07/31/2010 KROCKathon 15: Limp Bizkit, Flyleaf, Avenged Sevenfold, Hollywood Undead, Ed Kowalczyk, All That Remains, Halestorm, A Day To Remember, Smile Empty Soul, Crash Kings (Syracuse, NY @ New York State Fairgrounds)

By Woopop | August 5, 2010 3:50 pm

[New Politics and Hail The Villain were also on the bill, but I didn't get there early enough to catch them.]

Since I knew I wasn’t interested in seeing any of the first couple bands, I made it easier on myself by getting there a little later. Getting in was no problem, I had to park out in the North 40, but that part was quick. Got in, and they oriented the two stages so the crowd stretched parallel to the (unused for this event) grandstand. As I walked in, Crash Kings were playing on the left-side stage, and sounded okay, but I confess I didn’t really pay attention. I got my beer tickets and milled around the various vendor tents that lined the venue. Smile Empty Soul was up on the right-side stage next, and I wasn’t that impressed with them when I saw them six years ago, and I wasn’t this time either. Their bass player looked like he was just going through the motions, but I read elsewhere that he wasn’t feeling so good, so I can give him a pass on that one. A Day To Remember was up on the other stage, and they reminded me a lot of New Found Glory with more screaming. They were decent, and seemed to have the shrieking female fan market cornered.

At this point the first band I actually wanted to see, Halestorm, was up. Lizzy Hale came out and started by slowly belting out the opening line to “It’s Not You” before the rest of the band joined her and got into it full-on.

They also played, among a short drum solo, What Were You Expecting, Dirty Work, Familiar Taste of Poison (before which Lizzy brought out a giant wine glass, dumped probably half a bottle of red wine into it, and *consumed* haha), Innocence, and naturally the closer was I Get Off. The band was tight, Lizzy’s voice didn’t show too much strain considering all the touring they’ve been doing (she hit the high notes in I Get Off fairly strong), and they were plenty interactive with the crowd. A strong festival set.

Over to the other stage, for All That Remains! Easily the heaviest band to this point, and my first band worth wading into the pit for. They wasted no time whipping everyone up, opening with Six, and then into Not Alone. They kept the music rolling, not too much banter, continuing with the slower Forever In Your Hands. (Phil’s quote: “this song is for all you guys who have vaginas out there, so your girlfriend can pet it!”) I think The Air That I Breathe was next, then This Calling, Chiron, and a new song called For We Are Many that RIPS. If this song is any indication of what the upcoming album is like, ATR isn’t going anywhere. The closer was Two Weeks. As far as I could tell, the band sounded fine, but I was way too close and more concerned with jumping, moshing, singing along and not getting creamed by crowd surfers. Great fun though!

For We Are Many

The Air That I Breathe

This Calling

Ed Kowalczyk (from Live) was next on the opposite stage, and he got quite the reaction. He played a mix of stuff from his new solo album, plus a couple Live hits (All Over You, Selling The Drama, Dolphin’s Cry, I Alone, Lightning Crashes). Can’t say much else except that his backing band was very good, Ed himself sounded damn good, and the crowd was surprisingly into it. Good show!

Up next was a band I was interested in seeing, Hollywood Undead. Almost party rap, with a couple guitars thrown in, the live show was a bunch of guys running around on stage, wearing masks half the time, and rapping. What surprised me though, was that each member rotated around playing the electronic drum kit, keyboard, and guitar depending on which song they played. It wasn’t all samples/DJ’ing behind them. They also had a full-time drummer on stage. That actually made it a little better for me, that ALL of these guys can actually play something. As for the songs themselves, their stuff is just fun! They started with Undead, and also played Sell Your Soul, Bottle and a Gun, City, Young, California, Black Dahlia, No. 5, and of course closed with Everywhere I Go. (That song is completely stupid, but fun as hell!) The set was also great for watching all the wannabe hood rats in the crowd act all gangsta. What a riot.

The first of the “headliners”, Avenged Sevenfold came up and put on a hell of a show. It was obvious that a lot of people were there to see them, as the crowd response was huge. Not knowing a lot about them, I was very impressed. Even more impressed when during one of the songs, they stopped dead in their tracks because someone got hurt (knocked out?) up front, and got the crowd to separate to get the EMT’s in there. Great move. Since I couldn’t tell you any song titles, I’ll thank setlist.fm for the setlist: Nightmare, Critical Acclaim, Welcome to the Family, Beast and the Harlot, Buried Alive, So Far Away, Afterlife, God Hates Us, Unholy Confessions, Almost Easy.

