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CUT THE CRAP, BACK TO THE MUSIC
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| The scene -
The Hifi Bar & Ballroom. The occasion - Alaskan metal band 36 Crazyfists & Orange
County Emo band Atreyu. I set off with all the fashion items in place, black pants, black t-shirt, black hoodie. Only thing missing my black eyeliner & nail polish. One thing I will never bow down to despite how ‘punk’ the so called people who know how to be punk will tell you. I have been a big fan of '36' since first hearing them on an MTV Headbangers Ball compilation CD. Now that they are visiting our shores for the first time in their 3 full length album career, I like many of the other punters on the night were looking very forward to seeing this show.  The show began with lead singer Brock Lindow imposing his intimidating self onto the crowd. Now from all photos I’d seen he just looked like a typical seppo, but he is one big motherfucker. The set started off very strongly with main single from 2004 ‘A Snow Capped Romance’, 'At The End Of August'. Hearing this belted out told me that it was going to be an excellent set. You don’t start off a show to a country you’ve never played before with one of your main hits unless you know you can back it up. Following it straight up with 'I’ll Go Until My Heart Stops' from their latest release ‘Rest Inside The Flames’ with the very strong growl from deep within Lindows throat I think ‘it’ moved. I haven’t seen such a powerful vocalist growl so well. Yes that is right it was chubby material (Thanks for that visual... - Ed.). Good thing it was dark... The standard of songs in to talk to the crowd was done, my only thoughts were cut the crap get back to the songs but the kids love it so fine. Moving into standout tracks from ‘A Snow Capped Romance’; 'Bloodwork' and 'The Heart And Shape', I was reminded why I loved this band. With guitarist Steve Holt and bassist Mick Whitney as tight as a nuns nasty and drummer Tom Noonan belting the absolute shit out of the skins, I witnessed a band that may have taken a long time to get out here but fuck, it was worth the wait.  Throwing in a new track 'Felt Through A Phone Line', I confirmed that despite not being as melodic as the previous album their new release was just as fucking brutal. Another break for some chit chat with Brock stating that he wants people to hang around to meet afterwards to chat and meet, as they didn’t come all this way not to talk to fans, was something that I have noticed a bit of lately [at other gigs] and is really good to see...apart from the pretentious fuck that is Glenn Danzig, who wouldn’t even allow for cameras, the last 3 or 4 bands I’ve seen have had the same approach which is awesome from my perspective, let alone the kids who live to just meet their favourite band. The set kept going from strength to strength with more sensational songs being belted out like 'Skin And Atmosphere' and my personal favourite 'Installing The Catheter', which Brock insisted getting a nice old circle pit going for which the crowd happily obliged for. One of the highlights for the show would have to be local fan Tim getting dragged up on stage to sing along for 'Destroy The Map' which he got to do up in Sydney too. The grin on the guys face when he was chatting to us afterwards was priceless.  Closing the set with the amazing 'Slit Wrist Theory' was an epic finishing song and certainly had this fan with what started out as just a semi-chubby with a fully fledged boner in my pants. |
 Now it was for Atreyu, and I can assure you all blood was very very quickly removed from my cock. If it wasn’t for my mate Adza being a fan of this lame-arsed, no talent, waste of time, emo shit we would have left and happily had a beer at the pub down the road. I don’t understand why record company big-wigs try and make this stuff seem cool and push it on the public. It is absolute shit and nothing short of it. Now, I hate 'Emo’s' as much as the next person, but for the time that Atreyu were up on stage I was actually contemplating turning 'Emo'. Just so I could go to the toilets, smash the mirror and cut my wrists with it so this night would end and I would not have to recall it ever again. There were guys standing next to me getting so emotionally involved singing shit like ‘Will you still hold me when you'll see what I have done? Will you still kiss me the same’...then two lines later ‘My heart is dead and so are you’...I turned to my mate Patty and we both said 'get us the fuck out of here'.  The rest of the set was a blur as just as this shit came on the 36 boys walked through and stood behind us. Of course I wasn’t going to waste this opportunity to chat to them. All I can say is they are absolute gentlemen and were stoked with how many fans they had out here. All I could say in return was how stoked I was they came and played and blew me away. It was cut short when their lift arrived and all I could think was those lucky bastards, they don’t have to see anymore of fucken Atreyu. I’m not even going to bother going on about this diabolical set of what is supposed to be one of the hottest 'Emo' bands around. The only thing I have to say about it is I hope this trend doesn’t last long and bands like 36 Crazyfists start to get the recognition they deserve instead of these shithouse musicians who call themselves talented. For crying out loud Madball had half the people Atreyu had and they are one of the fathers of Hardcore for fucks sake! Half the Atreyu crowd have probably never heard of them either. But I’ll save you all my tirade of what is wrong with mainstream music and the like for another time, that is if the Pixel team will have me back again...Haha...(well... - Ed.) 
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