My Chemical Romance at Terminal 5. (Photos: Patrick J. Eves)

Hands raised, hundreds beckoned with chants of “M-C-R.”  Their thumps paid off as My Chemical Romance walked on stage for their second, sold-out New York City show Saturday night at Terminal 5, lighting up the impatient crowd with opener “Na Na Na.”

“I have a theory,” said singer Gerard Way, midway through the band’s 17-song set. “If you play two nights in New York City, the second night is always the best.” It seemed as if the band was still on fire from the night before — or perhaps, it was a blend of the haze and sweat in the nearly oxygen-deficient packed venue.

MCR flaunted their stage prowess and have reached their rawest, punk plateau on their World Contamination tour — caught somewhere between Stooges aggravated grit and pouncing Descendents lyrics. In their nearly two hour set, the band left behind a concoction of tracks old and new, starting with their latest Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, their fifth studio album. “Are you ready to dance?” asked the chatty Way as he moved into the more stomp-y “Planetary.” Songs “Destroya,” “Party Poison” and “Summertime,” which had the audience holding up their hands in the shape of a heart (something mimicked by the night’s leader, Way), were a handful of nine Days songs mixed in throughout the night.

The quartet kept the audience smiling and dancing with classics like the Liza Minelli-inspired “Mama,” their anthemic march of “Welcome to the Black Parade,” and “Our Lady of Sorrows” and “Vampires Will Never Hurt You,” off of the band’s 2002 debut I Brought You Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love; several tracks from 2004’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (“Helena,” “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Hang ‘Em High”) filled the remaining slots.

“What are you gonna do when they try to change you up? Throw a punch? I wanna hear you sing,” said Way before moving into Days ballad “Sing.”  Parade’s melodic “Cancer”  brought things to a close before MCR offered up a two-song Danger Days encore of “Vampire Money” (more ripping punk, less darkly dreaming than Bullett‘s blood-sucker track from nearly a decade earlier) and closer “Bulletproof Heart.”

Alright you knuckleheads, I’m back with updates from the best Summer concert tour, the Rockstar Mayhem Festival brought to you by the fine fine folks at Rockstar Energy Drinks and Revolver Magazine!  (Just because this is a metal show, this doesn’t mean every fat, sweaty hillbilly needs to take their shirts off.)

This year featured an amazing lineup:

• Winds of Plague
• 3 Inches of Blood
• Shadows Fall
• Norma Jean
• Chimaira
• Atreyu
• In this Moment
• Hatebreed
• Five Finger Death Punch
• Lamb of God
• Rob Zombie
• Korn

Now, most of these bands I’ve seen before.  This is not a bad thing.  This is the most exciting line-up thus far from the Mayhem Fest and most of these bands really brought there game to Virginia Beach.  Let’s give out the awards, shall we?

The longest dreads in metal award goes to…Shadows Fall!  Brian Fair’s dreads are so long that when he spins them around he actually get airborne.  This is not a joke or an exaggeration by any means.

The not on my shoes bro award goes to…My Brother!  Don’t know if it was the heat, the Rockstar he shot gunned or dehydration but my brother decided that everything in his stomach…needed to exit immediatently…and not in an orderly fashion.  Isn’t a great festival if atleast one person I’m with isn’t hurling.

The best up an coming band award goes to..Winds of Plague!  One of the few bands I’ve never seen before…but I’m glad I did.  Amazing dudes, you have to check them out!

The intermission stand-up comedian award goes to…Big Jay Oakerson!  A funny man that I know a lot of people have never heard of.  His comedy is not only funny, it will also make you feel very….very dirty.  Did a great job performing between bands, and hanging out with fans.

Keeping old school metal alive aware goes to…3 Inches of Blood!  A great band that was frozen in time in 1984 and revived just a few years ago.  If you’ve never listened to them and are fans of Halford or even Iron Maiden you should check out 3 Inches of Blood.  I’ve been a fan of them for a while, and have never seen them alive and I was blown away.  Such a good time.

