I love going to live concerts. Chris and I get so few extended outings that we (read: I, with his money 
) will fly my parents out so that we can go to an all day concert. So it worked out that my parents could come for us to attend Band Camp 2008 this year. We missed last year's Band Camp, because Chris had a stomach bug, but we had seen most of the headlining bands before at EdgeFest 2005, so not a big deal. I was very excited and since I had been to EdgeFest (in Dallas, granted), I thought that I knew what to expect. So below is my review of the concert in general and then a review of each band that I saw. Warning: It's long, but I hope worth it.
Band Camp 2008, General Concert Review:
Chris and I did not buy tickets way in advance to the show, because my parents have been known to "flake out" on plans. Granted most of the time it happens due to circumstances beyond their control, but occassionally they just change their minds. My mom starts having problems with her back on Tuesday and I can foresee that my concert chances are quickly evaporating, but a day of rest and a hot bath seem to have her on the mend. Chris and I are in the truck and happen to hear the DJ on the Planet running a "Save Band Camp Telethon" because ticket sales are so lackluster. This then gets us worried that maybe the concert will be canceled, so we decide to hold off buying tickets until Thursday (the day before the concert) because that should let us know if it gets canceled, but still give us the advance ticket price. A conference at the school and Chris' conference call mean that we show up about 30 minutes after the doors open, so we miss most of Saving Abel. (I will do a minor review below.) It also earned an "I told you so" 
for Chris, because I had found out at EdgeFest that a band starts at these festivals when the doors open. Now he believes me.
Getting to the concert late:
Grade: D
The lack of a crowd was truly appalling. It was held at the Equestrian Center, so the dirt was horrible. We were literally covered in dust when we left. People who had attended an event here before were prepared with bandanas to cover their mouth and nose. The food was gross and the drinks were insanely expensive, but that was to be expected. The crowd just really lacked any enthusiasm. There were no real crowd surges, no one that I could really pick out that knew every lyric to every song that the bands sang (excepting huge radio hits), no real hype. The crowd probably doubled by the time Shinedown was on, but it was still pathetic.
Crowd:
Grade: D
Even worse though was the fact that Planet Radio was nowhere to be found. I wanted to find a band line-up to give my parents an idea of when we might be home, so I survey the tents set up while I am there waiting for Chris to finish his call. The army is there and a tatoo place, in addition to food and beverages, but no Planet Radio. It astounds me that the radio station could not send two interns to man a tent at the event that they were trying to promote. Granted, I don't know how involved they were in this, because their name was not anywhere at the concert, but it was plastered on their website and thoroughly promoted on the radio. You would expect a tent there. How in the world are you going to get some decent music to come here if the radio station that plays the music isn't even going to show up? What does that say? Planet really dropped the ball and in all likely likelihood guaranteed that we will not be having a Band Camp 2009. Thanks Planet!
Planet Radio:
Grade: F-
The mosh pit is a standard sight at one of these concerts and they are often dangerous and get more so as the night wears on. I like to be front and center in the concert, so we are frequently close to the moshing. Since the crowd was so sparse, especially early on, there was no real need to push to the front. So we stood to the left of the mosh pit and observed. It was a nice change to see a "polite" mosh pit (I know that those of you in the know are laughing at my terminology, but read on, it will make sense) for the first several acts. Of course some of these brain-damaged listeners have decided to bring their young children (I literally saw a 4-month old baby at the concert with its mom), usually around age 10. So I watch this 10-year-old boy get into the mosh pit and there is a full-mohawk, tatooed, pierced-out guy in the pit. He is not the biggest guy, but he is deceptively strong underneath. So this kid runs into him and this guy smiles and takes the hit, humoring the kid. It was very refreshing to not see the guy trip out and beat the kid. The guy could obviously control the pit and he kept it all friendly moshing for at least 3-4 bands. After that is when the rednecks (hicks, who knows what they are here) started the fist-fighting and were summarily ejected. The security kept a tight watch on the pit. While they may have expected problems from the guy with the mohawk, he was the perfect mosh gentlemen. So kudos to you mosh man!
Mosh Pit:
Grade: A
At every concert the sound system takes a while to adjust. So they do sound checks and let the first band perform. Then they normally adjust the sound again before the second band and they have it better, if still not quite right. By the third or fourth band, the speakers are all perfect and the sound is pretty uniform throughout the venue, varying only in volume based on distance from the speaker. That unfortunately was not the case here. The speakers on the right side sounded like they had busted the sub-woofer or had it turned to all treble. While I could accept that for the first band (which I mostly missed) and even the second, there were no adjustments made EVER! You could not stand on the right side of the stage if you wanted to remotely hear the music bear any resemblance to the song that was being played. It was inexcusable! We stayed to stage left all night so that the sound was better. The sound people should be blacklisted!
Sound System:
Grade: D
The last general concert thing I am going to blog about is the tendency to throw things. I truly fail to understand this. First of all, it can hurt people. Second of all, after you have spent $5 on a single bottle of beer (the flying drink of choice here) why in the world are you sending it flying into the crowd half full? What a waste of money!
