Well, I'm feeling pretty miserable right now considering I had to get up at 6:00AM this morning to be at work on time. With that aside, I'm glad I made the trek over to Asheville last night to see one of my "new" favorite bands,
Bullet For My Valentine.
There were two opening acts,
Black Tide and
Bleeding Through. I'm familiar with and like Black Tides music, but I had never heard of Bleeding Through.
Black Tide are part of the "throwback" bands that are gaining popularity right now in the modern hard rock scene. These kids came out and basically portrayed the image of an 80's thrash band, which is a good thing. They have the hair, black t-shirts, jeans, the energy and the attitude to boot. They put on a great show to be such a young band and amazingly enough, they actually sing their lyrics!
I give props to these youngsters for attempting to bring back a little of the greatness of 80's metal.
Bleeding Through is just another run of the mill, mall core band...nothing less, nothing more. The lead singer screams the lyrics, drops f-bombs left and right, jumps up and down and basically causes himself to go into convulsions.
Their set was a joke and it pained me to wait through it.
Bullet For My Valentine took the stage at 9:30 sharp. They opened with their hit Scream, Aim, Fire, which I thought they would save for last. IMO, this band sounded like they were spot on. Of course they don't sound as slick as the studio, but their music came across very well live. Their show was high energy through and through and the band portrays a great image in my opinion. They brought along a fairly big production, complete with lights, a large backdrop etc., considering this was a small club. I found it interesting that the lead vocalist and bassist trade off vocals, which again, works well in a live setting. I had just assumed that the lead singer did it all. As far as working the crowd the lead singer and bassist share those duties and they do it well. My only gripe with this band is their drummer. He plays well, but he looks like he is studying for an exam up their behind the kit. He is nowhere close to being a showman and a crowd leader like some drummers are. I suggest for him to go watch some footage of Tommy Aldrich, Mikey Dee, Eric Singer and Mike Portnoy to see how it's done! I can't stand watching a band give a 110% during a live set and then see some deadbeat behind the kit. Otherwise, BFMV delivered and I would for sure go see them again if the opportunity presents itself.
~Brian~
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