Greatest disappointment award goes to…Atreyu!  This band was once in my top ten, now…not so much.  Their first two CDs were absolutely amazing, and their live shows were even better.  They dropped Victory Records, proceeded to make a couple shitty albums and here they are.  They still play their old songs, and I get excited…but I’m quickly shot down due to the fact that singer Alex Varkatzas is unable to sing his own songs anymore.  Sorry if you’re a fan, but I’m not one.  The good news is, everybody else that played was AMAZING!

Best stage set goes to…Korn!  They had a stellar set.  If you weren’t able to catch a date on this tour, it had a huge oil field backdrop with giant, moving oil rigs on stage.  It was very original and well done.  Ironically, they were protesting BP due to the spill so I’m not sure if there was a motive behind this all…

Our last award goes to best performance.  This award goes to…Rob Zombie!  Giant robots and all.  He really gave this performance all he could.  Easily, he could of headlined the entire tour over Korn in my opinion.  Unfortunately, there were some monitor issues so he was delayed coming on and had to end his set early.  He did play most of his best hits including several off of the new album.  Sure, he may be a little full of himself but with a performance like the one he put on…he’s allowed to be.

I hope everybody was able to check out the tour for themselves, and if not you need to check out next years which I’m sure will not disappoint.  This goes down as the best Mayhem Fest to date.  Remember, if you have any hate mail or comments send them my way at LilNubi@RoyalFlushMagazine.Com!

This is not your Grandmother’s Christ, this is Combichrist!  Combichrist is an aggrotech band created by frontman Andy LePlegua.  Ex Eighteen Visions drummer and renowned tattoo artist Trevor Friedrich and former Wednesday 13 drummer and Rockband 2 model Joe Letz are the extraordinary drummers while Z-Marr keeps everybody in line while tickling the electronic ivories and grooving their woes away.

I was fortunate enough to hang out with Combichrist backstage at the NorVa in Norfolk Virginia before their show.  We are lucky enough to listen to the stories from the roads which are personally the best stories you can ever listen too from musicians.  ”Who’s a Dude?”  If you ever get a chance to talk with Joey just ask him that, you’ll be sure to get a laugh…or you’ll get hit on.  Either way, it’s a win-win situation.  Chances are very likely Trevor will be hiding behind a multimedia device of some sort whether it be his laptop or Blackberry but if you ever get the chance to check our his tattoo work you need to do so.  He’s an amazing tattoo artist and anybody who recieves a tattoo by him should really feel honored.  Z_Marr who is currently working on his side project the Pull Out Kings will go into great detail with his stories from the road or just his musical and art passions.  If you’re looking to have a intellectual conversation Z_Marr is the man to have it with.  If you want to hear hilarious stories from the road and other stories of great nonsense you need to talk with Joey.  Making light of any situation, he’ll truly make you laugh.  Although Andy was quite busy when we were with the band, he’s a real down to Earth guy who will take the time out to talk with you.  All four dudes are great to hang with.

On their second wave of tour dates with Julien-K, they offered several VIP packages where they would let fans hang out with them for an entire day almost.  Combichrist are real fan orientated and aren’t afraid to say that without their fans they wouldn’t be the great act they are.

Opening the show was ex Dope bassist and former Murderdolls guitarist Acey Slade with his glamour rock shenanigans. Opening up for Combichrist was Limp Bizkit’s guitarist Wes Borland’s band Black Light Burns. Both were great opening acts, and really got the crowd excited to the arrival of the aneurism inducing Combichrist.

