Concert Reviews

Broken, Bruised, and Slightly Deaf

What’s up freaks?  Nick here.  We’re going to be doing a full concert wrap up coming up on Episode 53, but I wanted to just take a minute to recap the epic weekend that your tireless hosts had this past weekend.

Friday night Brian came up to MA and we headed out to the Epic Kings and Idols tour (Stolen Babies, Paradise Lost, Katatonia, and Devin Townsend) at the Worcester Palladium.  We’ll do a band-by-band breakdown later, but suffice it to say, it was excellent.  Most importantly, we had the opportunity to talk to Stolen Babies and setup an interview that we will be recording just before their new album Naught sees its official hard-copy release.  The album is available digitally now.  Go get it!

Saturday we met up with everyone’s favorite punching bag Kyle and a few friends from our college radio days and had a sweet paintball battle.  See Boondock Saints photo. 

Lastly, we wrapped up the weekend with a Skeletonwitch, Havok, and Early Graves tour that came through my neck of the woods and stopped in at The Waterfront Tavern in Holyoke, MA.  Another great show, and a thrashtastic way to wind down the weekend.  We took advantage of the small venue and lack of backstage area to introduce ourselves to the bands and work on setting up a couple interviews.  Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for those and a few other changes that we have in the works for year two!

We’ve got some other changes coming along to improve the show as we enter our second year, but we’re always open to your input and suggestions.  Feel free to leave ideas on our Twitter, Facebook, or right here in the comments!

From the Vault: A Not-So-LIVE REVIEW

The entire SIDESHOW Podcast pre-ordered our tickets months ago to see Machine fuckin’ Head along with Suicide Silence and Darkest Hour over two nights–first at the Best Buy Theater in NYC on 2/3 and again the very next night at The Palladium in Worcester. Sure, we’re almost three weeks removed from the concert but our recording schedule prevented us from talking about these epic displays of extreme on the air. However, we would never want to deprive the legions of faithful Freaks of our magnanimous guidance. That’s why we went old school to bring you this EXCLUSIVE live review.

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LIVE BLOG – Chimaira LIVE! at B.B. King’s, NYC

R(j) 12:14pm – Post-concert showers are the best. That’s all for tonight kids. Don’t forget about Episode #5 THIS SUNDAY where I’m sure we’ll have much more to say about this evening.

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R(j) 11:11pm – Where have I been for the last hour-and-a-half of this (not) live blog? Watching this show transform from the strangest, oddest concert experience into one of the best shows of the year. It may be my last time at BB’s but it was just the first of MANY Chimaira shows. (Did I mention I was a Chimaira virgin?) Mark Hunter is the consummate frontman, with his cocky smile and crazy eyes. Rob Arnold looks like he’s having more fun than a Brian in Disney World. The entire band is laughing and cracking jokes in a way I’ve never seen another band feel so at home on stage–all way maintaining complete. Fucking. BRUTALITY. Seeing Chimaira fills your veins with black evil and makes you want to tear down the Empire State Building by yourself, piece by piece–and I mean that in the best possible way. The live blog may have been an epic fail but tonight was an unbelievable success for every person in that venue.

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In Which We Started Our First Feud

You gotta love Twitter.

Last week, before we even posted the first episode of The SIDESHOW Podcast (go download it on iTunes NOW), yours truly, the ROCK(jock), managed to piss off a band and alienate its entire fan base. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Our new listeners will quickly realize I love to be bombastic and in your face. Remember though, it’s all in good fun (usually) and we’re just trying to entertain you. It looks like it worked too because not only did I have a blast doing it but apparently you all enjoyed following it as well! Thanks to everyone who checked out @SIDESHOWPodcast on Twitter for our first ever live Tweeting/review session at last week’s Frak the Gods Tour stop at Gramercy Theatre here in NYC. Expect more of these soon.

For those of you who missed it–WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?! Go! Head over to Twitter right now and follow @SIDESHOWPodcast for shenanigans like the ones below. That’s right–I’m awesome and won’t make you go fish out all the old Tweets. I’ve posted the entire transcript from last week’s live Tweeting session so you can experience for all the hilarity yourself–including my standoff with Stray From the Path. Boys–the offer still stands. Somebody needs to put me in my place!

NOTE: The Tweets go in reverse order (just as they would appear in your Twitter feed) and feature no time stamps. This is also completely unedited, hence why the Tweets sometimes appear out of the order they were intended. Once we get a handle on this whole, newfangled “blogging” thing, we’ll try being a little less ghetto and do a proper live blogging session from a show. But for now, you’ll enjoy it this way and be happy to have it.

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