Don't you hate when you get to a show and the band that is wrapping up it's set when you arrive sounded like the best band of the night?

Yeah I got to the gig at my usual time and Virgin Black was wrapping up when I got there. The one minute worth of music that I heard sounded pretty kick-ass and their stage presence was killer too! That little snippet I hear of this doom band was the best music I heard all night! Now, I don't need emails from any of you teasing me about taking an interest in a doom band. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, I don't like doom!

The band that took the stage after them was called Shatter Messiah. Their "Oompa Loompa song with death style lyrics" intro was probably the funnest thing they played though. The vocalist sounded a lot like the dude from Forbidden, or maybe Overkill... But he wasn't as solid as either of those two dudes. He was a theatrical kinda guy who had moves that bordered on corny. The bands music was 80's style thrash that had an Exodus quality to it, but the tunes had no hooks at all. The music WAS hard, but it didn't FEEL hard, ya know? The riffs were pretty simple and the solos were standard stuff. I will admit that when there were dual solos, they sounded pretty good. It didn't look like anyone in the crowd of around 100 knew who they were and I didn't either. The closer the band came to the end of the set, the slower their songs seemed to get. By the end the steam was pretty much gone and everyone seemed as "done" as the bass player looked all night. Overall they were okay, but they really didn't make you go, "Wow. I need to see these dudes again!". 5 out of 10.

To Die For was the headliner of the night. I didn't really have a clue about them, so I was wide wide open to see what they had to offer. The first thing I have to say is that their sound guy is a fuckin' psycho! I had earplugs in and it was painful to be in the room. The snare drum was the worst! It had the perfect pitch for pain. The band really is very hard to explain from a musical perspective. They had lots of heavy sampling going on, which really sounded as if they should have a keyboard player. The tone of the band was as if you mixed goth and The Cult together. It was dark, but it was rockie and rollie. The singer, who had a great voice, sounded like Bono and Billy Idol's metal baby... Weird, right? This dude was also a mover and shaker who stole all of his dance moves from Jim Morrison. Doin' the dance, spin, and flail thing. Between songs his voice would drop an octave and when mixed with his accent, he was hard to understand. The music bordered on FM radio friendly and wasn't too difficult to listen to and if you are in high school, you might really dig these guys. I really was not expecting hard rock though... Anyway, the band did their thing but didn't really move around or interact much. The singer was pretty much a one man show, and he really didn't need any help entertaining from his bandmates. I rate 'em 7 out of 10.

In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the Necrophagist show on 7/9 ! 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! This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

And oh yeah...

Peace and Metal Grease!

berube