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Strange Night at the Boardwalk Brian Linville December 11, 2003 The Boardwalk -- A Thursday night that competed heavily with KWOD's huge Twisted Christmas concert at Arco Arena, The Boardwalk in Orangevale managed to attract a good crowd with its line up of locals and international headliner. Despite the cover being roughly twice the amount of a typical local show, Sacramento favorites Winter Reign, Endever, and Strange House brought with them their core fan base to mix with the fans of Italy's biggest goth rock band, Centuria Media recording artists, Lacuna Coil. This show would mark the first time Lacuna Coil fans could see the band in the Sacramento region as this was the band's first U.S. tour. No doubt those Lacuna Coil fans with the mentality that unsigned bands are not as good as the nationals, would be in for a surprise with the caliber of local bands on the bill waiting in store for them.
At 8:15 p.m. sharp, Winter Reign took the stage to the quarter filled club. Starting off with one of their staple songs, "Standing in the Rain," the band had the crowd on their feet, in front of the stage, and under their spell. The band's second song, }"When Angels Play" introduced their new sampler, run by drummer Deelan, adding a new level for Winter Reign fans on hand.
The band gave the audience a chance to breath while they retuned. If anyone in the room was not already a fan, the band dug their hooks into them a little deeper with crowd favorite "On My Knees." A deceptively mellow song with an explosive, open chorus that the growing crowd went nuts over.
The band lost the crowd's attention just a little going into their newer song "Mindfuck," but that could have been because lead singer and guitarist Azeron switched to his clean tone which was difficult to hear in the mix. At the end of "Mindfuck," Azeron announced they had CDs for sale in the back, and a few people actually ran right then and there, to go buy some, and ran back to the stage before the next song.
Despite some tuning problems, Winter Reign managed to keep the crowd transfixed by their weave of melody and crunch, that left Lacuna Coil fans that had perhaps never seen a local show before, wondering what they've been missing all this time.
Just a few minutes before 9 p.m., a band with a lot of label interest at the moment, Endever took the stage. Due to time constraints, the band didn't get to play some of the more popular of their songs that they had saved for the end. But their shortened set did nothing but make the crowd want more.
While not having a goth influence as Lacuna Coil or Winter Reign, Endever followed a similar formula of catchy vocal melodies and a focus on the song, rather than the individual riff. Staying fairly true to their emo influences, much of Endever's songs start off poppy and melodic then get more and more tense until reaching a climax of multiple guitar layers, complex drum parts, and screaming vocals. But before you can label them an emo band, lead singer and lead guitarist Michael Grant, manages to slip in shredding, fast guitar solo without you even realizing, "Hey, you're not supposed to play a solo in modern rock." Though they might seem at first like a mainstream band, with much of their radio ready music, Endever is not afraid to venture away from the commercial radio formula with their sometimes long song arrangements, multiple choruses, and sometimes Pink Floyd-ish, psychedelic bridges.
One example of that was how they moved in their final song of the night "In the Shadows" with a slow, backwards reverb guitar solo while the rest of the band played a down tempo jazz rhythm. With matching dress shirts and ties, plenty of stage jumps and hops, Endever proves themselves as a band to watch as well as hear.
Third up was the somewhat new band Strange House. Though only hitting the scene in full force almost a year ago, the band has already earned a decent sized following. Strange House brought to the bill an impressive mix of old school thrash and, at times, an older Alice in Chains kind of bluesy rock sound-a sound that especially came out in the stand out song "Sunshine." Thankfully, singer Paul didn't carry the great, but over copied style of AIC front man Layne Staley, but rather had his own singing style. Harsh enough to match the music, but smooth enough to bring out some of the beauty to some of the more mellow parts of their set. Those mellow parts were short lived as the band would focus mostly on being as loud and as heavy as possible.
Contrasting sharply with Endever, the band just before them, Strange House played an older brand of metal, but without solos-though only the most die hard of guitar solo fan would have missed them. The lack of solos only kept lead singer Paul, doing what he did best.
Lacuna Coil fans seemed to materialize out of nowhere as the six piece band from Italy took the stage. Though generally lumped in the "goth" category, Lacuna Coil mixes old school goth with industrial rock and elements of thrash-sounding at times like a cross between Switchblade Symphony and Rammstein. Though used to playing to tens of thousands of people on their tour stops throughout Europe, the band still hit the small Boardwalk crowd full force. By the first chord of the first song "Swamped," the crowd was packed tight against the stage and ready to scream along. "Swamped," the first track off their newest effort, "Comalies," sets up the Lacuna Coil sound nicely. Female vocalist Cristina Scabbia opens the song with the chorus in her high, piercing, but yet, devastatingly beautiful voice then lets male vocalist Andrea Ferro take over for the verse. The two mostly switched off vocal duties, but occasionally harmonize on various parts.
The band moved on to one of their many fan favorites "To Live is to Hide" at which point their drunkest fan joined them on stage. After the song was over, vocalist Andrea asked the young woman her name. After several attempts at trying to understand her drunken rambling, he finally smiled and led her off stage to continue the show. The woman would try several more times to get on stage through out the set, screaming, "Hey, I know them," to security that eventually removed her from the club for good.
After the neck breaking heavy number "Tight Rope," the band took another break to talk to the crowd. Vocalist Andrea said, "This is the part where we leave the stage and you scream for us to come back and play more songs." The crowd wanted no part of that. They wanted to hear more songs now. The band gave in immediately to the highly energized crowd and played for them the biggest hit off their newest CD, "Heaven's a Lie" - a song most the crowd knew by heart. With the closing song "Daylight Dancer," the twelfth song of their long set, the crowd continued to scream for more.
They would have to settle instead for well received thanks from the band and a steady stream of autographs. |
