excited. I figured we'd get about 1/2 way through Third Day's set before Addie would totally lose it in the rain and we'd bail. So at 7p, the time for Third Day to start, they were still sound checking. Addie was getting restless. i was getting concerned. I told Kassie we should just go, but she insisted on staying based on the fact that i had never seen Third Day and we were so close. 715p rolls around, still no hope. finally, after 730p, one half-hour later, an MC takes the stage to inform us that the reason for the delay is the weather moving in (yea, if Third Day had started on time they'd almost be done by now!) and the MC now wanted us to pray for the weather to hold off, or something like that.

That broke my back there, i packed up the family and walked the mile to the front gate. Addie was just about to go insane, and poor Kassie was pushing our stroller and dealing with some of the unpleasant side affects of being 7 months pregnant. just as we hit the front gate you could hear Third Day start their set. at this point i didn't care anymore, it wasn't meant to be. So i got to hear a few songs as we walked to the car, maybe this is a good description of how far the walk was, we heard at least 3 full songs before we could see our car. luckily Heavenfest had this ridiculously large monitor so i got to see some of the footage of Mack and the boys on stage.

Anyway, it pretty much sucked. it was a fun adventure with Kassie and Addie and i enjoyed hanging out with them, but as a music fan it sucked. I know Heavenfest is trying to be unique, and they want to try and make it a travelling festival sort of like Warped Tour, but there's a reason why Cornerstone and Sonshine are successful and have been around for at least 10 years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Colorado doesn't have this kind of Christian music festival so Heavenfest could be that, and obviously Heavenfest is legit with the caliber of bands they're bringing in, so cut the crap and focus on accommodating 30,000 people, there's plenty of work to be done for that.

Here's my video of Phil Wickham playing Cannons:

Christian Rap Mix

My buddy Nuccio is a big fan of rap/hip-hop music. over the years he has moved from offensive mainstream rap to the mostly unknown landscape of Christian Rap. If you're reading this you most likely just thought of DC Talk or John Reuben, maybe even KJ-52 or the Grits. Christian Rap is slowly building momentum with a slew of fresh new artists, some converting from bigger groups like Bone Thugs & Harmony, and some coming from nothing, driving around in their car handing out mixtapes just like every other new rapper.

Some of the bigger names out there right now are getting some good buzz, rappers like Lecrae, Canton Jones, and Tedashi are getting nice performance slots at music festivals all over the country. I have managed to catch a few acts myself, i'm still not convinced, but its entertaining.

Anyway, my buddy Nuccio broke down his collection into 5 different compilations for me. i scoured the 150 songs he chose, and broke it down to 10 songs for you. check out the 10-song mix here and let me know what you think.

TRACKLIST:
1. Lecrae - Don't Waste Your Life
2. Grits - Ooh Aah
3. Canton Jones - Livin' Clean
4. Dre Murray - More Than Life
5. Lecrae - Livin' Free
6. Flame - Call Him
7. Lecrae - Changes
8. Cross Movement - Name Up
9. 116 Clique -Send Me
10. Sho Baraka - Maranatha

love that Dre Murray song!

5 Questions with Ben Crist (Glorious Unseen)

After Sonshine i was in contact with Ben Crist from Glorious Unseen about a few different things. in the midst of our email chatting i decided to ask him a few questions, so here they are:

BMER: I noticed at Sonshine you guys played How He Loves, a song written by John Mcmillan, which you guys recorded on your new album The Hope That Lies In You. I also noticed that the David Crowder Band played the same song later in the evening, and has it posted on their Myspace page. You guys have already covered Oh Praise Him from the DCB, any connection between the bands? i noticed David Crowder was side-stage for most of your Sonshine Set.

BEN: Yeah, it's kinda more accidental than intentional. Originally, we were thinking of cover songs we might like to do for that first record - and Oh Praise Him was the only one that actually worked out. So that was cool. But yeah now the How He Loves thing I think both us and Crowder recorded it before we knew the other was also doing it. We've been doing that song for a long time at our church - and have really loved doing it, and since it had never really been cut by any artist that had given it great exposure - we decided to do it on the record... And Crowder loves the song too and I think had the same idea... We're friends with him and have played some fests and shows with him before..

2. Right now you can pre-order the new Glorious Unseen album, The Hope That Lies In You, at www.musiChristian.com for $6.77, a pretty cool deal. Their description of your band however struck me as funny; "Some would compare the style to Coldplay’s Chris Martin mixed with the harder edge of Underoath". how do you feel about that?

Yeah, I think whoever was writing that review just kinda needed to do a little name-dropping and didn't really have time to really listen to the record... I can see the similarity to Chris Martin sometimes, but we definitely don't sound much like Underoath haha...

3. Do you guys like playing festivals more or individual shows?

They're all great - but fests are really fun a lot of times cause we get to see a lot of friends!

4. As a worship band, what other worship bands are you guys into these days?

The Ember Days, Ascend the Hill, LoveLite, and Leeland are my current favorites...

5. On Tooth & Nail Records, a label known for more punk/hardcore bands, what bands do you actually enjoy listening to? I noticed your Comeback Kid hoodie at Sonshine, are you following the trend from punk/hardcore to more metal-based bands like Oh Sleeper and Haste the Day?

My fav bands on T&N are August Burns Red, Oh Sleeper, Advent, and underoath..

Catch the Glorious Unseen at Heavenfest in north Denver on Saturday August 8th.

Show Recap: 10 for $10 Tour

So at last, the 10 for $10 came and went through Denver. I usually have pretty positive reviews of shows, i think i'm easily entertained when it comes to live music so the fact that i was not impressed with the 10 for $10 should say something. But i have to admit, over the years i've slowly moved away from "tough guy" hardcore bands like Bane, Champion, Madball, and therefore i was a little bit out of my element last night.

the 10 for $10 Tour is basically built on the idea of 10 bands for $10. When this tour was announced it was advertised with Poison the Well as the headliner, and Madball, Bane, and Vision of Disorder supporting on different legs of the tour. The tour had a pool of bands that were supporting at different stops along the way and at first it was not certain which bands would be coming to Denver. Obviously i was hoping to see Madball and Vision, along with This Is Hell, Crime in Stereo, Bane, and War of Ages, the rest of the bands i didn't know a lot about.

Well, it probably couldn't have gone much worse. Madball and Vision weren't playing the Denver date, therefore Bane was the headliner with Poison the Well. I've seen Bane before and they were good, but i've never really become a fan. i've never listened to Poison the Well so i wasn't excited to see them. Basically i was paying $10 to see War of Ages, Crime in Stereo and This is Hell, which is definitely worth the $10. War of Ages is a band i've been wanting to see for a while, and although they played at Sonshine in Minnesota when i was there, i had to miss the last night of the concert therefore missing War of Ages.

The doors opened at 3p, which meant the bands would start just before 4p. Since the first 6 bands on the tour were rotating every night, it was impossible to predict when War of Ages would be playing, so i played it safe and got there early (4p). As i walked in on the first band i immediately recognized them as Denver's own Crooked Ways. Right at the end of their song they announced that they had been a last-minute replacement for War of Ages, who had left the tour to go home to handle some family emergency.

bummer.

That basically ruined my night, so i had a pessimistic view of the rest of the bands. so let me start the negativity with Crooked Ways. I'm always down to support local bands, but i just cannot get into these guys. i've mentioned them before, i just think they're uncreative and trying to hard to "validate" themselves as hardcore kids, and it gets annoying.

After them we saw another Colorado hardcore band, from Ft. Lupton, Come Forth By Night. They were pretty bad too. The crowd wasn't really into them, unfortunately, and they just didn't seem to be playing well, the guitarist was having all sorts of trouble with his equipment. but the killer for me was their last song, a cover of Pennywise's Bro Hymn. Now i think this is lame on many levels. first, Pennywise is an active punk band, skate punk for that matter. even though the cover had a hardcore twist to it, it's still a skate punk song from a band that most hardcore kids would never associate themselves with. its almost like saying you liked Blink-182 at some point *gasp!. secondly, the song is a hit for Pennywise, it's their most recognizable song. you don't take the one song that has made a band popular and use it to incite a crowd response and use it as your closer. i just don't get it, i thought it was lame, and weak. i'll probably be hunted down for saying it.

After that we saw Trapped Under Ice. they were terrible too, energetic though, but i just didn't get it, maybe i'm getting too old for hardcore.

After that was our big surprise of the night, A Ghost Inside. Wow, they were incredible! ton of energy, great sounding songs, very tight band that seemed to know what they were doing. i'll be checking these guys out for sure.

Then it was Crime in Stereo, who everyone apparently really likes (including myself) but they always seem to be playing on wierd lineups that doesn't really fit their style. CIS is much more melodic, and slower paced than hardcore bands. i loved them though, the singer was on key this time (unlike this time) and they were really tight.





After that was Death Before Dishonor. Solid tough-guy hardcore, they were good, but didn't blow me away. this video i took is great, some kid stage-dives and then apparently didn't get up, the band stops to check on him, and then starts back up, check it out:



After that we saw This Is Hell, a band i've been wanting to see for a long time yet i always miss their shows. They were a little bit of a letdown, but i don't think it their fault. it appeared that the crowd was starting to get tired and just didn't have the energy for TIH. I have to say their drummer is ridiculous, he was amazing. my buddy Isaac Fratini told me awhile back to check him out and he was right, the dude is solid!





After This Is Hell we left, i would have liked to see Bane, but i just didn't have much interest in the other bands and i was hungry.

Show Recap: Sonshine Festival @ Wilmar, MN

Alan and I camped out at the Sonshine Festival in Wilmar, Minnesota. 3 days of Christian bands spread out on 3 different stages, but we were there mainly for the metal stage. there were so many bands that i'm just going to give short recaps and fly through the bands that we actually saw.

Thursday night was essentially the Scream the Prayer Tour lineup, featuring For Today, Sleeping Giant, Oh Sleeper, Gwen Stacy, The Chariot, and Haste the Day. For Today and Sleeping Giant are what you might call "militant Christian" metal, in your face, tough-guy hardcore. Both bands didn't bring their A-game and were somewhat disappointing.

