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The fine people at Lupo's thought that it would be fun to keep the wrapped around the sidewalk crowd out in the wretched cold for an extra 20 minutes before they opened doors. If not for the cold redding my cheeks and freezing my hands, I wouldn't have minded, as I met some nice people and saw a guy pissing maybe 20 feet from the dumbest security guard ever, who didn't even look his way.
I was eager to check out Through the Eyes of the Dead. I had heard their name for about a year, but never listened to them. Luckily, I wasn't alone in the crowd, as I could literally hear three different people clapping when they announced a song they would be playing.
They played technical metalcore with brutal breakdowns that brought about a violent pit (if three people punching each other could be considered a pit). I liked them, even though they fell victim to to muddy sound that blended everything together and made the guitars difficult to hear clearly. Their singer was the best part of the band. Not only was he sporting a Pig Destroyer shirt and a killer beard, he also had an arsenal of voices (none of them singing, mind you) that helped give different song parts another interesting aspect, and he resembled Metal Mike from As the Sun Sets.
Chimaira was pretty damn boring. I have never been a fan of them, and this performance didn't convert me. They had two girls dancing onstage in bras and Chimaira panties, which made the set okay to watch, but it only lasted for two songs.
The thing that bothered me most about Chimaira was the fact that they had a lot of riffs that set up a fast or even grind beat, but they always played slow. That actually pissed me off, because these guys could be pretty good if they learned to throw fast parts in there sometimes.
The club wasn't packed, but it seemed like most of the people in attendence were such loyal fans that they would have gladly torn off and given the band their "horn" fingers if requested. Walking around the club, I noticed that there were a lot of women dancing and going nuts to them, which isn't usually the case with metal bands.
Children of Bodom played a crazy good set revolving around the insanely good keyboard and guitars. I loved listening to the guitars play a crazy riff or lead, and then hear the keyboards play something just as nuts, if not moreso. They keyboard was facing the audience, putting Janne Warman's fast moving fingers on display, which was a lot of fun to watch. Their set was super tight and full of really great songs; some I knew, others I didn't, but none that I didn't enjoy.
Written by: RF