Now that a long shower removed all the Gwar juice from me (I brought in a promotion shirt from school, The Vagina Monologues, now soaked in fake blood from a huge rubber penis). Gwar were amusing but not too impressive.
-Gwar are a comedy option. I left before they finished because I felt no reason to stay longer after a good run in their pit and up front.
-Caught the only date of the tour with Testament, they were absolutely keking amazing. Still right on after 24 years, the original lineup minus the drummer too. Quite possibly the greatest live show I've seen, because their music is amazing, and they were flawless, plus the solos were played up and extended, Alex Skolnick is 40 now and is still insane and getting even better, plus he can play the solos like a virtuoso for the fans. Although Nick Barker (Dimmu Borgir/Cradle of Filth - Both band suck but he's a great drummer) was originally supposed to play this tour, Paul Bostaph played it, known for playing with Testament in 1993, and then with Slayer for many years after that, and also Exodus. Four of five original members and a veteran thrash drummer blew through the set without error, it may be the most amazing thing I've seen in my life.
-Chimaira were great, got the crowd (of 4000) into it a lot, played very well, and always an awesome band to see live (I've seen them with 100 people, many years ago).
-Shadows Fall were great, I think they're starting to appeal to a lot more people with their newer music, but still making great music in their style. Not quite as cool as seeing them in a venue of ~100 people (same place I saw Chimaira with that many) and singing half of the closer, Destroyer of Senses, which is also probably their best known song.
-All That Remains once again played very well, lineup changes since last time, they have a girl playing bass, she can play very well, rhythm locked in with the kick drums when needed and doing some good backup vocals. Also talked to them for a while because a friend knows them and has seen them 7+ times, and I've met them in the past before they were as well known.
-The Acacia Strain played well, not quite their normal show, but it's a really heavy hardcore band playing outside to a parking lot of 3,000 people, and the parking lot was a bit uneven for moshing, plus it was pretty damn sunny at 2:30PM. Still played well, but I don't think the fans quite felt the atmosphere no matter their efforts.
-Amon Amarth were keking awesome, their set managed to keep away the hardcore wankers better than Testament, who are thrash legends. Awesome show, they are really into the performance and they get you into it too, even if it's outside in the sun.
-Job For A Cowboy impressed me a lot, the guys aren't even 21 but they're playing a tight show, their music is a bit repetitive, but it's still good to get into for a live show, and they have a lot of potential, being young and putting on a good stage show.
-Darkest Hour were decent, quite repetitive at times, but not bad, just couldn't measure up to the other bands. Decent band but I would listen to one song at a time, not an album. Also not the most talented in playing and songwriting, but not bad at all.
-Every Time I Die were pretty boring, my friends liked them but I spent a decent chunk of their set pooping, which was somewhat more interesting than their music.
-Necro, "the death rapper". Pretty keking hilarious, he had a lot of people hating him, but he's a good rapper, he knows his shit (his favorite bands are Metallica/Death/Obituary), and he does much better than most rappers do now. Good rapper, though a bit cheesy with the gore lyrics at times.
-The Number Twelve Looks Like You are the worst band I have ever seen. Worse than Despised Icon, and I'm glad I only saw ten minutes of them, because I had sampled them and the bands before them, and the first band (This Is Hell) were the only one I liked, and I missed them from a bit of traffic (11AM start), and the next six sucked at a distance from drinking beer near the car.
Pretty awesome tour, I hope they have so many good bands next year, and they don't put one good band on at 11AM then the next at 3:30PM, if they need to have shitty "deathcore" or "moshcore" shit then it'll be before I go in.
