I was very excited to be going to this show because I was positive that 'Dope' would be a great live band. Their opening act on the other hand... Yikes.

The opening act for the night was a band called, 'A New Revolution'. Oh my god were they horrible. Imagine 'Fall Out Boy' and multiply the suck factor by ten. That's what we are talking about. In no way should this band be allowed to play a metal club. I wrote a whole page of notes about why they were garbage, but quite frankly, I'm not gonna waste my time reporting why they sucked. I have already given them too much of my time. I rate them 1 out of 10. I give 'em a point because their guitars were in tune.

Now let's proceed to 'Dope' shall we? They had an interesting stage setup that was more theatrical than most bands that come to Jaxx. Their amp stacks were in wire cages, which were crowned with truss and barbed wire. The truss and barbed wire theme was also displayed on rickety stands that went across the front of the stage, about eight feet above the stage. From this stage-wide truss there were two inverted boom mic stands that projected down for the backup mics. 'Dope' also brought extra lighting gear which always makes for a good time. They had police lights, compterized Vari-Lights, and lots of powerful strobes. Atop the speaker stacks on either side of the house, I also noticed condenser mics were set up pointed toward the crowd. The story on those was that 'Dope' is doing some kind of live project in which they want to capture the crowd noise at every show and pick out things of interest. The front of the stage was also lined with apple boxes in which the band was able to stand above the crowd and jump off in little synchronized acrobatics.

The crowd seemed to be a near sellout, but it did not feel as packed as it was at the recent 'All That Remains' show. There were lots of teens and there was also an incredible amount of pre-teens with their moms and dads. When the lighs finally dropped, the crowd was greeted with a "Dope Man, Dope Man" rap song in which the lights flashed like a disco, then the intro turned into a funk thing which really made no sense. The crowd was in pogo mode most of the night and during a lot of the show the bartenders were standing up on their counters doing their little stripper-like dances.

Once the band began, I was instantly reminded of how it used to be to see 'Nine Inch Nails' live. Lots of strobes, digital samples, dirty band members, and industrial themes. While 'Dope' looked a lot like, 'NIN' I don't imagine they will ever be as ground breaking. The audio mix was awesome, everything was crystal clear, and the volume was always under control. While they played some of their own songs, they sure as hell played a lot of covers. They even played a 'Jimmies Chicken Shack' song called, "High" which they said was going to be on their next album. At one point during the night I walked from one side of the club to the other and i ran into five members of the local police who had just arrived. Then as if it was all a part of the plan, 'Dope' broke into their rendition of "Fuck Da Police". It was also around this time that the singer went on his "Legalize Weed" tirade.

I would have to say the worst part about seeing 'Dope' was that the singer thought that talking between songs was more imprtant than playing music. What was worse was that he had nothing worthwhile to talk about. First of all, all night he kept referring to the crowd as, "Jacksonville". Uhm, no retard, its a club called Jaxx, in Virginia. Then when the crowd would chant, "DOPE! DOPE! DOPE!" his response was, "We know who the hell we are." Somewhere around the third song the band was instructed to wait for about 3 minutes so the singer could finish his beer, in which he talked about nothing and took his time. At another point in the show he informed the crowd that he would rather be playing pool. At yet another point the singer stopped the show so he could have Jager shots and instructed the crew to bring em. You could see on the guitar players face that even HE was getting annoyed. So everyone waited around for another 3 minutes at which time the singer said, "Tomorrow some one will quote me for saying, 'SHOW HELD UP FOR ALCOHOLISM'." There. You have been quoted. Oddly for how this singer acted he didn't appear to be on as many drugs or to have drank as much as he claimed. It all seemed like an act. In the end I think the band played about an equal amount of time to what the singer talked and to top all that off, they didn't even bother to do an encore. While they were a good looking and good sounding band, the singer killed the atmosphere. I rate 'Dope' 6 of 10 as a live band. Had the band outfitted Mr. Motormouth with a ball-gag, they would have rated an 8.

In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the 'Threat Signal' show on March 14th. 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