Show Review

Pictures

First off I want to talk about the organizations behind the Take Action Tour. The tour has joined up with the National Hopeline Network, 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433), and the National Youth America Hotline, 1-877-YOUTHLINE (968-8454). These organizations aid any person, young and old, who may be depressed and/or mentally ill and possibly considering suicide. They are non-profit organizations which get NO government assistance. All of the money they receive comes from 10% of all ticket proceeds of the tour as well as selling a compilation CD for $6 which consists of 45 tracks (on 2 CDs) and include some unreleased and rare tracks of some great bands. A very noble cause and anyone involved should be thanked for what they do. On that note, I think that the scheduling was bad as there was a lack of participation because the majority of fans are high school age and won’t stay out late for a show on a school night or they are older fans that have 40-hour jobs during the week. The date I attended was on a Tuesday night with a start time of 7:30 and with 5 bands it didn’t end until close to 11:30/midnight. The Palladium is a venue that can fit easily a couple thousand people, yet only a couple hundred showed up. The tour just finished up this past week, Worcester being the third to last stop.

First up was the band Roses Are Red. I’ve never listen to these guys, so this was my introduction to them. Overall they had good energy up on stage and sounded fairly decent. Unfortunately there was an extreme lack of fan participation, almost a look of boredom from the small crowd, possibly homework on the mind. As much as any band gets pumped up to play it still must be frustrating when the crowd is unresponsive to your music and just seems to stare at you. The same can be said of the second act, Amber Pacific. Yet again, another band that never gained my attention. These guys had great stage presence with their well choreographed moves, well timed jumps and synchronized bowing/rocking out. What struck me as a little strange was the overall style of these guys. It looked as if they had just walked out of an ad for Hollister and the one pant leg rolled up by the two guitarists seemed a bit much. Just before the last song the singer also announced an upcoming headlining tour they were going to be starting and I thought to myself, “If they can’t motivate a room of a couple hundred kids, how are they going to headline a whole tour?” I just hope they pick some good touring mates and stay away from the weekday shows.

After the techs set-up the next bands equipment, out came Dave the tech from Chiodos, dressed in a monkey suit and drinking a beer. He then proceeded to comment about the marquee in front of the Palladium, which was currently showing the New England Hardcore/Metal Fest, and how apparently Amber Pacific was on the wrong tour because they should have been playing that one. An interesting character to say the least. He then announced Chiodos as they took the stage. I picked up their album a few months ago and love it so I was more than pumped to see these guys play. They didn’t disappoint me as they threw down with intense energy and finally got a stir from the crowd as a small pit emerged. As the set continued, there was probably the biggest crowd participation of the night, which wasn’t saying much. Even though they only have one release so far, there are plenty of great songs and the keyboard parts really shined live. Chiodos sounded great, better than the sound on their album and for me, these guys stole the show. This is a band that I can see headlining and doing well.

After Chiodos came The Early November. At that point I saw all the tough guys take a backseat to the younger ladies in the crowd so they could sing along with Ace Enders. The Early November has taken some time off as finally it appears their ambitious triple-release will soon be upon us. Decent energy, the bassist was nonstop throughout the whole set. At one point he commented on the lack of fan participation by declaring “Congratulations, you guys won the award…for the QUIESTEST CROWD EVER!” This brought some smiles to the faces of Chiodos who were hanging out on the side. I felt this was the general sentiment that every band got that night. Chiodos even came onto the stage for a whole song, singing and clapping and the singer from Amber Pacific joined Ace on another track. They all seemed to be having fun with or without the crowd. They played songs off of For All of This and The Room is Too Cold as well as the two new songs on their Purevolume and Myspace pages, “Decoration” and “Hair.” I enjoyed their live performance, it was the first time I have seen them.

At last the final band, Matchbook Romance, took the stage. It was starting to get late and sadly I think about a third of the crowd left to get home. You could tell that the highest quality equipment was reserved for these guys as they had the best sound of the night, the bass drum were especially kicking. They played great mix of new and old songs including my favorite, “14 Balloons” off of West for Wishing. At one point there was a small technical difficulty with singer Andrew Jordan’s earpiece which only prolonged a long night. The overall theme from the night seemed to be crazy, high energy bassists and Ryan Kienle followed suit. To cap the night off, Matchbook Romance played a two song encore with the tracks “You Can Run, But We’ll Find You” and “Promise,” a good song to end on. Overall it was a decent line-up that was out supporting a great cause.

review by Kevin St. Laurent