I'm on my way out now. I will probably get my camera stopped after trouble. so don't be looking for some PM5K pictures.

actually, the manager for pm5k is a wicked cool dude. he's wearing a living sacrifice hoodie and says I'm all set.

this show is like a list of bands that I never thought or wanted to see. Know this while reading the reviews. So far all the people that I've seen here that I know are either here cause their brother's girlfriend's sister's cousin's brother's boyfriend's former college roommate is in one of the openers OR they are here for trouble. The band, not the problamatic situation.

into apathy: (second stage) the first band that isn't my bag. the singer I swear was the singer for some other band that I can't think of right now. nu-metally rock. No screaming, but the singer's singing voice wasn't out of tune at all. That's a plus.

before the rise: (main stage) ok, when you think you are going to see below the rise, make sure it's not before the rise. I've made this mistake tonight. They sounded really pollished and all. Nu-metally nu metal with heavy screaming parts. Tons of people packed up at the front to see them, including a certain percussionist for a band that is all about "the brown-colored machine", but I'm not outing anyone.

deschain: (second stage) hm.. If the lead vocals were removed I would really like what I heard. The bassplayer was the highlight of the band. His playing was loud an really stuck out, but I made the drummer sound like he was hesitating a lot. Like he was constantly just wanting for cues and pulling his drum hits because of it. The back up vocals were good (better that the leads) and the guitarists pulled out a bunch of good metallica and almost iron maiden riffs. Still, it was nu-metally and not my bag, but they had some redeming qualities.

trouble: (main stage) the trouble fans were all up front 20 minutes before trouble started. It was like the highschool year book from 1985-88 there and where they ended up. I talked to BML at the merch table and the coffee pot beside the stage is cause everyone is sick on the tour. The singer is probably getting tea made for himself.
It was awesome-ish... Granted it was awesome, but they only played one doomy song. The rest were all rock songs. I was hoping for more of the doom (older) songs. They were only given like 35 minutes at first to played, but as they got going the sound guy told them that their stage crew got them an extra 10+ minutes. Amazing. When I heard that, I grinned from ear to ear. The dude who was running the stage might have been fear factory's tour manager. Looked like what I remember him looking like. This was also good cause the line outside was still huge. Anyone who showed up just in time for trouble would have missed them cause of the line outside. hopefully these guys headline a tour someday and take it back to the 80's with their albums. Until then, we will have to live with the extra 10 minutes of goodness we were granted.
I was trying to get shots of the drummer, but the bassist kept getting in the way. I also tried to shoot a lot with no flash... that probably wasn't the best idea... as so as they ended, the RI crew turned and ran for the AS220 show.

what lassie?! there's trouble at mark's showplace?!

ha!

bang n jane: (main stage) I have absolutely no clue who these people are. The bassist looked like he was in meliah rage, but that's not him. er.. I'm 99% sure it's not him. They weren't nu-metal at all. More heavy rock. The songs were all written well, but it's a style of music that I don't care about. You who does seem to care about their music? Drunk girls. The entire front row was all drunk girls. Very odd. Their set was pretty short which leads me to believe that they are local.

the band cage 9 is setting up now. they look which young. hm.. hope they are dees.

cage 9: (main stage) the singer looked sort of like jared leito..er.. lado.. um.. the guy that gets shot in the head in panic room. They had MP3 samples and the drummer had fancy in ear monitor$. They also had dillinger escape plan type lights and strobes. This will be cool... I think...
Their musc is summed up in 3 words: taste of chaos. They both looked and sounded very much like a band from LA. they could have been sponsored by mabalene (sp? it's an eyeliner/makeup joke). I'm not into the music, but I'm telling you that they will get big. I wouldn't be surprised if they got on taste of chaos next year. One thing that was cool is tey knew the openers so they shouted them out. That was cool of them. I always respect it when bands know more that the name of the town (read of the back of their guitar of course). next time you see pictures of them, it will be on dU.

prospect hill: (second stage) out of all the bands on this bill, I find it hilarious that I'm shooting PH. That's this the rap-core band? Then nu-metal? I honestly don't know cause I've never seen or heard them. I'm just going on rumors. the sounds like the devildriver effect. What do I know? well, they sounded more emo than anything. again, very TOC and even put in some breakdowns. When the singer talked, he sounded a lot like randy (lamd of god). And then they tried to get the crowd to do the wall of death which they learnt/stole from LOG. That didn't happen. At least all those dreds were interesting to shoot.

seems like an interesting show

yeah, "interesting"

when ever I type reviews like the one above, I post it at the show and then turn around and meet members of the band and they are wicked nice and energetic people. It doesn't make me like the music, but it humanizes them more than my mis-spelled, mis-grammered joke reviews. With that said the dudes I met from prospect hill with Hammer were really nice and energetic.

powerman 5000: (main stage) when the guy said no flash, I was a little disappointed... But then when I saw the lights on the side of the stage, I was <lisp>super psyched</lisp>. The lights were all the equipment from cage 9 on the stage. Except with more space so the lights filled out more area. the only thing left on stage was the lights an pm5k's equipment. Turns out the lead dude in cage 9 was the guitarist for pm5k. As for the band, I honestly expected them to float out on hover cars powered by their own egos. That didn't happen at all. This band is very down to earth (it seems that way atleast). I was very surprised at their stage presence. They pull more from the pages of iggy pop, the casualties, or the ramones on stage than the nu-metal bands that they sit associated with on commercial radio. The singer's interactions with the crowd were probably the best I've ever seen from a band on Mark's stage. Even when things broke on stage, they just kept going. This is were even people playing it cool and like they don't care will actually show that they are debutants. After I typed that, the singer talked about liking and growing up on the tough haverhill streets on bands like the sex pistols the clash, and the ramones. It definitly colored how he acted on stage. he also looked vaguely like Cid. Hm.. The songs that weren't known jock-metal hits were all sort of punky sounding. You could tell the difference easily; if there were samples at the beginning, it was nu-metal. If not, it was punky. Once they played two old songs in a row. I realized how much I didn't want to be there and left. This was right after the singer mentioned them playing the Ratt. I wanted to ask him to pick up that name he dropped. Instead, I just jetted and it those lonely lonely (and tough) streets.

I'm home working on pictures.

pictures processing

Cheap Trick rules!

Awesome show! Bang N' Jane tore it up. And for you, Reverend, the set was the same length as all the other openers. Nice pics of all the bands, well done.

so did you make it through those tough lonely streets okay?

yes, i went to taco bell.

part of RI crew here, got home just in time for Unearthly Trance. 2.5 hours back the snow made the drive slow motion mayhem.

I'm ditching work early to catch Trouble in Hartford tomorrow!

prospect hill used to be this band panacea they were like a hardcore/ deftones influenced band.
prospect hill uses some of panacea's riffs not really my style. i saw panacea at the old exit 23 in haverhill that was an odd show it had a mexican deathmetal band on it... really odd i forget their name. if you go anywhere in the valley you will see prospect hill stickers everywhere.

I missed the Trouble set except for the last song. Thanks to Marks for putting a legendary band on so early and giving them such a short set. We were stuck in line even though we had tix I guess because the Fire Dept or Cops said the place was over capacity. I think they judged it on the packed parking lot. Anyhow I heard 95% of Trouble's set in the hallway thanks to that. what a clusterfuck! A friend and I went to see Trouble play in CT on Monday ....it was amazing! they played for like an hour and half! Don't miss them if you like classic doom metal when they come back.