Doug Van Pelt

Purple Door 2008 Concert Review

If I had an endless supply of energy and a high speed internet connection that followed me around, this might've been written and posted last weekend. But here's the best I could do now:





The annual Purple Door Festival is a nice way to cap off the summer. They stack a bunch of high-quality bands onto three stages in a short day-and-a-half festival that rocks without wearing your body down like a sun-soaked sponge.





The first set I caught was Friday night's Main Stage headlining performance by Skillet. They had an impressive light show that lit up the night sky with an almost strobe-like frequency. The smoke, of course, makes the colored lights "pop" more. While some of their songs lost some of the dynamic "oomph!" due to the open-air environment that sometimes swallows up high and mid-range frequencies, the energy and punch of tunes like "Better Than Drugs" and "Savior" still comes through, though slightly muffled. The lead-off track, "Rebirthing," probably sounded the best, with its gothic intro and trade-off vocals.





Bradley Hathaway put on a solid performance on the Main Stage, which involved little to no requests for spoken word poems. What a difference a scene makes, as this is highly unusual for him. The band Gwen Stacy took the HM Magazine stage by storm and proceeded to pummel it with enormous riffs and pounding drums and screaming for 40 minutes straight. Inhale Exhale came on after a long lunch break, applying the 90 mph energy boost that the hard music fans desperately wanted more of after a morning of intensity with the likes of heavyweights Neocracy, Oh, Sleeper and Gwen Stacy. Inhale Exhale delivered more of the same headbanging and breakdowns. It's amazing how much dust a stomping, moshing crowd will kick up.





The Showdown sported their current four-piece lineup with one guitarist, and the band sounded as tight and heavy as ever. While still acting playful between songs, there was less talk this set than previous shows by the band, as they let the ripping music do the talking (and shredding, and destruction). Haste The Day played lots of old songs, which they just killed. There were lots of wiggling fingers in the air at times -- egging on the guitar solos. The Gwen Stacy guys came on stage during one song and helped bring three extra gang vocals. It was cool to see them all over the place -- one behind the drumset, one at stage left and one at stage right. August Burns Red headlined the HM Magazine stage like the conquering local favorites that they were. Unassuming and almost nonchalant, they quietly set up and then unleashed their technical yet simple and brutal metal on a crowd that was eating it up.





The Gallery Stage always sports some great acoustic-driven talent, and this year didn't disappoint. It was a great joy to catch Denison Witmer and Derek Webb, who played a back-to-back set that was fabulous. Witmer's voice just floated above his guitar with a quiet melodic quality that was almost breathtaking. The guy is just a seriously great songwriter and singer. Both his voice and his songs build on each other for an unbeatable combination. He played one of his new ones, called "Carry The Weight," and it was almost arresting in its beauty. Derek Webb played his acoustic guitar with skill, telling an occasional tale and funny anecdote, like how the song "Name" was played on an episode of Grey's Anatomy, "a long scene featuring two doctors fornicating, which wasn't anywhere near what the song was written about." His devil-may-care attitude and his wavering invitation to "imagine, no, don't imagine ... the scene" was pretty fun to experience. He also said he couldn't resist playing "A Savior On Capitol Hill." His tunes from "Mockingbird" ("A New Law" and "A King & A Kingdom") were amazing. Amidst all the rocking and thrashing, sweet excellence like this makes it an even better fest.





We Shot The Moon brought is piano rock with gusto on the Main Stage. Disciple rocked it up really well once darkness had fallen on the outdoor night. Their new players all synced up well together, carrying the energy and punch you'd expect from the melodic metal/whatever-style-it-is-they-play band. The two guitarists blend some distinct styles together, both wailing away and bending notes at times and other times trading off between rhythms and leads. The band played the groove-heavy title track off their upcoming new album -- Southern Hospitality. Emery ended the night on a high note, but not before mixing it up visually by storming the stage clad in sequin-adorned Mexican wrestling masks. Wow.










Review and photos by Doug Van Pelt


©2008 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved