mountainmetro:

Winterizer Tour, 1-23-11

The Knitting Factory, Reno, NV: Fantastic venue only a year old in the heart of downtown. Surprising size and cleanliness. Fantastic venue that doesn’t feel too small or too big. Can hold large crowds. Book some shows here! We won’t disappoint.

A Bullet For Pretty Boy: relentless, just like in their albums. They have a great sound and the opening crowd energy was lacking in comparison to theirs. Their keyboardist mimicked the mix being played in the background because occasionally he would step back from his board while his notes were still playing. However, their mix and particularly the bells really added tone. Slightly underrated. Although they were saying “thankyou” after every single song like it was their last, they seem like nice guys.

The Chariot: Only a handful of people had even heard of them before the concert. I was shocked at how ignorant the crowd is of these metalcore legends in work (yes, I’m slightly biased. But you will be too if you get a chance to see them). But particularly with the Pierce The Veil “scene girls” and those fresh into the genre showing up, I’m not as surprised by their “underground” status. Without a doubt, they absolutely killed it on every song. The typical throwing of the bass across and above stage, triple guitar spins, body throwing, instrument changing, amp standing, drum standing, mic stand lobbing, loogie hawking and catching, onslaught drumming, and bloody murder screaming exemplified their energy and insanity we call their live performance. With their recently released Long Live, I was surprised that they only played one or two songs from that album. Their sound mix wasn’t the cleanest. This made it hard to depict Scogin’s lyrics: even if you knew all the songs forward and backward. However, The Chariot’s distinct mathcore fury with more breaks in chaos make their live sound distinct and more depictable than most of the bands.

After their set, their merch guy “Cold Calves” gets bombarded with business and even more so with questions. From “Wow, those guys sounded great.”, “Man, they’re the craziest band I’ve ever seen live.” To “What is it they’re on? I want some” are inquired. Which begs the question… what ARE they on? Jesus Metal, baby. Holy Spirit fire and a relentless passion to get their music out there while standing by as an influence for Christ keep them going night in and night out. THAT is their mission in addition to putting unique music out there. It’s in their lyrics, it’s in their heart, and they won’t force it on you. But they’re eager to share.

Miss May I: Their live show is as brutal as their music. In my opinion, they personify what a typical metal band looks like in the 21^st century, from their looks to sound to demeanor. They began quick and heavy. Soon after, they opened up a rather large circle pit. The next song, they created a wall of death (which, paired with the slower strobe timing, made a fantastic experience). Immediately following, a 100 person crowd surf challenge was administered in three minutes. Bodies flung from all angles. I received several landings on the head and legs to the face. One nearly broke my nose again.  Blood was everywhere! Miss May I followed up The Chariot’s energy with excellent crowd management.  A successful set.

Pierce The Veil: Although I was not paying as much attention with blood covering my face, they sounded decent enough. Crowd response was mostly high pitched female scream: typical of PTV. Some moments were rather enjoyable while others lyrics cut out because they were out of breath. This was their last show of the tour since they decided to depart for A Day To Remember’s invite. I have never heard of a band ditching mid-tour for another tour before. I might be slightly “old fashioned” or perceived as a PTV hater for this… but that seems a bit shallow to me. Haters gonna hate. Winterizer will miss them, for sure.

Silverstein: Better live than expected. Everyone was singing along. The singer even got a tip between songs! Silverstein incorporated a great mixture of older and newer songs; heavier and lighter. Their sound was mixed well in the back and their guitars sounded pristine!!! For headliner expectations, they did very well. After all, they’ve been headlining for a while now. They played a full 40 min although the encore was clearly planned and didn’t take much crowd plea. A solid B+ in my book.

Insider notes: A Bullet For Pretty Boy is rising. Show them some love and buy a shirt. Help ‘em out. PTV is gone which means bigger sets for the rest. The Chariot will blow your mind. Miss May I will keep it brutal. Silverstein won’t disappoint. Be nice to the merch guys, they’re cool dudes.

OVERALL: great tour. Catch it if they’re coming through your town. Keep it brutal, metal heads.