The lights vanish while we were treated to a rockabilly cover of Nine Inch Nails “Closer.” The band frolics onto the stage and the madness begins.  With the heavy drums and groovy beats, the entire wave of sweaty people were moving to the beat while they’re ears were bleeding.  This is a good sign of a great show.  Breaking out all the singles, this was one of the best shows I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending.  Ofcourse, it isn’t a Combichrist show without several destroyed drums, hundreds of sweaty people and the one chick who still thinks it’s still cool to bring a green flashlight to the show and continue to wave it around as if Yoda had Parkinson’s.  I have a lot of pictures from the show and our photo shoot prior to the show that I will put up in this article as soon as they are accessible to me.  I just recently moved and have all my pictures on my other computer which hasn’t been set up yet.

If you’re in the L.A. area be sure to check out the amazing Tiger Army/Combichrist show at The Wiltern on October 23rd.

Dance, Electronica, Rap.  Know where I’m going with this?  Me neither, but  Chain Gang of 1974, Inner Party System and 3OH!3 put on one hell of a show.  Sadly, the venue sucks but what can ya do? All the shenanigans took place on November 22nd at Steppin Out in Virginia Beach.

The Chain Gang of 1974 blew away all previous notions I had prior to their show. I’ve heard of a lot of music but The Chain Gang of 1974?  Not at all.

I saw two scrawny guys walk up on stage, one ducks behind his drum kit and the other hides behind a mic stand almost disappearing behind it.

Once they started playing, I was amazed.  Why the drummer had a stool is beyond me.  He was standing almost the entire time, beating away on his set. Singer, Kamtin Mohager was all over the stage, a great presence,  the likes of AC/DC.

You can check out The Chain Gang of 1974 at myspace.com/thechaingangof1974 but for maximum impact you need to see em on stage to see what I’m talking about.  While at the show be sure to pick up their CD “Mad Mixtape” for a mere $5 for 9 amazing dance tracks.

INNERPARTYSYSTEM or Inner Party System is an unbelievable electronic band.

Strong vocals sets this band apart from many of their contemporaries.  Not only does this band have great stage presence, they bring their own million dollar lighting rig to bedazzle the spectators, epileptics… you’ve been warned.

If you have your iTunes machine open dial up their single “Don’t Stop” if you haven’t been fortunate enough to catch it on the radio.

I was able to hang out with the dudes afterwords and they’re real down to Earth.  Keep an ear out and be sure to treat yourself to these guys when they hit your town.

3OH!3 with their rap-pop eardrum assault shut the place down.

Obviously inspired by the underground hip-hop scene, Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte know how to entertain.  Putting on such an intense show they had to regularly pause between songs to order the crowd to back up off the stage. Kick ass act, poor security? This case, maybe a little of both.

Bested only to the Misfits, 3OH!3 is only the second band to ever sellout Stepping Out, but not a rare thing for these gentlemen I was informed that most of their tourdates were sold out.

Opening for Snoop Dogg, playing Bamboozle and playing the entire Warp Tour has given 3OH!3 plenty of experience of putting on a great show.  It won’t be long before we see them playing bigger venues with bigger crowds of teenage girls and scrawny boys.

I wasn’t their biggest fan going into the show but I definitely left as one.  Whether you are a fan of electronica, pop, or rap…you will enjoy a 3OH!3 show.  Maybe 2009 Warp Tour?  If not I’m sure they’ll still be touring so be sure to check them out when they play your neighborhood.

Watch out for them on the radio or download their single “Don’t Trust Me” to get a nice taste of what 3OH!3 is truly about.  For all you MySpacers out there, check them out at myspace.com/3oh3 and befriend them, they appreciate each and everyone of their friends.  Pick up their latest album “Want” at 3oh3music.com!

This Illinois quintet has been assaulting our ear canals for nearly ten years now.  Debuting “Dig” in 2000, this progressive metal act has taken themselves to the next level with their release of “The New Game” in 2008. Over the last 10 years, Mudvayne has greatly matured and have become more distinguished, separating them from the other mainstream bands of the early 2000s.

