Monday, December 17, 2007

Photo Gallery: How the Edge Stole Christmas night one (w/ review)

By Kenneth Smith of 2K7 Photography

To kick off what would be a music-filled weekend, KDGE staff, thousands of fans, and 9 bands kicked off night 1 of How the Edge Stole Christmas at Grand Prairie's Nokia Theatre on Friday. Plans for a pre-party on Thursday night with Drowning Pool and Atreyu at the Palladium Ballroom fell through when one of the members of Drowning Pool fell ill. Once again however, The Edge put together an excellent lineup of music, splitting the 2 nights into mostly younger, pop-punk/emo/alternative bands for night 1 and the heavier, metal-esque bands for night 2.

The show started around 3:00 with pint sized rockers from Los Angeles, Drive A. These guys were scheduled to open all 3 nights of How The Edge Stole Christmas and could be seen walking around the venue taking pictures with fans and passing out their CD. I heard much talk about these guys all weekend and all was good. They seem to be a huge hit with Dallas music fans and I'm pretty sure we will be seeing more of them.

Local group The Vanished was up next. Luckily by this time (unlike at last months Hullaballoo show) the venue was actually filled with a respectable amount of people. The only questionable decision was that seats were used in part of the Pit area, sizing it down to what I was told was a 300 person pit, instead of the usual 1200 capacity. This was a bit odd because for most of the night you had packed seats and a sparsely populated pit area. The Vanished were awesome and put on a great show, as their hometown fans have come to expect.

Following The Starting Line, and Silversun Pickups, who both performed solid sets with positive reactions from the crowd, Coheed & Cambria took the stage a little after 6:00pm. Opening their set with "No World for Tomorrow" from the most recent album "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow" the crowd was the loudest I had seen so far. Using a mainly red/orange toned lighting setup, vocalist/guitarist Claudio Sanchez didn't move around much, opting to belt out the vocals and shred the guitar in a manner that almost took the attention away from his hair. Ive seen these guys before and no matter how good they are, I always find myself wondering things like "how much water will it hold" or "how does he comfortably sleep at night?". Regardless of how incredibly distracting his hair is, the show was phenomenal. Playing only 5 songs and closing with (of course) their huge hit "Welcome Home" from the 2005 "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness" album the guys were spot-on and most certainly one of the evening favorites.

Paramore was next. Hailing from Tennessee, this band was probably the biggest fan draw of the day. Even though they just played a sold out show at the Palladium Ballroom last month, fans wearing Paramore shirts and hoodies clearly outnumbered all other bands put together. Fiery-red-haired vocalist Hayley Williams was as energetic as ever, running around in her usual manner making sure everyone was having a great time and commanding the crowd to move around and dance. They played multiple songs from both the "All We Know is Falling" and more recent "Riot!" albums. The entire venue erupted in screams as they began playing the closing number, and hugely popular hit single, "Misery Business" before exiting the stage.

After years of anticipation, it was time for Australia's Silverchair to grace the stage. A deafening barrage of screams and cheers from the crowd immediately solidified the fact that I was not the only person there who has been looking forward to seeing this band for quite a long time. Opening with "Young Modern Station", the atmosphere could simply be describes as fulfilling. Silverchair is one of the only band that I had been a fan of for such a long time, but never gotten to see live. From the first note it was clear that this was not just a studio band. The live sound was stellar and almost more appealing then the recorded version. During the performance of "Ana's Song" from the hugely popular "Neon Ballroom" album, Vocalist/guitarist Daniel Johns broke off into an operatic falsetto solo that sounded as if it couldn't possibly be coming from a man, yet had the entire theatre in awe. The song was drawn out into a long centerpiece to the set that left you truly feeling the emotion behind it.

To end the set, the guys played "Straight Lines" and "If You Keep Losing Sleep"; 2 songs from the recent critically acclaimed "Young Moderns" album as the fans stood and sang along. Even with the short set-list, they managed to play songs from 4 of their 5 albums and every single one were an awesome experience to see performed live.

After a bar that was set amazingly high, Jimmy Eat world was next on the bill. Playing in front of their massive backdrop, these guys win the award for the loudest audience sing-along. At times, vocalist Jim Adkins was almost overpowered by the crowd, particularly in the last few songs, which, everyone in attendance (including myself) seemed to know every lyric of. I saw Jimmy Eat world about 5 years ago and honestly, with the addition of a few new songs, the show was pretty much the same; a solid performance with nothing to really leave you in awe.

This point in the show is where me (along with just about everyone else I talked to at the show) and The Edge disagreed. Somehow Modest Mouse was given the headlining spot on the bill. I have to assume that there is an explanation because, to be blunt, the consensus was this: "Who is Modest Mouse and why are they headlining over such huge, popular (not to mention better) bands?"

I'm sure there had to be some Modest Mouse fans in attendance. To all 13 of you, I apologize. I talked to countless people throughout the day and eavesdropped on many a conversation outside the theatre. Regarding this placement, I would say 95 % of the comments were in opposition. I won't say the performance was bad because from what I heard, it sounded as it was supposed to sound and as it sounds on the albums. Far from my taste in music, the jumbled noise of 15 different instruments being played loudly at once to barely audible vocals didn't appease me at all. In their defense, as I exited the venue I did see multiple fans that seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. I guess I just didn't get it.

Overall, day 1 of How the Edge Stole Christmas was amazing. Despite the ending; the (other) bands were great, the crowd was great, and everyone seemed to be having a blast. I left wondering how day 2 would fair against this almost-perfect show.

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