Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Concert Review & Photo Gallery: Taste of Chaos Tour at Nokia Theatre

By Kenneth Smith of 2K7 Photography

April 1, 2008 was not only the most annoying holiday in the world; it was also the day that the 2008 Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour made its stop at the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie. This year, they definitely pulled out all the stops. With nine bands (including the Ernie Ball Winner), two stages ( well, one stage, and a small pseudo-stage off to the side), thousands of kids (and older-folk alike) all dressed in black, and more vendors then you can imagine, it was evident that this annual tour is steadily growing with each passing year.

Despite the fact that the Nokia Theatre website listed a start time of 5:30 p.m., I arrived to find that the show actually started at 5 p.m. and allegedly, local boys Darby had already played. The rotation was similar to Warped Tour (both tours were created by Kevin Lyman) in which one band played on a smaller portion of the stage while another set up so that, aside from a twenty-minute intermission before the headliners, the music never really stopped and one band introduced the next. This year, the RTOC tour most definitely wanted to do its part to help out the growing JROCK movement (rock bands from Japan) and included three of the frontrunners of this genre; D'espairsRay, MUCC and The Underneath. All three of these bands seemed to have quite a fan-base here in Texas.

To kick off the more mainstream part of the evening, Welsh metalcore act Bullet For My Valentine took the stage at around 7:20 p.m. to a fast-filling venue and, of course, an eruption of screams. Opening their set with the title track from their newest album Scream Aim Fire, the guys set the stage for what would most certainly be a fast-paced night. They finished out with a solid set, making sure to play a mix of songs from both albums and of course, driving the venue into a frenzy with their biggest hit to date, "Tears Don't Fall", from their 2005 debut The Poison.

Phoenix Arizona's Bless The Fall was next to play the smaller portion of the stage and probably had the most energy of any band the entire night. I also noticed that they seemed to have a pretty big draw for one of the lesser-known bands on the tour. The vocalist went out into the crowd multiple times, at one point allowing the fans to hold him up as he performed nearly an entire song. Later he did a front-flip into the crowd off a high set of speakers. I definitely want to see this band perform a longer set on a bigger stage and look forward to them coming back.

Curtains dropped in front of the main stage area at around 8:30 p.m. once Atreyu's intro music had finished revealing a stage setup that include ramps on both sides of the triple-bass drum setup/riser that led to a platform behind the drummer. The Texas fans certainly seemed happy to see the California five-piece, considering their last scheduled Dallas show at the Palladium was canceled. The set was fast-paced and full of energy. Bassist Marc McKnight ran into the stands at one point and continued to play while parading through the venue. The guys closed their performance with probably the most well-known song from their catalog, "Lip Gloss and Black" from the 2002 Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses album. In the closing number, they had the entire crowd sit on the floor then jump up into a frenzy on command. The entire venue also yelled the well known "LIVE, LOVE, BURN, DIE" chant from the song.

About fifteen minutes into the intermission, an announcement was made that due to eating bad Dallas food, Avenged Sevenfold would not be able to perform. Of course, this was an April Fool's joke and a live feed of the band from backstage was shown on the giant screens. Vocalist M. Shadows laughed and said that they would be on stage in fifteen minutes. A timer (oddly-enough displaying a ten-minute countdown) was then displayed on the screens. As the timer got to one minute the crowd started screaming loudly which evolved into a countdown from ten seconds. When the curtains dropped, the band was on stage with Shadows sitting behind a piano and fire shooting from multiple places. The entire venue went wild. This band is truly a pleasure to watch perform. From their looks, to the stage setups, to the rock-star poses they make during shows, it is pure entertainment from beginning to end and they never seem to disappoint.

Taste of Chaos has proven that each year it can only get better and better. It has grown to basically be an indoor Warped-Tour, or as they tend to call it, the "Winter Warped Tour". I'm curious to see what they come up next year and am certain that, as it has for me, this tour has become an annual save-the-date on the calendars of concert-goers.

Pegasus News content partner - 2K7 Photography

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