Sounds Of The Underground Tour Review
“We’re getting close to the end; just a little bit longer,” In Flames vocalist Anders Fridén said twice, and was once repeated by closing band As I Lay Dying’s vocalist Tim Lambesis—and it sure felt like the audience needed that reassurance. The Sounds of the Underground tour, a full-out metal/hardcore fest, kicked off at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston, TX around 1:30 in the afternoon and didn’t relent until headliners As I Lay Dying left the stage around 11:00 at night, leaving a toll on the body and ears—a punishment worth enduring for a show featuring many of the cornerstones in metal music.
Way back when it began with local hardcore artist The Last Starfighter, the meager crowd that could manage to make it to a Friday afternoon concert start had a good time dancing and enjoying the local talent, as well as their follow-up, Through the Eyes of the Dead. Los Angeles-based HORSE the Band took the stage around 2:45, insulted the Houston Astros, and then finished their set amidst a complete lackluster crowd thanks to the host city’s bashing HORSE’s keyboardist unleashed on Houston. Evergreen Terrace, amidst a flurry of obscenities, plowed through their set, including one of their better songs “Brave Reality” originally put out on their Writer’s Block CD. Their set was a snowball, starting off a little distant from the crowd before pulling them in, and ending with their best songs and with plenty of action.
The Chariot took to the stage around 4:15—and absolutely took it to the stage in the most literal of senses. Vocalist Josh Scogin was in true form, sprinting from stage left to stage right back to stage left like a pinball. They kicked off with “Yanni Depp” before moving into “Before There Was Atlanta, There Was Douglasville,” and as the band got deeper into the set, the complete organized chaos familiar to a Chariot show began to unravel. Scogin pulled out forward flips, swallowing and spitting water everywhere. The band had been experiencing technical difficulties throughout their set, but it just added to the confusion and complete disarray that seems to only make sense at a Chariot show. In the closing moments of “The Company, The Comfort, The Grave,” Scogin screamed out “This pistol is my ministry” and upon each repetition, the band slowed it down and Scogin’s scream turned to a lower and lower growl. With their allotted time, The Chariot only got through five songs, and with a musical interlude between their fourth and fifth songs, Scogin utilized his time to transform the microphone stand into a pick-ax and hatchet the stage with it, before putting it behind his neck and falling to the ground, crawling under the drum riser and writhing around on the floor. When it was all said and done, there hadn’t been any dancing in the crowd, there were no pits, just an audience stunned into silence with what they had just seen—and attempting to figure out what they’d just been hit with.
Brutal metal-goers Behemoth mounted the stage next, complete with full-body paint, uniforms and metal shin guards. They were an immediate audience favorite; it was a metal crowd, and they got what they wished for. Immediately following Behemoth, it was a string of iconic metal acts, with Black Dahlia Murder, GWAR, and Cannibal Corpse punishing the crowd; it seemed almost sacrilegious to watch them while it was still light outside. Trivium, up next, was yawn-inducing, but it only made In Flames seem that much better when they followed up. “Are you all ready for another heavy metal hit?” In Flames vocalist Fridén asked. The audience roared. “Good, because that’s all we’ve got!” he responded before tearing into their very specific, very awesome Swedish metal.
Finally, around 10:00 p.m. after a flurry of incredibly talented acts and extremely active live performances, headliners As I Lay Dying got their moment in the spotlight. The crowd was nuts for them; everyone stuck around and it was the most packed it had been the entire night. They kicked their set off with “Confide,” backed by a wall of amps and stacks three-cabinets high, with three mini-risers on the front left, front right, and middle of the stage to stand on throughout the set. The entire band, dressed in all black, made use of all sides of the stage, their light show in synch with the bass drum hits, a massive banner adorning the back wall of the theater that would drop to reveal a second, and eventually a third, piece of artwork. As I Lay Dying moved quickly through their first four songs—including a fist-pumping version of “94 Hours”—before securing the audience with the middle portion of their set, playing “Reflection,” “The Darkest Nights,” and “Undefined.” As the band approached the end of their set, Lambesis had the entire crowd fist-pumping to the beat of “Through Struggle,” and at the end of the song, the biggest pit of the night broke out amidst the blue-and-orange light show.
Before the twelfth song of the night, “Meaning in Tragedy,” Lambesis reminded everyone that we were all close to the end of the marathon tour, but that he wanted the entire audience to be a part of their closing moments. Lambesis made it easy when on the next to last song, he announced that the band was going to be doing something special only for the SOTU tour, and then invited Scogin onto the stage to help with vocals on “Control is Dead.” Scogin wasted no time planting himself into the crowd, getting hoisted on top of them, and then walking on their hands across the sea of people swarming around him, alternating screams with Lambesis on the end of the song, “We must look past what is in front of us.” As I Lay Dying closed with “Forever,” and Lambesis joined his supporters in the crowd for the end of the song, and he immediately attracted everything around him. When all was said and done, it was an exhausted, but fulfilled crowd, chanting for As I Lay Dying to come back on.
Although the faith-based bands did come out and represent, there were still a ton of highlights from the rest of the bands:
+ The ridiculously fast double-bass pedaling of Through the Eyes of the Dead’s drummer Josh Kulick and Behemoth’s drummer Inferno.
+ The complete and utter spectacle that is GWAR’s live set, including the infamous full-sized T-Rex puppet that eats people.
+ The incredibly poor Terror performance that was not exactly Terror, but a fake Terror band that played a few songs so that GWAR could set up behind them.
+ Trivium’s mediocre set featuring a cover of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”.
+ In Flames’ mesmerizing light show.
If you get a chance, you’ll see a ton of iconic acts on one bill that you would normally have to pay an arm and a leg for on individual tours. Do yourself a favor and cough up the money; As I Lay Dying and The Chariot alone are worth it.
PHOTOS & REVIEW BY DAVID STAGG
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Comments
just wondering, but you mentioned "Although the faith-based bands did come out and represent, there were still a ton of highlights from the rest of the bands..."
is the chariot not a faith based band? or really even as i lay dying(lyrically)... and i am sure there were more on the bill, that a lot of kids see as a faith based band?
