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Taste of Chaos - Not Very Chaotic

Yesterday, I had the good fortune of tagging along with Jenrrray to see the Taste of Chaos festival in Seattle, WA.  This was the last date in the US, so this was the last show for a handful of the bands.  After a fairly traffic-free road trip up from Portland, we arrived at the WaMu Theatre, paid Jenni's firstborn for a parking spot, chugged some energy drinks, and headed inside to get our faces melted!

Unfortunately, our faces remained intact throughout most of the evening, but I did have a good time.

Upon Beauty Rests

These guys won the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands contest to get a slot at ToC and played first, which meant we missed their set.  However, Anthony, who plays guitar/vocals in the band, came up to us on our way out of the show, peddling their new CD.  Jenni donated a dollar to the cause, I saved my pennies so that I can eat this week, and I promised to listen to them on their MySpace.

GO LISTEN TO THEM.  NOW.

After listening to their album, I'm really let down we missed them, but quite enthused upon learning they are from my hometown and are playing a handful shows around the Portland area in the next couple of months.  If their live show is anything like the way they sound on CD, then they easily would have been one of the best bands of the night, if not *the* best.  Their music isn't doing any trailblazing genre-busting or anything, but for fans of screamo, they do a good enough job to stand out among the masses of new bands in the genre popping up.

D'Espairsray

This year, Taste of Chaos featured three J-Rock bands and D'Espairsray was the first to play.  We showed up halfway through the set and I was delighted to get to see them.  I'd listened to their MySpace before going to the show to familiarize myself with them.  They don't have full songs up, but they do have clips so that you can get a feel for what they sound like.

However, seeing them live is far more entertaining.  Anyone who knows me knows my love of Japanese fashion knows no bounds, so I was paying more attention to their style than their music, but it was good.  The singer, despite his limited English, still managed to get the crowd going by yelling, "Scream for me!" between most of the songs.  I'll admit, I might have screamed a few times.  As a nice touch at the end of the set, everyone kissed their guitar picks and threw them out into the audience.

Idiot Pilot

I was initially stoked on this Bellingham, WA based band because the guitarist was wearing a Star Trek uniform and I am unabashedly a fan of the show, but once they started playing, I was fairly nonplussed.  Their particular brand of dance-screamo just doesn't quite float my boat.  I enjoy electronica-based rock and I enjoy screamo, but mixing the two left me feeling more than a little lost.

The singer livened up their not-so-lively music, though, by trying very hard to engage a surly crowd that was mostly either A. drunk or B. there to see Avenged Sevenfold.  He had the crowd split in half, battling out against each other, dancing and screaming.  At one point, he started pointing out his favorite crowds of people that were the most into the music, which I thought was a nice way to personalize the genericness of playing such a large stage for so many people.

After listening to their tunes on their MySpace, I'd say they are definitely better live, but that doesn't really say much.  It's like saying Hershey chocolate is better than Nestle, but all you really want is Godiva.

MUCC

MUCC were the second band to play from Japan.  They have an interesting sound that isn't quite what I expected from a J-rock band.  Their sound is a little more varied - it made me feel like I was going off to fight with some samurai, but with some nu-metal thrown in for good measure.   I was skeptical at first, but they won me over completely due to three things:

1. They are ridiculously Japanese.  The singer bowed between songs, wore no shoes, and everything he said that was genuine (i.e. not "Are you ready to rock, mothafuckas?") was just epically, insanely Japanese.  See reason 2 for details.

2.  In the middle of the set, the singer pulls out a couple of folded pieces of paper from his pocket and says something about it being their last night on the tour and needing to say thanks.  Then, as if having it written down isn't Japanese enough, he prefaces his note with, "Oh, so sorry, my English is so bad!"  That was the point when my dark, black heart suddenly sprouted bubble eyes and went, "KAWAII!" and I fell in love with the band.

3.  After the heartfelt thank you, the (extremely hot) bassist came out with a stand-up bass, the singer exchanged the note for a harmonica, and they played this insanely awesome dance song with an '80s inspired bassline.

The Underneath

The Underneath were the final band from Japan to play.  Their sound was the most traditional Japanese metal, I felt, but they were good and threw in some electronic parts and some good beats to keep things interesting.  I was a little sidetracked by their amazing hair and outfits to pay too much attention to the music, but I enjoyed it.  It made me feel like I was in a really intense anime, which is always a good thing.

Blessthefall

Tying in the whole Japanese theme (or possibly not, as I love to read between lines that aren't written), Blessthefall opened their set with two of their members beating on drums, the sound reminiscent of taiko.  This was promising, until they started playing the actual song.  It quickly went downhill from there.

I liked what I had heard of this screamo band previous to seeing them perform, but live they fell short.  The singer tried to keep it real by doing his best Iggy Pop impression and standing on top of the crowd while singing, but other than that, I was let down.  Musically, they played well, but the vocals were terrible.  The screamer was not unique and the non-screamer's mic needed to be turned way down, in addition to him needing voice lessons.  They sounded nothing like they do on CD.

Atreyu

This was my fourth time seeing Atreyu.  I am a huge fan of their first album ("Deanne the Arsonist" was the theme song for my last breakup), but not so much of their new stuff.  It was weird seeing them on a huge stage again, as the first two times I saw them, they were opening for bands like Snapcase in little clubs.  I'm excited for how much they've grown, but honestly, they've gone soft.  They used to rock a lot harder live, there was more screaming from the frontman and less singing from...the drummer?  I'm honestly not sure who sings the non-screaming parts as I had an obscured view of the stage.

The guitarists are still awesome, though, and busted out some amazing solos.  Alex, the frontman, puts on a better show than he used to as well.  After pulling his shirt off so we could all stare at his sweaty, tattooed torso, he pulled out some great cheeseball rock show lines like, "Let's cut the shit and get in the pit."

Bullet for my Valentine

I was looking forward to this band more than rest, but sadly, one of the band member's daughters had fallen ill and they were unable to perform.

Avenged Sevenfold

I can safely say I abhor this band.  Upon recommendation from a friend, I tried to listen to their music and couldn't make it more than 20 seconds into a song before having to turn it off, mostly because I hate the vocals so much, so I wasn't expecting much from them.  After seeing them play live, I'd still never listen to their CDs, but damn, they put on a great show! Pyrotechnics, charismatic singer, fucking amazing guitar solos - they've got all the ingredients necessary to cook up a kickass concert.