1. Fish Out of Water – 3:30
2. Do What You Do – 3:36
3. A New Game – 5:03
4. Have It Your Way – 3:45
5. A Cinderella Story – 4:40
6. The Hate in Me – 3:22
7. Scarlet Letters – 3:56
8. Dull Boy – 4:14
9. Same Ol – 4:49
10. Never Enough – 3:39
11. We the People – 3:07

Their live performance as always left a very good impression playing a good mix spanning their entire catalog which is always good for a band to do.  Nobody likes it when all you hear are new songs that you don’t know yet because you weren’t able to buy and learn the new CD.

They played ALL the crowd favorites such as “Death Blooms” and my personal favorite “The Negative One.”  They also played their newer single “Do What You Do” and their single off their last CD “Happy.”  Once again this band put on a great show along side touring mates Ten Years and Snot.

It was actually a great surpise that Ten Years was on this tour.  If you know anything about music you know that Mudvayne and Ten Years don’t exactly have the same style of music which is what added to the show.

If you’ve ever seen a Mudvayne show you know that Chad can’t just come out in a shirt and jeans like most singers.  Oh no my friend, he came out fully equipped with his red Gorilla suite.  It always adds a nice touch when the singer has no problem making an ass of himself.  He had no problem admitting that at the show either.  Whether you love em or hate em, Mudvayne can put on a great show and is always worth seeing when they are in town.

I must admit that I am probably one of the biggest NIN geeks alive.  I get SOOO jacked up before a NIN show I can hardly contain myself……and I know I pester the shit out of my wife, family and co-workers for the few weeks leading up to the concert!  This was my 15th show to date and it was, by far, the absolute BEST one yet!

Anyway, the wife agreed to attend the Red Rocks NIN show with me and what else can either of us say but…….WHAT-A-FUCKING-GREAT-SHOW!!!!!  Trent and the fellas are performing music at a much more complicated and rewarding level than anyone else in the business.  The tense moments leading up to when NIN takes the stage is like no other experience on Earth…….pure energy coupled with intense anticipation of the upcoming onslaught on your senses!!

The band attacked the stage like a bum on a fuckin’ ham sandwich!!  Crowd energy peaked higher than I EVER thought possible, especially at the end of the opening four song set when Trent busted up one keyboard and threw another one off of the front of the stage into the crowd!  Highlights of the evening were the expected performance of ‘Wish’, ‘Hurt’ and ‘Head Like a Hole’…..but this show was so much more than that alone.  ’Head Down’ and 1,000,000′ translated to the live stage show perfectly as well as a hat-trick of cuts from “Ghosts”.

Personal favorite moments from the show included a haunting version of ‘Liar’ (Reptile demo), ‘Wish’, ‘Gave Up’ and one of the most hateful songs ever created (my personal favorite), ‘Terrible Lie’.  There is not a more genuine stage moment in the history of music than when Trent is at the pinnacle of ‘Terrible Lie’ screaming “god damnit, you fucking promised me” at the big guy in the sky!

So do yourself and everyone else in your household a favor and pick up the new album entitled ‘The Slip’ (free on the nin.com website).  This show was more than worth the 26 hour round trip drive from Dallas to Colorado (although my wife was not crazy about being trapped in a car with me the whole time)!!

E-Mail me to talk music, NIN or just to talk in general at thllngswr9@aol.com

Later!!

A Tale of Two Festivals! Mayhem vs. All Points West

Royal Flush‘s own Josh Bernstein enters the metal and hipster worlds
and finds out that they’re not as different as you’d think.

This past week two of the biggest music festivals hit the New York area. That’s right, not New York City, where only Bon Jovi can command an outdoor space, but the outskirts of New Jersey and Long Island served as the home to these all-day music festivals.

