Luckily last night, my family had plans, which meant that I got to blast off to Jaxx earlier than normal, so I hoped that would result in being able to catch more bands than usual. As I was hustling through the blistering wind outside the club, I could hear the thumping through the walls. Being early was about to pay off. Cellador was on stage when I walked inside.

'Cellador' was pretty damn wild. Imagine 'Dragonforce' in high school. Thats what they sounded and looked like. The dual guitar work was crazy-fast, but unlike 'Dragonforce' the music was diverse. These dudes were literally kids. From what I understand, their ages run from 18 to 23, so if they can keep it together, they should be pretty big someday. The vocalist was a melodic fellow, who's sound reminded me of the original singer with Yngwie. For a lot of the set the sound guy had a delay effect running on the singer and it sounded kick ass, which is a hard thing to do well at a live show. The drummer was full of skill and had insane, fast feet. The bass player was a finger style guy who kept up with the guitars just fine. From what I hear, this dude wasn't their full time bass player. The band's myspace says thats they are looking for a bass player, so hell, if you have the chops you should probably contact them. In the end, it was the acrobatics of the guitar duo that made this band stellar. The only detractor from the band was the fact that they seemed stylisticly lost. Their chipped, painted fingernails and the singers cutesy, little, sideways hat made me think emo and the big, fakey, blue streaks in one of the guitarist hair was kinda silly. While they need to polish their image a bit, these dudes will be a rip-roarin' live band when they arrive at manhood. Rating as a live band? 9 of 10. These kids rocked.

Once 'Cellador' finished up, I figured I would run around the club to do the handshaking thing with the Jaxx employees. I ran into the club owner which was cool because I hadn't seen him face to face in about 10 years. Good ole' Jay Nedry. If you are ever at Jaxx, try to meet him because he's a wild dude. In speaking with him I found out that the show was indeed sold out and better yet, it had been sold out before the doors even opened. This was one of only twelve times in Jaxx history that that had happened. Upon hearing that I knew the night was going to be interesting. And god damn, it was. As I made my way back towards the hall, I ran into the singer of 'All That Remains' and he turned out to be a cool, chill, guy. When I told him that I had been pimping the show on BGR all week, his response was something to the effect of, "Thanks a lot, maybe thats why this show sold-out so fast.". Whether he was right or wrong about that, the statement was a happy little poke to my ego. The night was heading in the right direction.

Next up was 'The Human Abstract'. As I looked around me I saw lots of high school kids marching down towards the stage. As the band hit the stage, I looked 'em over and noticed that they were one hell of a mismatch in the style department. The bass player was a heavy, hawiian lookin guy. The far guitarist was a dude with sick, huge, dreadlocks. The other guitarist looked like Bill Gates Jr. and the singer was dolled up in emo garb. The dreadded guitarist was fuckin' awesome to watch. He was a psycho with hair of doom, that would result in instant death if you happened to step into his spinning locks. The Bill Gates guy was stuck in his footpedal, fretboard sweeping, geekiness most of the night and would shake his head like a dog after a bath whenever he got excited. While the bands flavor danced on the line of emo, they did have chops. The guitar tones reminded me of Impelliteri and the guitarists could play like Impelliteri too. The pit got huge at times, but it was more the bounce type pit. The band reminded me of 'Between the Buried and Me', but 'THA' was more methodical and poppish. The music ebbed and flowed between chaos and calm, in which the calm was peppered with digital samplers. The only thing about this band that really annoyed the hell out of me was the singer. His blow-job style, fade in-fade out, mic moves would have drove me absolutely insane, had I been the sound engineer. The vocals also seemed whiney, boo-hoo-hooish, and didn't stay in tune. Generally, I found this band to be just too weird to fully enjoy. Rating as a live band? 6 of 10. Replace the singer and stop acting so nerdy.

'Misery Signals' from Milwalkee, was the next band to hit the stage. Over the past few months I have been hearing a lot of people talking about how good they are. I'll say right up front, while they were good live, I'm not gonna go out of my way to get any of their CDs, because the music was pretty standard stuff. Anyway, the SECOND the lights went dark and before the band even struck a chord, the pit erupted. For whatever reason, this band made people want to kill eachother. The singer spent the entire night bounding around the stage like a cocaine infused kangaroo. He was awesome at interacting with the crowd. His tone reminded me a lot of the dude from 'The Red Chord'. A few times when the lights were down during interludes, he would wait for them to come back on and would blast himself ten feet into the air and land on top of the insane pit. Fans were sitting on eachothers shoulders and the singer would dive to them and sing with that fans up in the air. That was pretty wild to see. The band had a bass player and guitarist with some damn silly haircuts. There was also a more traditional looking guitarist on the other side of the stage who pretty much rocked out violently in his own little world. The band kicked out good melodies and the guitars would rip small runs, but never let loose with any solos. I guess the style of music would be called one of those "CORE" things... Ya know, punky, hardcorey, etc. Oh yeah. Almost forgot. Remember when I mentioned the fans wanting to kill someone? We'll someone must have done something damn stupid in the pit, because at one point during 'MS', I looked behind me and there was a hurricane of about 30 fists all going postal on one dude in a Redskins jersey. That was a scary sight. But amazingly had I not had a Jedi reflex to look back at just the right time, I would have missed it. The Jaxx security dudes swarmed over the rails and quelled the fury in about 7 seconds. I dunno what it is about 'Misery Signals', but they just made people go a little nutty. While I didn't care much for the music, they were a great live band, so their rating for this gig is 8 of 10. Good times.

