Review:
Reviewer: SpongeBob
First off, don't bitch at anyone accept me. They were gracious enough to grant me this column. I don't sweet-talk any band, and I have no personal politics. Which in turn means, I feel obligated to no one and therefore do not favor or hate anyone of the people and/or bands. Take it like I wrote it: My thoughts in 15 minutes. Email anything you have to say to mxpx50@hotmail.com with Review as the subject. Thanks, Live it up and Light it up!
Before the show I saw a couple of people with STM on their hands beside the infamous X. So I asked what it stood for and was told South Texas Metal. Sounded like we might have a complete metal show here. But as soon as the first band the Paybacks played you remember that Victoria is 70% punk and only 10% true ripass metal.
If you used to think Green Day was the voice of jaded teenagers you are wrong. These cream-puffs sounded like 4 pissed off 14 year olds, and one moron who just jumped around on stage. Attention: if you are a little pipsqueak who's nuts get jazzled by hearing the word "fuck" , then go get The Paybacks tattooed on your arm. As compared to other punk music/bands these guys are clearly the bottom of the line.As for their cover of "Monster Mash" , I think it still belongs at the middle school dance. Punk might not be dead but it is definatly sick.
Lordiel flagrantly ignored both screaming "fuck" every five seconds, and the horrible "fuck lucifer" motif that scarred the whole show. Lordiel had one of if not the largest audiences. People loved the first song, well they loved em all. But it was shocking to see so many freaks jam to Bach. That was a cool one. All of our Lordiel favorites were in there sprinkled with keyboards from Issac Villarreal. One thing I always hear and vehemently agree with is that you can never hear Matt Vela solo. If you couldn't hear it just know it's true thrash metal that even old Metallica could not shadow. Yes you bastards that's right, thrash with style.One of the massive pits was visited by Lordiel bassist JT Cano. This is usually where we see front man Justin Vela ripping heads off. But he was tragically injured on the diamond of america's greatest past-time. Since everyone is in here now , Juan Villarreaoww on drums added a "Dante's Inferno" roll to the end of " What Awaits". Which once again proves, "He can pretty much do it all folks!". The short set caused a general rukus among the crowd. All around the whipped ass.
As the next band began to open up the remarked " gee thanks, we're after Lordiel." At this point I left for an evening stroll with two friends. So I missed Sincerly Yours, which I was told rivaled Lordiel's performance.
When I returned Illusive was playing. They have improvedmuch since the talent show last year, when Henry Bennoitt was on lead and they were known as Blown. Well here they left both Henry and the great name Blown out. Vocals were the major lacking quality. Not because of the sound but, front man Gabe, is not very powerful. The riffs and drums want you to listen, and the vocals just lie at the bottom of the pit getting kicked around.
The group called Shammalamma Ding-Dong shocked everyone who was not blown. The vocals were done by a kid in a blue jumpsuit who kept the face of a stone cold crazy man. The question I asked him had nothing to do with this , but he seems like a nice guy.
Then our demo release show headliners Dusted were playing. Be quite sure these guys practiced in the mirror a time or two. The bassist was a hoppy motherfucker, who looked like Fred Durst with some stolen Micheal Jackson moves. The music was hardcore new metal with half-way thrash drums. The vocals? Just listen to Primer 55 or Slipjoint to get the point. Rap vocals to metal riffs. The lead was slightly...not good. Simple and unimpressive. All in all the were good, very good at what they do. As rappy as the lyrics were they came powerfully and aggresively, which is always good.
It was a great show, and I'm glad to see the scene is growing. All these bands are worth checking out. Special thanks to Joe and Margrett Peters. Thanks for the space, SpongeBob.