Gwen Stacy was the first good band we saw. They only played 5 songs but they bring it, fun choruses to sing along with, and quite the following for an early-in-the-evening band. After Gwen Stacy was Oh Sleeper, a favorite of Alan's and mine. They were on-fire! They had replaced their stolen guitar and were able to play 2 new songs, Son of the Morning and The Finisher, both were awesome. The crowd was totally into the set and Oh Sleeper responded, playing better than they did on Tuesday night in Denver, and they were having fun inciting chaos in the crowd.

After their last song, Vices Like Vipers, which was crazy, Micah the lead singer, said that we had one last chance to rock out, and organized the crowd for the "Wall of Death". Basically this is like the parting of the Red Sea, i've done this a few times, most notably at Sick of it All shows, in little venues where people don't have much room. but by the time to two sides of the crowd had split, there was easily 20 yards between us and them. As the front line people began to back out Alan and I found ourselves facing the front line full of teenagers with no feeling of pain. the song kicked in and both sides ran at each other (think Braveheart) and Bam!, bodies everywhere. i spent the next 30 seconds saving lives and enjoying my extra adrenaline-induced strength that allowed me to throw teenagers everywhere and saves the people who landed on the ground.

Wall of Death at a Sick of it All show (excuse the language):

after recovering from that we took a break, skipped Sleeping Giant, the Showdown and Agraceful. We went over to the main stage to check out Family Force 5, which lasted about 10 seconds before we decided that they were lame and went back to the metal stage to see The Chariot. They were great again, apparently their van had broken down and they just barely made it, but they were awesome. After that was Flatfoot 56 and they were terrible, and i hate them.

The headliners for Thursday were Haste the Day. Once again they were on their game, and once again the momentum slowed down when Stephen picked up a guitar and played the 2 slow songs. But it was cool because they played an encore, American Love, and all was forgiven. their new drummer, Giuseppe from Once Nothing (check out the link!), might be the best drummer i've ever seen, he's ridiculous, and he did a drum solo before the encore that was epic.

On Friday we got up early, 10a, and headed over to the hip-hop stage to catch Big Al. he was pretty good i guess. Christian rap is weird to me, but whatever. Then we went over to the main stage to get ready for Glorious Unseen. This is where i ran into one of Kassie's friends, Angela and got to talk to her. On the stage was Tal & Acacia, 2 girls who were quite impressive. Tal (or Acacia?) plays guitar and both girls sing. they were from England i'm guessing (wrong, they're from Nashville, thanks Alan!) and their style was a little quirky and both Alan and I liked it, but not enough to grab a pink cd!

Up next was the Glorious Unseen, one of our favorite bands, and they were awesome. They played Tonite the Stars Speak, Forever Holy, and some new songs of their upcoming EP. I wish they could of played longer than 30 minutes, they only got through 5 songs i think. But David Crowder was on the side stage obviously enjoying them too.

After that we scampered back to the metal stage to check out some bands we'd never heard of. For All Those Sleeping were pretty bad, the Midnight Suit, who are now called The Suit, were awesome. they were a blend of punk/hardcore and some heavy breakdowns. they really impressed, and were full of fun energy, playing a cover of Lady Gaga's Just Dance that went over really well (hear it on their myspace), totally checking these dudes out!

up next was local metal band Your Memorial, which Alan liked but i wasn't too into, they're straight-forward metal. Hands followed them and they were pretty good despite having a guitar player as their lead singer which usually takes a little off the intensity and crowd-participation. they were really tight and had a good crowd following, i'd check'em out.

after that we went and took a nap, skipping A Plea For Purging and Impending Doom. We woke up and headed to the main stage for an awesome time of worship with David Crowder. They are so good live, great humor, great set, and just overall a really moving time. David Crowder busted out the usual key-tar, and then a Guitar Hero guitar that had been modified by drummer Bwhack. good times.

After that we headed back to the metal stage for what was probably the best band of the weekend; August Burns Red! man, i have just been getting into these guys so i only knew a few of the songs, but it didn't matter. people were climbing the walls just to get a view, easily the biggest crowd we saw. we fought our way to the pits and hardcore danced for what seemed like an hour. They played an encore even though they weren't headlining, man they were good.

After that was the headliners, Norma Jean, a band that always brings the energy (and apparently fans like David Crowder, he was in the pit with the rest of us kids). They rocked out about 3 songs before something on the drums broke, which happens at every Norma Jean show. After that was fixed, lead singer Cory Brandan instructed the crowd to pick up anything plastic off the ground and when the song kicks in, to throw the trash in the air, and keep throwing it. the crowd followed instruction and we were all doused with water and whatever else was in the trash for the next 60 seconds. After that they played the hits, ending with a quasi-encore. pretty good set.

Both of us had to leave the next morning, so we missed out on War of Ages, As I Lay Dying, Austrian Death Machine, and Living Sacrifice. it was a bummer, but we'll have more chances!

good times!