Taste of Chaos 2008 featuring Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold
April 1, 2008
Nokia Theatre
Better Than: This week's Rob & Big. (Oh, we TiVo'd it.)
Download: Avenged Sevenfold live photos.
After a handful of hassles trying to get into the Taste of Chaos show at Nokia last night, I left feeling old. In my mid-20s this one night made me feel really old. The sold-out crowd was mostly the high school set with parents in tow (or taking advantage of the “drop off” area in front of the Grand Prairie venue).
Each time I've seen Atreyu in the last five years (the first being in this small venue in Lawrence, Kan., following the release of Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses), the band has upped its intensity. It's not just lead vocalist Alex Varkatzas encouraging the crowd, but the entire band stepping up to keep things going. Hell, drummer Brandon Saller actually ran laps for a bit while Varkatzas was setting the crowd up for some participation. Though, set-up wasn't really required with the packed Nokia crowd: By the second chord of “The Crimson,” the room was already clapping to the beat.
Unfortunately, the sound mix for Atreyu's set was poor. The guitars masked Varkatzas' screaming, but not the melodic vocals of Saller. When parts of the soundscape are missing it's easy to dismiss the act as the poor man's Killswitch Engage, but Atreyu is more than that.
During the down-time, the two screens in the venue lit up with a guy informing the crowd that Avenged Sevenfold had gotten food poisoning earlier in the day and would not play. Then we saw the band stop the guy, say it was an April Fool's Day joke (duh), espouse love for Dallas and say they'd be on stage in 15 minutes. Then a clock counting down 10 minutes appeared on the screen. Yes, the band went on in 10, not 15 minutes. Well, you can't expect rockers to be all about clocks, right?
Ten minutes later, the screens showcased a montage of war images, the black curtain in front of the stage fell and Avenged Sevenfold appeared amid lots of fog, purple lights and... oh yeah... flames! The band members were all over the place working their signature layered squealing guitars and goth-meets-metalcore sound with the eight flame throwers toward the back of the stage igniting throughout the first song. It was impressive. Though, after the first song there was a longer lag before they kicked into “Second Heartbeat,” and it couldn't help feeling that the band had peaked after the first song as those flame throwers didn't get a whole lot of use in the rest of the set. -- Chelsea Ide
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: When I was 19 and working in an indie record store, Avenged Sevenfold's Waking the Fallen was my “employee pick” for six weeks.
Random Detail: Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows told the audience that Dallas is “like our own little personal city of evil.”
By the Way: Atreyu's Alex Varkatzas' thank you to the Dallas crowd was pretty priceless: “If it wasn't for you, we'd be unemployed douchebags instead of just douchebags.”
One More Thing: Due to some issues at the door, I was unable to get good video from the show.
Atreyu is a perfect example of all beat. If rock was a drug store, they'd be the generic version.
Rock and roll began in the 50's. It was music filtered through the teen world that somehow got it right. The music had the best of both worlds - melody WITH beat. It could tear out your heart AND you could dance to it.
Then after the Beatles broke up, around 1970, rock divided into two paths.
all beat and no melody - the psychotic strain
all melody and no beat - mush melody.
Both branches have lost their way. Hardcore, rap, etc. are all beat but they miss the melody and reasonable lyrics that have a bearing on our lives.
Pop, boy bands, American Idol, etc. are all melody and no beat and no reality.
Time for a revolution in music that brings back the best of both. Time for Post-Bands music
Posted at: April 2, 2008 10:15 AM