The first we attended was the Rockstar Energy Drink MAYHEM Festival that touched down in Uniondale, Long Island on Wednesday August 6th. Headlined by Slipknot, Dragonforce, Mastodon and the god-awful Disturbed, the festival boasted three full-stages of bands, that kept the pace fast and tight on a 90-degree day. The Revolver Magazine staff all piled into the van for the quick drive out there. We headed in, got our all-access badges and headed to the outdoor stages. We were able to perch outselved right on the stage, allowing us to see the entire festival. Of the second stage bands, Walls of Jericho, Machinehead and Underoath had the strongest performances, getting most of the crowd banging around the parking lot of the Nassau Coliseum.

We then moved inside as Mastodon took the main stage of the Coliseum. Standing on this sidestage, we heard Mastodon rip into a new song or two. It was unfortunate for them to be the first band, as fans were all filing in as they performed. I think they would have benefitted by an outdoors performance.

Next as Dragonforce hit the stage, we hit the catering area and devoured some great chow. When we re-emerged, festival co-headliners Disturbed had taken the stage. Now I should be clear that I already am biased to this band for their pop-metal radio crap hit songs, but I thought – I should really judge them live. It’s like a jock-metal band tripped and fell into Chess King. But there’s no denying that they might have had the biggest audience of the night. I guess their fans have to stop beating their wives art some point and catch a rock show.

Thankfully Slipknot came on and ended our misery. We were thrown out of our area by security and had to go backstage. Worked out great, as we got to see Slipknot’s pre-show ritual live and in person. I’m still quaking – it was a eerie-assed scene. The 9-part army hit the stage and lights, smoke and booming pyro lit he joint up. Percussionists operated rising hydraulic beer-keg drum kits, guitarists shredded and a broken-legged DJ crawled about the stage. This band is all rhythm, almost tribal, and surprisingly artsy. One has to think in the bigger picture of music, the lines between them and Radiohead aren’t so far apart.

Lead singer Corey Taylor is a bundle of energy, with a powerful, commanding voice and presence. We reconnected with him after the show at the Mastodon Aftershow BBQ. It was here where we got to mingle with all the bands, have a nosh and basically party our asses off. Soon we boarded our van and it was back to NYC!

then on Friday the 8th we took a quick festival break to catch Bullet for my Valentine, Bleeding Through and the Cancer Bats at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Met the staff of Metal Hammer, good times.

Then it was part II of our rock journey.

All Points West had been planned as a 3-day outdoor rock festival in Liberty State Park in New Jersey. Headliners like Radiohead, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson had been announced. We decided to attend on the Saturday show as it had the highest abundance of good bands compared to the other days.

To get to this park, which is in the shadow’s of Lady Liberty’s ass, you had to take a $30 ferry from Pier 11. Pier 11 is a few blocks south of the South St. Seaport, although the line looks horrendous, it actually moves quickly and we get aboard. What follows was a majestic 15 cruise through the NY harbor before finally docking in nearby Jersey City. The walk from the ferry to the actual venue was quite long and filled with what seemed to be most of Brooklyn.

Once inside the grounds, techno blared from a tent nearby, and we quickly moved deeper into the grounds to find the stages. The 2nd stage looked massive and we can see that they were setting up for the Roots in a bit. As we made our way to the main stage we were impressed by the variety of food being served compared to Mayhem. APW definitely wins in this category (handcut Fries, Gyros, Chinese, Smoothies) vs. Nathans, and Nathans…

Kings of Leon were rocking out the main stage, and sounded really good. The place was so crowed. So we decided to get some burgers and secure a good spot for the Roots. We were able to get backstage and situated ourselves at the side of the stage. The Roots came on and played some of their best known jams for a delighted crowd. The balloons and beach balls were abundant. They surprised me with their spot-on cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” which they broke down in half-time and rapped over. Easily the highlight of the night for me.

Then we investigated the VIP area and beer sections. The festival had set up drinking areas in which you had to stand in a giant tent and drink, away from the concert and general population. Not sure who’s idea this was (maybe a Jersey law?) but it successfully deterred me from drinking. (Mucho drinkage at Mayhem) Also your wristband had 5 drink tickets on it. Your drinks were capped a five for the entire day! Quite odd.

