American Head Charge and Godhead were in the house of Jaxx in front of about 150 people this evening. I didn't really have any idea what to expect and what I was given was a trip down Alternative Lane, which was followed by one hell of a killer band.

The first band up was a group called Godhead, which I had heard the name of before but I had never heard anything they had done before. The music had the hard techno thing going on and reminded me most of Nine Inch Nails, but at no point did they have the intensity of NIN. Unfortunately for me, they were as strobe light heavy as NIN though, so photos were tough. The music had an FM radio mellowness to it and hinted more at alternative than metal. The tunes were laced with digital sequences and the guitar duo featured a singer/guitarist who was responsible for the chord strumming, while the other guitarist had the job of playing the parts which were effect pedal heavy. The vocals were the meat of the music and were probably them most interesting part of the bands presentation. Fronting the band was a guy with a killer voice. His tone reminded me a hell of a lot of Geoff Tate of Queensryche, but he didn't have that type of range. His vocals were planted firmly in his gut and never used a falsetto. The singers looks were oddly like Alton Brown of the Food Network, except that you would have to remove the glasses, shave the head, and apply mucho eyeliner to Alton to make it fit. Onstage, the singer of the band described the bands sound as a mix between Skinny Puppy and Winger... If I was him, I'm not sure I would have admitted that, but he was actually someone correct in his self-assessment. I rate this band as a 6 out of 10. They were interesting enough to watch, but since they were playing with American Head Charge, I would have expected a lot more metal.

Now it was American Head Charge's turn. The thing I noticed before their show even began was the coolest backdrop I have seen yet at Jaxx. It was an enormous M1A1 Abrams Tank that was probably to scale and it looked badass, but of course a backdrop does not make a band. (Okay, let me go out of article mode for a moment here... I am sitting at the local pool right now as I write this on my laptop. There is a kid behind me who has annoyingly said, "I WANT ICE CREAM!" about a thousand times and his parents are just smiling at him and saying, "Soon, soon..." I don't know which of the two I am gonna punch the fuck out first. As payback for their disturbance, I am now playing my Arch Enemy cd through my laptop speakers for their amusement. Fucks.) ANYWAY... The band was a matched bunch of guys in which half of them looked like punks and the other half of them looked like truck drivers. During the first song I found it odd that the keyboard player turned around from the crowd and decided it was a good time to check the text messages on his cellphone. He was as weird as his haircut. One side was normal length and the other side was shaved bald... Have you ever seen the male/female getup that people wear for Halloween? Ya know.. The half and half thing? That's what he reminded me of. I will say though that the keyboard players sequences and key work were very integral to the sound of the band and made them pop. (By the way... My volley of Arch Enemy at the annoying family has worked. They are now pissed off at the ice cream kid and they are leaving while muttering about Ipods and whatnot... Metal 1... Ice Cream 0. Fucks.)

Okay... Lets wrap this up. SO, where was I... I will admit that I have a few songs of this band which I throw into my shows if I get a request for AHC, but I never go out of my way to play them. After seeing this band, it appears that I have the wrong songs... I say this because the ones the band kicked out live were fuckin' awesome! The band had a variety of bands that I thought they sounded like. Old Korn mixed with Devildriver on the musical end. Mushroomhead mixed with Mr. Bungle on the vocal end. The tunes were heavy and contained bits of funk. There were mucho melodies and hooks to get people into it. The band was brutal enough that the the crowd felt they needed to get a small pit going from time to time. I was amused to watch this pit because it was made up of people who felt they had to prove something. The dudes would strut around, looking over their shoulder while the other dudes would crouch down like football linemen. Once the linemen had the perfect shot lined up, they would blast towards their target and nail 'em. Then the strutting dudes would look all pissed off as if they didn't know what was going to happen. So silly... My only two complaints about tonight were that for some reason the cigarette smoke was unbearable and the band was a bunch of "spitters". I don't know what it is that makes metal musicians want to spit up in the air on themselves and out into the crowd onto the people. I really never got that. Unknown to the crowd, the band was having lots of technical problems during he show. Between every song a band member would be talking to the monitor guy or a roadie about something that was wrong. The only reason I knew was that I would overhear the conversations as I was running around the backstage getting photos. I thought AHC was extremely professional to keep these issues "private" and give the crowd a good show. In the end I was overly impressed with this band and came to realize that I have to pick up some of their shit for my library. They were loud as fuck. When I went outside the hall to change a camera battery I thought I had left the door open. It was so loud out there! Even with the volume the mix was great. Very clean and clear. The thing that amused me the most at the show was that the bass player of ANC looked like one of the DJ's at Braingell Radio. He was a spittin' image of 'ole Crazy Ivan! Anyway... I would love to see them again when I know the tunes better. I score them 8 out of 10. With a little interaction from the singer they could have scored higher.

In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the Drowning Pool/Diecast show on 6/02 ! 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 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