The next “headliner” was Flyleaf, and between the couple songs I knew and what I checked out prior to the show, I was very interested in seeing them. They put on a great show, and while I was camped in front of the other stage, so I didn’t have a direct line of sight, I could see their bass player was easily the most engergetic person up on the stage. Lacey Mosely’s voice was strong, the band sounded fine, and they had a good mix between the two albums as far as song selection.


Among others (and probably not in order), they played Fully Alive, Beautiful Bride, Cassie, All Around Me, The Kind, and I’m So Sick. Pretty sure the closer was Arise. Interestingly enough, there was little to no talking to the crowd between songs at all. Just a brief pause, and right on with the next song. In any event, I think I’ll be checking them out if/when they come back around to give the set my full attention. I was a bit distracted, because I was too antsy waiting for…

LIMP BIZKIT. YES. Twelve years later, I finally got to see them again. Hell yeah, I was excited! Did it live up to expectations? Yes! They sounded great, the crowd was into it, Fred still dances like an idiot white-boy, DJ Lethal was hyping the crowd up, Wes had some crazy costume on, Sam’s bass still has the LED’s in the neck, the usual stuff you’d expect from the Bizkit. Freakin sweet. In a some-good, some-bad kinda way, there was nothing off of $3 Bill (save for Faith) in the set. Which means every song I saw was something I hadn’t seen before, but Counterfeit woulda been really cool. No matter. Fred came out to the barrier on the left side for a song (Eat You Alive I think?), off to a perch on the right for My Way, all the way on the left side stage for another song. All over the place. I think the crowd got tired, because after about the 4th song, the pit calmed down some, and we could actually breathe for a song or two. Even after that, I had room! Amazing! The closing stretch was pretty good, with Nookie, Take A Look Around, and Rollin’, and they brought it back old-school for the closer, bringing all the ladies up on stage for Faith. Right at the end of the song, they shot a ton of gold “flakes” (like cellophane ribbon hacked up) into the crowd, and those suckers were insidious. They went EVERYWHERE. (Even found some in my clothes when I got home!) Cool ending! Even if I never see them again, I’m glad I got to see them this time around, because dammit, I was a fan then, and I’m fan now! Setlist: Hot Dog, My Generation, Livin’ It Up, Eat You Alive, My Way, Break Stuff, Behind Blue Eyes, Nookie, Take A Look Around, Rollin’, Faith


The entire day was a success, the crowdsurfers weren’t too too bad, it wasn’t overly hot, while there were some fights in the crowd, there was nothing near/involving me, so that’s always a plus! Getting out of the parking lot however, well, not so much. Since I was way in the back and around a corner, I changed my clothes, sipped a bottle of water, put on some tunes, and napped in the car for an hour, because traffic didn’t move an inch. I didn’t even bother pulling out to get in line. Shoulda brought a whole cooler and tailgated some more. After that hour I got right out though!

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Front Porch: Done!

By Woopop | August 4, 2010 1:08 pm

– Beauty from the left side.
– Before the carnage...
– The paint kinda sucks, eh?
– Stairs were the first to go.
– Main decking removed too.
– Uh, do not enter, or something.
– Porch trex installed.
– This is where the swearing, er, magic happens!
– A lot of good one stair is gonna do ya!
– Stairs pretty much complete.
– The stairs are done!
– One railing down, one to go.
– Complete!
– Basking in the glow of a completed project!
– Beauty from the right side.
– Beauty from the left side.

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Eric’s Twitter Week-In-Review

By Woopop | August 1, 2010 11:50 pm

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Done… For now.

By Woopop | July 31, 2010 9:39 am

It’s as done as it’s going to be until Lowe’s gets the stair railing kits back in stock.

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Eric’s Twitter Week-In-Review

By Woopop | July 25, 2010 11:50 pm

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You got no front porch Lieutenant Dan!