Oddly, before 'All That Remains' took their places, the club speakers belted out 'Journey-Midnight Train' and 'Bon Jovi-Livin on a Prayer'. I was fully expecting the crowd to boo and hiss at the selections, but to my suprise the throng broke out into a hard rockin', group singing festival. It is because it was just so damn weird that I had to share that with all of the readers. Apparently, the whole club was in a great mood.

The club went black and a 'Halo' sounding intro filled the air. As the intro played you could hear the drummer testing his kick drum triggers and god damn his feet were fast. 'All That Remains' exploded into their opening number and the crowd lost all control. The pit instantly became so large and out of control that about 10 people slammed into the speaker stack next to me and it actually tipped back about a foot and then it wobbled back to it's resting position as the Jaxx staff scrambled to secure it. If it had fallen, I guarantee I would not be writing this article right now. The short statured singer literally climbed the wall of people in front of him all night so he could be seen. People surfing the crowd were flying through the air all night long. As they landed on the stage with a thud, the singer would give them a pat on the head and the band's crew would shuffle the surfers back into the meat-grinder. The Jaxx staff was very cool about the surfing and kept a close watch while the 'ATR' crew acted like it was just another day. At one point the singer crooned, "Climb on your friends or headbang like it's 1987!". The crowd sang loud and proud with every song in the set. I can tell you that I have not seen a Jaxx crowd like this since Pantera. One thing I noticed that seemed out of sorts was that there was a huge amount of normal looking college age females in the crowd. While they looked "normal" they were as out-of-control as any of the guys. When the guitarist would bust into his solos the singer would raise his hand and flutter his fingers in the air and then hundreds of hands in the crowd would raise and do it with him. What a weird sight that was.

While I am familiar with some ofthe 'ATR' tunes, I can't say I own any of their three disks. Well that is gonna change, because the music was incredible. They are a diverse band who can do soft, brutal, slow, and laser-fast. The lead guitarist, who was sporting a huge "tour beard",was stunning. Until last night I was unaware that 'ATR' rooted it's music in the skills of their Joe Satriani-like shredder. The dude was good. REALLY good. He even got the crowd to go insane for an instrumental. After every song each of the string players would hustle off to the tech corner and get re-tuned axes. The guy with the most work to do last night had to be the guitar tech. One thing that was done right with EVERY band that played, was the audio. This show was one of the best sounding shows I have ever seen. The bass player was a girl who was about five feet tall. At the start of the third song, when they were about four bars into it, a surfer flew onto the stage and knocked her over. The band stopped to make sure she was okay. She gave 'em a nod and the band re-fired their metal machine. Seeing that made it look like the 'ATR' members are a tight family. The bass player rocked out in a 'Motley Crue-Shout at the Devil' shirt and she had a kick-ass screach for the backup vocals. Somewhere near the end of the set the singer asked if anyone liked death metal and the crowd growled in response. They played their "death metal song" and while I don't know what it was called, I MUST find out what it was so I can get my hands on it. Just so you understand the power that 'ATR' posessed, I noticed that every opening band of the night stood at the side of the stage and rocked the fuck out. I can't say I have seen a lot of that at other shows. These opening bands have spent 25 tour dates on the road with 'ATR', and even at the end of the tour they are STILL in awe of the power. Once the set was over, you could tell that the fans could have stayed for another hour, but the band was spent. They left nothing on the table. They were simply amazing. Score? 10 of 10. No fuckin' doubt. Catch this band in a small club while you can, because they are going to be HUGE.

After the show the band stood on the stage and talked to people for about five minutes. I figured after that spectacle, that was all they had to give. Then as most people left the club, the band snuck down onto the floor and mingled with the remaining fans for another hour. I saw their dinner go back behind the stage and the band saw it too. Instead of going to eat, they all remained on the floor to give thanks to the fans. The band members were all great people. As I stood on the wall watching the smiles, I looked over to my left and there was the little, female bass player. Once the last person had thanked her and walked away, she stood there for a second smiling and looked around the room. She saw me playing wallflower and she walked on over and just started talking to me as if I was an old friend. At this point she was now wearing glasses with a pony-tail and she didn't have her mad metal face on anymore. I gotta tell ya, for being so hard-ass on stage, she was a little, quiet, cutie. I asked her how she stumbled upon this new found fame and she told me that she had worked for the 'ATR' record company for nine years. During that time, she became friends with the band and when their old bass player quit about a year ago, she said, "Fuck it. I can do this!" and she joined the band. As our conversation was wrapping up I said to her, "For all this fame you now have, I think it's cool that you seem so normal." Her reply was, "Why shouldn't I be?". That summed it all up for me right there. This band was full of cool people, who treat their fans like friends. I will never forget this show.

In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the 'Unleashed' show on March 2nd. Stay tuned.

Go to the BGR gallery (CLICK HERE) and check out my pics from last night's the show.

BE SURE to check out our new friends at JAXX NIGHTCLUB! WWW.JAXXROXX.COM

If you would like to attend a Jaxx show please let me know. I might be able to drag you along with me.

Comments Questions or Concerns? Hit me up! berube@braingell.com

And oh yeah...

Peace and Metal Grease!

berube