review by: Roberto Martinelli

All that Remains' music was pretty unimpressive. I liked the CD (review in issue #10) and how it had a nice contrast between metalcore and juicy solos, but the material came off not all that solid or catchy live. The singer, however, was impressive. And by impressive, I mean it was impressive how forced and silly he was on stage. When his vocals weren't required, he moved around the stage possessed by nervous energy, like he were hopped up on goofballs or desperately trying to remember where he left his keys. Then he would stop and deliver vocals, doing that thing that hip hoppers do when they shoot their mic arm all the way out between every lyric and then snap it back in for the next line. The audience couldn't repress a smile when he took his shirt off, revealing comical-looking nipple pierces. I swear he had a hard on. As he stood there in his leather pants, and with his short hair and nipple pierced, buffed body, Read Between the Lies' Ian Heran couldn't help but guess how the singer made money on the side.

Bongilla were completely tedious, but a bunch of people came expressly to see them. For those people, anyway, Bongzilla's basic stoner rock totally delivered as the band sounded just like they do on their latest album, Gateway. You must have to be a marijuana smoker to be able to like this group.

Today is the Day set up and sound checked as fast as they could, considering that there would be a string section featured in tonight's show. In the meantime, All that Remains' singer and a burly friend of his were taking turns doing self-engrossed air guitar solos to the music over the club's stereo system. Today is the Day played a very good set. The songs were recognizable and the sound was pretty clear. The only times things got a little muddled was during the electric violin and cello parts, which were played by members of Amber Asylum. Not only were the strings mostly drowned out, but it seemed as if the musicians got lost as they couldn't really hear what they were doing. But you would never have been able to tell based on how much praise Austin had to give to the Amber Asylum women.

Today is the Day was possessed. The bass player looked like he could explode any second: as if some massive pressure was building up inside his head, causing his round, seemingly almost all black eyes to protrude from his head. The periodic eruptions of spray, like the steam of some guitar wielding dragon, that dramatically came out of his mouth must have been enough to prevent cephalic detonation. Austin was all angst as he delivered his vocals, nearly swallowing the mic on a few occasions. There were a few problems with Austin's guitar, but the band managed to buy him time when he ducked behind the amps to hastily change busted strings. It may also have been too much for Austin to coordinate playing guitar, doing vocals and also handling certain songs' taped intros, which were cued up and seemingly randomly strewn about on top of a tape deck on stage.

The drummer played his rag-tag looking kit to an impressive degree of skill. While he isn't as technically impressive nor as talented as Today is the Day's previous guy, Brann Dailor, he is still more than up to the task to play the material with the necessary aplomb.

The material was made up primarily of songs off of the new album, Sadness Will Prevail, and the previous one, In the Eyes of God, with at least one song from Temple of the Morning Star and one song, I believe, from the self-titled album. Overall, the crowd got into the Eyes of God material the most, especially on songs like "Possessed" and "In the Eyes of God," which is what this reviewer mainly came out to hear this band play. The lack of an audience made it easy to get up front, but there was a definite energy absent that night. Still, it was a very good show.