By Woopop | July 24, 2010 4:11 pm

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Eric’s Twitter Week-In-Review

By Woopop | July 18, 2010 11:50 pm

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07/06/2010 Fuel, Danielle Barbe, Strike The Sky, Minds Open Wide (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)

By Woopop | July 13, 2010 3:57 pm

I met Greg out front of Water Street on one of the hottest day of the year, and we reluctantly walked inside. I say reluctantly because we figured it’d be nothing less than a sauna inside, and we were right. The first act up was a Rochester band called Minds Open Wide. I’m not quite sure what kind of sound they were going for, but I wasn’t terribly interested in them. However, the next local band was half the reason we came!

Strike The Sky was up next, and we met these guys through the More Than Me guys, and as such have seen them around, both playing and at MTM gigs, so we’re more than familiar with them. In fact, Greg got our tickets through Rob, the guitar player. We got right up front, and the guys put on an energetic six song set. They threw a couple new tunes at us (that I hadn’t heard, anyway) that sounded pretty damn good, plus Over You, Edge of the World, and Fail Me Now. They seemed to have sold a fair number of tickets themselves, as the crowd response was resounding between songs. Very solid all around.

(Yes, the pics from the iPhone suck. I know.)

– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Strike The Sky @ Water Street 07/06/10

The direct support act apparently has been with Fuel for most of this trek, Danielle Barbe and her band came out and put on a great set. Danielle has a strong voice, and her band was very impressive behind her. The sound could be described as adult-rock I suppose, certainly not heavy, but not necessarily light either. Catchy songs played well, and while this has nothing at all to do with the music nor the show, Ms. Barbe is very easy on the eyes as well haha.

– Danielle Barbe @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Danielle Barbe @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Danielle Barbe @ Water Street 07/06/10

Finally it was time for Fuel. Well, Brett Scallions and three other dudes. And not just “other dudes”, but bassist Brad Stewart and guitarist Jasin Todd (both formerly of Shinedown), and drummer Ken Schalk (ex-Candiria), who are no slouches. But most importantly, Brett was singing, so I wasn’t expecting anything less than a great time. How would one kick off that great time? Just like old times, with Untitled! New Thing was next, then a focus on Something Like Human with Empty Spaces and Prove. The first real big crowd pleaser was Jesus or a Gun, and then Sunburn was next. It was at this point you could start to tell that it wasn’t Carl Bell playing the solos, as Jasin’s solo didn’t quite measure up. Granted, he’d only been in the band about a week too (Yogi (ex-Buckcherry) had just left), so I wouldn’t say it’s entirely his fault. The band stuck to just songs off of the first two albums, which suited me just fine. (Won’t Back Down would have been the only one worth it anyway.), so it was onward with Slow, and two huge singalongs in Bad Day and Shimmer. Next was easily my favorite song (both on the album and of the night), Bittersweet, and the main set closed with a rowdy Ozone. The encore started with drummer Ken Schalk bringing out a Didgeridoo for a solo, and Brett climbed behind the drum kit to back him. We got back into the swing of things with Hideaway, and then Brett mentioned that a couple people had been yelling for the next song, so he decided to play it for us, that being a solo acoustic version of Elton John’s Daniel! Brett/Fuel had been playing it for years, I have multiple MP3′s of it, but I don’t think I ever got to see it live! Our night finished with the crowd-pleasing Hemorrhage.

– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10
– Fuel @ Water Street 07/06/10

Like I said up top, it wasn’t “original” Fuel as they were, and Jasin Todd had a tendency to “Shinedown-ize” a couple of the solos (it’s not like the guy can’t play at all, I’m guessing that’s his sound), but with Brett singing, it was more than good enough for nostalgia’s sake. I indeed had a great time, albeit hot and sweaty, singing along with songs I didn’t think I’d see performed live again.

Fuel Setlist: Untitled, New Thing, Empty Spaces, Prove, Jesus Or A Gun, Sunburn, Slow, Bad Day, Shimmer, Bittersweet, Ozone. Encore: Ken Schalk Didgeridoo solo (Brett on drums), Hideaway, Daniel (Brett solo acoustic), Hemorrhage.

Someone on YouTube got a really great video of “Daniel”:

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Eric’s Twitter Week-In-Review

By Woopop | July 11, 2010 11:50 pm

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Eric’s Twitter Week-In-Review

By Woopop | July 4, 2010 11:50 pm

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