On to the reason we were here, Radiohead.

Radiohead has been touted repeatedly as one of the best live bands in the world. Now, a lot of people throw that term around a lot and we had to see for ourselves. The band emerged and went right into it. I was very impressed with the sound quality (edge APW) and the power of Thom Yorke’s vocals. Much like Corey Taylor of Slipknot he really commands the stage and acts as band general on the battlefield. Here’s where it gets crazier. The gigantic lighting rigs being used by Radiohead, where designed by the same team who did Slipknot’s Mayhem lights. The similarities would rear their head many times throughout the night. The most glaring was when Radiohead’s two guitarists each switched to percussion and created a sound very sympatico with Slipknot’s rhythm wall.

I hadn’t followed Radiohead’s work since OK Computer, so most of this set was new to me. So when a song like “Airbag” or “Fake Plastic Trees” was performed, I of course was more into it. Some of these songs where quite good, with great acoustic guitar sounds, dance beats, and xylophones. Thom Yorke always seemed like a sick, brittle boy, but he was a bundle of energy dancing all over the stage, and during one song, rocked out on a little drum-kit. This crowd hung on his every word and they KNEW every word. Felt like the only guy who didn’t know the lyrics. Shit, even the songs I know, I have no idea what’s he’s saying. After two encores, the mighty adventure was over. Or was it??

Imagine 25,000 people all heading down to one ferry at the same time. ROugh I tell ya.

The wait for the ferry lasts a full two and a half hours before we touch back down in NYC. Advantage Mayhem in this respect, I say we saved almost 2.5 hrs in travel time for a concert 20 more miles away.

All in all, they were both adventures, and a great peak at today’s music culture and it’s audience. Hopefully this leads to other concerts coming back here as we’ve lost Ozzfest, Lollapollooza, and a few others over the years. NYC has proven it can definitely handle it.

Below is some cool footage from each concert:

Slipknot Video Diary

Radiohead

4.23.07  @ MERCURY LOUNGE

It took a lot to separate me from the TV and a VH1 classic rewind of Damn Yankees last week. Tommy Shaw’s stonewashed man shorts and Ted Nugent’s kill it and grill it self were about to rope me in for a second time. Anyway, I managed to escape, and catch the Noisettes at the Mercury Lounge.

It’s always exciting to see a band with your own eyes, as the “next big thing” label becomes firmly attached to their backs. I wasn’t disappointed. The London based Noisettes showed something that alot of the bands borne out of overhyped UK press lack. It’s called talent and charisma.

When Shingai Shoniwa wasn’t conducting the mood of the room with her Karen O. meets Bjork in a 1930’s Harlem jazz club delivery, she would rock out the bass herself, while standing on the drum kit. Guitarist, Dan Smith’s intricate yet groove based guitar lines pushed the energy along and fit the vocals like a glove ( ooh, that cliche wreaks of Gene Simmons. I’m keeping it.).

Holding it down behind them was drummer Jamie Morrison who utilized his hands and more importantly, his shaking afro to create revolution in the air as well as anyone since Rob Tyner and the MC5.

-t.j. rosenthal

3.12.07  @ Webster Hall
OK let’s get one thing straight. Ex-Clash bassist Paul Simonon is the coolest guy ever! He even lights a cigarette better than anyone I’ve ever seen. He’s right out of a Godard film.

Damon Albarn and his Bowery Boy top hat, led the charge along with Simonon and ex-Verve guitarist Simon Tong. Albarn’s collection of downtrodden yet somehow uplifting Dickens-like ballads captured the sold out room. The early 20th century carnivalesque soundscape created during jams, aided by the Queens’ three piece string section.

The powerful theme’s and classic melodies in standouts “Kingdom of Doom” and “Green Fields” helped validate the visual aesthetic of modern music’s latest supergroup.