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Watching Genghis Tron made me realize what a complete fucking idiot I am. I've never seen them live, but I do have their albums, and I didn't realize that they lack a drummer. They had a damn good drum machine, because I wouldn't have been able to tell had I only heard them and not seen them.
Their set was super good. I really love how they pulled off the electronic hardcore sound live, especially with no drummer (or bassist for that matter). The songs were so tight and their stage presence was a sight to see. Its really great to see bands doing something different and pulling it off so well.
I was interviewing Guy of The Red Chord through most of All Shall Perish's set. I came back into a room with about 75 more people and at least 30 degrees hotter. I parked myself near a fan and listened to their last two songs. They were pretty good: really fast blast beats with breakdowns, but nothing was all that memorable.
I heard Despised Icon somewhere, and I wasn't all that impressed. Because of that, I had written them off, but I was eager to give them another listen in a live setting. Unfortunately, I wasn't that impressed wiht them. Their breakdowns had the pit rampaging, and they had some cool fast parts, but everything kind of blended together to me, even though one of their singers had a bass like low voice.
I was really looking forward to hearing Through the Eyes of the Dead because a) I had never heard them before but I have heard great things about them, and b) they recently recruited Nate Johnson to perform vocal duties. I knew from the second they started playing that I was in for a treat. Johnson's voice was off the map, going from high to deep to deeper to even deeper, a full fledged vocal powerhouse. The music was fight, full of double bass and super cool breakdowns. They mixed up the tempos nicely, not giving the listeners a chance to get bored. This is one brutal band with a hell of a live show, one that can easily captivate audiences.
It was at some point during Through the Eyes of the Dead's set that I checked my pocket and realized that my voice recorder wasn't there. I took everything out of there, but it was nowhere to be found. I had four other interviews on there, including the one with Guy of The Red Chord, so I started to panic. I traced my steps, and ran into a kid who told me that he saw it but didn't pick it up because he thought someone might come back for it (its good to know that there are still people like that around). The recorder wasn't there, so I went to bouncers and the ticket girl to see if they saw it, but they did not, which left me completely depressed and sick to my stomach.
As sad as I was, The Red Chord made me somewhat forget about my blunder. I've seen them many times over the years (a perk of living in New England), and this ranks right up there with the best set I've seen them play. They were supposed to play downstairs, but the small intimacy of the upstairs made for a much livlier show, with the crowd able to stage dive and Guy was able to constantly put the mic out for the crowd to sing along.
In addition to songs off of their first two albums, they played a few songs off their upcoming album. I liked all of them, songs that sounded like a mixture between their first two albums but with a bit of progression. They closed their set with "Dreaming in Dog Years," which ended with the majority of the crowd up on stage singing along with the group vocals ("Its not gonna be alright/Its not gonna be okay"), a great time had by all.