Before I write anything, I must emphasise how bad the sound was for the whole night. The amount of times I’ve been to the Solus venue in Cardiff in the past and it’s never sounded that bad before!
First on is
Horse the Band. There’s nothing much I can say about this band. Let me correct myself, there is nothing much that I WANT to write about this band! In my opinion
Horse the Band were appalling, and most likely the worst band I have ever allowed myself to listen to and watch live. Someone should send
Horse the Band a link to the Enter Shikari MySpace page because
Horse the Band are going to have a kick in the genitals when they find out they weren’t the first to attempt to mix a dance/video game style synth with beat-downs. At least Enter Shikari can pull it off.
Horse the Band looked like five bears trying to open up tins of sardines.
Next band on were Japan’s (what I hope is not their finest)
MUCC. Although
MUCC seemed to have the whole “they’re from the other side of the world” appeal, there was nothing right about
MUCC. As
MUCC approached the stage, all wearing skirts, I felt somewhat abused, and robbed of my innocence. The attention was drawn from the female clothing, when vocalist, Tatsuro, began to what I can only describe as squealing (similar to that of a dying rabbit). Overall, an astonishingly awful band, with even worse dress sense. How all the make-up they were wearing didn’t run off in the heat of the venue surprises me!
Not long after, it seems as though my prayers had been answered.
Story of the Year approached the stage at a high speed, jumping from each end to another, kicking into opener track from their debut album, "And the Hero will Drown". It doesn’t take the crowd long to realise what’s happening, and everyone who’s seen
Story of the Year before, remind themselves of why they tell everyone, that
Story of the Year are the best band that they have seen live. The sing-a-long for ‘Until The Day I Die’ was enormous, and after all, it’s what put
Story of the Year where they are right now. The constant subs, jumping in synch as a band, and incredibly perfect harmonies, kept my eyes fixed on the stage. Not even a wet t-shirt competition including unlimited free Carlsberg could have drawn my attention for this half an hour! There was only one single flaw in their set, and that was that they didn’t play for long enough! Granted it wasn’t up to them, but I was absolutely gutted to see them leave the stage.
If I was a member of the next band
As I Lay Dying, and I had watched
Story of the Year performing like they did, I would be biting my nails in anticipation of gracing the stage. Despite my thoughts, people actually like
As I Lay Dying. The crowd knew every word to every song, and kept an energetic sweat throughout the whole set. Songs such as ‘Forever’ and ’94 hours’ were a huge hit tonight, and showed that there were a lot of dedicated fans in the crowd tonight, that weren’t just there because it was the Taste of Chaos tour. I was shocked, I thought this cheesy “metal” with lyrics such as “spill my blood” no longer existed. Obviously I was proven wrong tonight! Despite a poor show and rubbish songs (IMO), I respect
As I Lay Dying for obtaining and holding onto so many loyal fans.
Half an hour went by, and long awaited headlining band
Atreyu slowly walk on stage. The noise from the crowd isn’t as big as I had predicted it would be, but after all it has been a long night for these 14 year olds, and they appear exhausted. Personally, I have always had a shine in my eye for
Atreyu, especially their old material. Tonight I was discouraged, by the lack of enthusiasm on
Atreyu's behalf. The main appeal of
Atreyu for me, is the contrasting vocals, much similar to Underoath, in the sense that the front man, has a gritty bellow, and the drummer has the smooth and catchy melody duties. Things aren’t portrayed this way tonight. Main vocals from screamer Alex Varkatzas sound weak and far too quiet in the mix. He doesn’t seem to care, as most of his time is spent hitting a blown up condom back into the crowd every 5 seconds or so. Vocal duties from drummer, Brandon Saller are incredible to begin with. They quickly lose appeal, and become irritating. All in all,
Atreyu are nothing like I had hoped they would be as a live band, and I left highly disappointed.
Overall, I was bored for most of the night but it was well worth it to see
Story of the Year and their amazing live performance. The fact that Taste of Chaos had to be moved from Cardiff University's Great Hall which has a higher capacity to Cardiff Solus after already being down-graded from the previously held Cardiff International Arena, confirms that this is clearly the worst Taste of Chaos lineup to date and that not many people seemed to care.
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Taste of Chaos 19th October 2008 – Cardiff Solus
Re: Taste of Chaos 19th October 2008 – Cardiff Solus
Elbow - Live 19th October Carling Academy, Glasgow