Being a music production/engineer student, I LOVE going to concerts, being over-the-edge critical, and picking apart everything about the entire show...artists, lights, sound, the whole sha-bang. Last night was an interesting show. Besides the fact that I was surrounded by a bajillion hormonal 14 year olds, it smelled, it was UNBELIEVABLY hot, sound system sucked (just a crap acoustic room...whatever, suffered through it! Ha, but I was genuinely excited for it, since Escape the Fate was playing. I usually look forward to hearing the opening bands for these shows, though. You know the ones, who will go balls the walls in order to get recognition, start a fan base. The first band, Attack Attack! ( www.myspace.com/attackattack ), was great. Typical rock band-esque. Guitar ripping, double-kick drum, head-banging..you get the picture. Second band..or person.. was William Control (www.myspace.com/williamcontrol ), which I'll come back to in a little bit. Third band was Black Tide ( www.myspace.com/blacktide ). Wow, can those guys rock hard. I think I was so blown away by the guitar solos. I recently saw Avenged Sevenfold, and Black Tide is going to give them a good run for their money. (Watch out Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance!) But they were a lot of fun to watch. Then of course, Escape the Fate, ( www.myspace.com/escapethefate ) they know what they're doing. Rocking out, crowd interaction, moshing, stage diving. The works. I highly suggest listening to "The Flood." My personal favorite of theirs. But lets get back to William Control.

So going to a rock concert, my last expectation was seeing a turntable out on stage. Yeah, there's Linkin Park, but there's a band behind them. William Control? Not so much. Turntable, bass player, and Mr. Control himself. Hmm, ok? So here I am, intrigued. What in the world could this man possibly sound like.
Combine electronica music with heavy metal vocals. Wow, a combination that I would never do myself, but props for him for doing it. Besides looking a total creeper, the music kind of followed along with it. Bud oddly enough, it kept my interest. I think curiousity is what got the best of me. He was a really good entertainer, I can't take anything away from that. He really played into the screaming/sweaty pre-teens. Stage diving, swearing, dancing like a weirdo, asking the audience to come up stage to dance with him (GREAT tactic for fan interaction by the way. They'll come back again to see if they'll get on stage again and they'll share that story with others who will want to be on stage like their friend, which will send them to a show when he's back in town...genius.). And if I remember right, I probably would've enjoyed that music when I was in that stage. I felt like a rebel just listening to it, then watching him. Well, his eyes. Ugh, creepy. But then again, this is one of the first times I've seen this "genre" of music live, and it really gets kids to listen. In a philisophical sense, it promotes kids to try something new, be adventureous, be different. It's working for that cat up on stage.

Anyway, other than the crap sound/mix, it was a good show. Remiinder to self, no rock shows at that venue.

Have a good one! :)