Full disclosure; I showed up late and missed the first few bands.
When I finally arrived, For All Those Sleeping were in the middle of their set. I walked around and checked out merch for a bit. To be honest, I didn’t watch the next two bands, IWABO or CTC, for obvious reasons. Stray From The Path finally took the stage and got the crowd going with their new single, Badge and A Bullet. Which is very Rage Against The Machine influenced, if you ask me. Before they played, I made a comment to their guitarist Tom about dedicating their song iMember to CTC and FATS, which he thought was hilarious but they didn’t play the song unfortunately.
Up next was the legendary hardcore band, Terror. Scott Vogel, the vocalist, called for many stage dives, which the crowd happily obliged to. I was impressed that an actual hardcore band, let alone Terror, were playing this tour; I guess they were high up on the bill so they didn’t care who they played with.
Veil of Maya, who I have seen many times, were up next. The crowd noticeably dwindled down for them but I’m sure that the kids that left were the ones with the trendy Keepers of The Faith hoodies.
Cardona, a local GA metal band that played downstairs in the venue, were kicking butt as they headlined the local stage that night. After them, I walked back upstairs to see Chelsea Grin. Alex’s vocals actually sounded really good compared to when I saw then on their headliner last year. The newer material was awesome; Jason’s influence has definitely made the band step it up musically.
The lights go out. Paul Engemann’s “Push It To The Limit" is blaring over the PA. Every Time I Die walk on stage; chaos ensues. Buffalo, NY’s finest open their set with We’rewolf from “The Big Dirty” and the crowd goes nuts. The band convinced the venue to allow stage diving that night, which made the show so much better. The band played 23 songs, 12 of which were all from albums ranging from “Gutter Phenomenon” to their latest release, “Ex-Lives”. After the first 12 songs, they walked off stage for a short intermission and then returned to play their 2003 release, “Hot Damn!”, front to back. Nothing more needs to be said.
