Openers: Thoughts Kill, X Factor 1, Brand New Sin, Autumn Offering
Date: 26 October 2006
Venue: The Alrosa Villa
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA
First of all, Mushroomhead isn't one of my all-time favorite bands. I like a couple of their songs, but really the only reason I went to this show was because my girlfriend likes them and was going to go whether I went or not. Looking back on the show, I had a good time, but the opening bands killed my enthusiasm while I was there.
The Alrosa Villa was a piss poor place for Dimebag to be killed at. I had never seen the club before last night, but on the outside it looks like a fuckin crack house or something, certainly nothing spectacular. The inside is cramped, the security still sucks (they didn't even check my back pockets, I could have smuggled anything in), the stage is at the back with a small pit in front, which is also very cramped (so much so that there really wasn't a whole lot of movement from the audience at all). The whole place has this "old, dirty" look to it.
We got there about 5:30 or so and it was cold as hell outside, so my girlfriend, two friends, and myself waited in the car. There were like literally 10 cars there (the parking lot was filled by the end of the night though). Anyway, they eventually opened the doors around 6:15 and we went inside. We then had to wait til fucking 8:00 before the opening bands started. It rather sucked, because the tickets said the show was supposed to start at 6, and waiting around for 2 hours for the sucky opening bands was kind of rediculous. There were four opening bands and they played for about two hours -- seemed more like days.
I'll tell you what, this nu-metal bullshit like Slipknot and every other nu-metal band sounds just the same, every one of them. It's not fucking music, and it takes no talent at all to scream (just endurance, I'll give them that). Thoughts Kill sucked. As if one screaming singer wasn't enough, they had two. I rather think the only purpose of having two was so that they would have some extra time to rest their vocals. It wasn't like Mushroomhead, where you have two vocalists but one screams and one sings. They both just screamed, and sounded exactly alike.
X Factor 1 was more tolerable, but they still sucked. They had four Band Line-up, and each one looked exactly a like: huge bald guys that looked like they were in their 30's. The singer screamed some more, although he kind of made feeble attemtpts at singing in some parts. They were better than Thoughts Kill at least.
The next opening band was Brand New Sin, and I actually liked them pretty well. If I had been able to find any of their CDs there, I would have bought them. They had some pretty heavy music and seemed to know what they were doing (Thoughts Kill had members about my age, maybe early 20's, and there were several fuck-ups that I noticed during their show). The vocalist was a large bald guy again, but he could actually sing and had a deep, razor-like kind of voice that suited the music. Being able to understand what he was singing certainly made their performance much more enjoyable. During one of their songs, one of Mushroomhead's singers (the one that screams) came out and played a song with them. I'll look online for anything by Brand New Sin, I liked them well enough to want to check them out.
Autumn Offering was just like the first two bands: screaming. They sucked. However, they played a cover song as their encore and up to that point it was the highlight of the night and the only thing that had been successful at getting everyone involved in the music: they played Enter Sandman. It was a horrible cover and a complete mutilation of the vocals, but it still got everyone in the club moving. Everyone knew it, and everyone was singing or doing something.
After that, we waited for for a long ass time until Mushroomhead finally came on. I wasn't really expecting such a theatrical performance. It was cool, but after reading their criticism of Slipknot I found them to be no different than them (although I must admit I would rather listen to Mushroomhead than Slipknot, I like the vocals of the dude who actually sings). When they came out onstage, all you could see was their silhouettes and they looked like huge ass aliens. Their bodies were enlarged because they had big suits on, and their heads were even larger because of their masks. It was rather funny actually. They played a short setlist (maybe an hour, the opening bands played for about 25 minutes each). They played Sun Doesn't Rise, my favorite song by them, and it was pretty good. Actually, they did put on a good show as far as sounding like they do on their CDs, they didn't suck live, it's just that this nu-metal stuff isn't what I like (I prefer bands that actually have talent and can sing, like Metallica or Dio or Tool). They ended their show with Kill Tomorrow, which is another song I like. Afterwards, the singer (the one who actually sings) went up to the merchandise counter and signed stuff, but we just left.
Tickets were only $15, and it was worth it to see Brand New Sin and Mushroomhead, but to be honest I would have paid even more for the tickets NOT to have seen the other three opening bands.
