I got to the House Of Blues around 4. There was a pretty long line to get in, but it moved quickly and I was in by 4:10. Before the show started, I checked out the merch a bit and bought an As I Lay Dying shirt. If anyone cares, merch for As I Lay Dying,Underoath, and Between The Buried and Me is $20 and the other bands are all $15.
At 4:30 the first band of the day, War Of Ages, hit the stage. They play a similar style of old-school metalcore as As I Lay Dying plays. War Of Ages had a ton of energy,great guitar solos and were a great start to the show. I am absoultely going to check more of their studio stuff outside of the few songs I already knew. War Of Ages are a band to watch for the next few years and I can see their popularity blowing up.
Next up were the Cancer Bats. Their new record Bears,Mayors,Scraps and Bones is pretty damn good(my review for it is right below this post) , so I was pretty excited for their set. I got to say the Cancer Bats suck live. They really have no clue what they are doing on stage. The lowlight of their set was their horrendous cover of Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. Their bassist blew the bassline on Sabotage and a kid in front of me said "The bass is supposed to go (insert the proper basline noise to Sabotage)" and the bassist whipped a half-eaten cookie at him and ended up hitting one of my friends in the face. I lost a lot of respect for the Cancer Bats today. Good on album, shit live, and they are total douches. Complete and total letdown.
The Architects were on next. Good God were they bad. I thought they were bad on album, but they are even worse live. 2nd worst live metal band I have ever seen. No words for how fucking awful they are and I hope they go back to England and take their equally sucky partners in crime Bring Me The Horizon and Asking Alexandria back with them and all 3 of them never make music again(or at least don't go on a tour that I want to see).
After two straight shit performances, the hometown boys The Acacia Strain were up. I know The Acacia Strain is a deathcore band that gets a lot of shit talked about them, but these guys flat out crush live. I think they are a highly underrated band. Heavy as shit and Vincent Bennett, their vocalist, is absoultely hysterical. The crowd was going nuts for them and their pits were intense and a lot of fun and for the most part hardcore dancer free.
Bless The Fall was on next. They were better than I expected, but they still weren't anything special. The singer has a decent scream, but his clean vocals are a bit too whiney for my taste. Bless The Fall performs well and does have good energy. A few of my friends were really into them, but they were just alright to me. Hell the most impressive thing of their set was how far their singer could throw a water bottle. He has an absolute cannon.If Jay Cutler ends up having a shit season this year I say the Bears sign this dude.
The moment had finally come for Between The Buried and Me. This was my 4th seeing them and as usual, they slayed. I will say they were still amazing, but it is the weakest I have ever seen them live. They still played great and of course I will be there next time they are around.
Underoath was next up, so it was time for me to go to the back and sit down. As expected, Underoath sucked. This is sadly the 2nd time I have had to endure them live. They really just are an awful band, they don't have anything going for them. I won't shit on them too bad though because they seem like good dudes. Underoath just isn't really my thing. The crowd was really into them and they had a fantastic light show, but besides that Underoath was lame.
This was my 2nd time seeing As I Lay Dying and all I can say is wow. As I Lay Dying delivers live. Their songs sound even better live and with the exception of August Burns Red and The Dillinger Escape Plan I don't think I have ever seen a more energetic band. Bottom line: If you are an As I Lay Dying fan or a metal fan in general As I Lay Dying is a top-notch live band that gives it 110% every time they hit the stage. Kudos to them for an excellent performance and I look forward to seeing them again.
Other Notes One of my friends caught an Acacia Strain drumstick and another one of my friends was handed a pick from Phil Sgrosso of As I Lay Dying.
The subway ride back was hysterical. People started crowd surfing on the subway and it was a blast. The people on the subway that weren't from the show were most likely horrified.
I was surprised how well a majority of the bands were recieved. The audience was almost completely dead for the Cancer Bats and pretty dead for the Architects but besides that every other band got excellent crowd reception.
The crowd was fantastic. Very few douchebags and everyone was very respectful to each other. A pleasant surprise for sure.
As I Lay Dying had the first good wall of death I have seen in a long time.
Scores
War Of Ages 8/10
Cancer Bats 3.5/10
Architects 0.5/10
The Acacia Strain 8.5/10
Bless The Fall 6/10
Between The Buried and Me 9.5/10
Underoath 2/10
As I Lay Dying 9.5/10
Setlists
War Of Ages
Through The Flames
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Stand Your Ground
All Consuming Fire
Cancer Bats
Sorceress
Luicfer's Rocking Chair
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Sleep This Away
Sabotage
Hail Destroyer
The Acacia Strain
Whoa Shut It Down
See You Next Tuesday
Balboa Towers
The Hills Have Eyes
Angry Mob Justice
Jonestown
JFC
Between The Buried and Me
Foam Born B:The Decade Of Statues
Obfuscation
Disease,Injury,Madness
White Walls
As I Lay Dying
94 Hours
An Ocean Between Us
Anodyne Sea
Beyond Our Suffering
The Sound Of Truth
Within Destruction
Drum Solo
Vacancy
Condemned
Nothing Left
Through Struggle
Confined
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