Throwing Things:
Grade: F
Saving Abel:
So the first band in the line-up was Saving Abel. I did not get to hear their music pre-concert, except the one that they have on Planet Radio called "Addicted". It is a catchy song with easy, mindless lyrics that you are singing by the end of the song the first time hearing it. I would have had to have bought their other items and Chris was not real hot to spend the money to see if they were any good, so I had nothing to really judge them on before I went. Since we arrived late, I heard them as we were driving into the parking lot and while getting inside the venue. They did not sound bad, but they also did not sound like anything special. Decent music from what I could tell, but I could not make out the lyrics because I was behind the speakers for most of the performance. They exited the stage as I got out onto the viewing area.
Grade: I (for Incomplete, since it seems unfair to grade them per above)
Hurt:
Since I downloaded all the available music from every band onto our media center once Band Camp was announced, I had a pretty decent recollection of this band's songs. To the best of my knowledge, I have never heard them on Planet Radio, which is extremely disappointing. At the very least once a concert is coming to town that you are promoting, start playing releases from all the bands going. I was really interested in seeing them perform. Their songs were solid on the album, but it really seemed like they were holding back. Almost like they were too worried that the record execs (Capitol) would cancel their album if they rocked it out anymore.
I can say they gave a great performance. I was absolutely right that the lead singer could kill it when he wanted and they really rocked several of their songs. The lead singer slightly resembles Jason Statham in build and looks, but he does not move quite that well. He climbed the lights on stage left at one point and seemed to be quite concerned about coming down. Yet, it did not affect his ability to sing at all. He did appear to be older (at least 35), even though Wikipedia puts him at 26. Guess the rock life has been rough on him.
They have a lot of potential. They have really solid beats to their songs, good lyrics, and a good stage presence. They will improve with more experience and I would go see them again given the chance. I also have to say that I am very impressed that they are now the second rock band that I know that uses an electric violin in their rock songs. (Blue October being the other.) The contrast is very cool and shows a lot of musical talent on the part of the lead singer. I will say that their albums do not do them justice, even though I think that they produced two solid albums. They way outperform their albums in a live setting. So I recommend acquiring their albums now and seeing them live if you have the chance.
Grade: A
Theory of a Deadman:
This was one of the bands that we saw as a "bonus" at EdgeFest on the second stage. I told Chris that it was worth skipping whoever was performing on the main stage to come see this band. I knew that they were going to be good in concert. (I have a knack for being able to call that.) I was not disappointed and Chris was impressed. They rocked the hell out of all of their songs.
They recently released another album and it seems to have picked up right where the other one left off. They either wrote about the same bad relationship or this guy has some serious problems developing healthy relationships. I love the songs and lyrics and they still rock the hell out of it. Additionally, they are not remotely fazed by flying objects, even when they hit the guitar that the lead singer is playing. I was truly impressed by the focus. The lead singer also has great stage presence and crowd interaction, before he started one of the songs, he said he needed to see a circle (pit) form "right there". They rock and really give it their all. They are worth the ticket price alone. Go see them if you have the chance. You will not be disappointed.
The only disappointment that I had with them was their placement in the line-up. I really felt that they should have been after Ashes Divide and really debated if they should have been after Filter. They far exceed both bands on any standard.
Grade: A++
Ashes Divide:
So this was a band that I had never heard of before, but I dutifully downloaded all their music and listened in anticipation. The lead singer was from A Perfect Circle, so I was actually quite excited to hear his new band. Unfortunately, it was disappointing when I heard the music that he chose to produce and even more so when I saw it live. It did not belong at this concert. While A Perfect Circle would have fit in fine here, his new band just was not up to snuff. It is much more along the lines of The Bravery 
than Shinedown or Theory of a Deadman. They did not seem bad if you like that type of music, but they offer no improvement upon being seen live from their album, which is a definite standard that I apply. Why pay to see them live if you can get the same out of playing it yourself for free? It was so blah that I actually told Chris, let's go get something to eat, it is not worth wasting my eardrums (I inevitably forget earplugs).
Grade: C-
Filter:
Chris had seen Filter before in concert, but it was before we were together, so at least 12.5 years. It seems that age has not been kind to them. I don't listen to a lot of Filter. I had the album with "Hey Man, Nice Shot" and enjoyed that album, but saw no reason to purchase the one with "Take a Picture". They seemed to mellow too much, which is not what I was looking for. Even so, I was excited to see them because I think that they produce some very cool music like, "(Can't You) Trip Like I Do", which I enjoy listening to occassionally.
They take the stage and it is like a disaster. The lead singer can't seem to sing. It sounds like his albums have obviously been studio hits and "Hey Man, Nice Shot" is an abomination. I can only hope that I can block it out when I hear the album version. Additionally, their new songs suck. Bad. If they were not in 1995, they have definitely become a studio band and should not be allowed to perform. We actually stayed seated in the back to not waste our energy they were so bad.
So in addition to being insulted by their (lack of) performance, the lead singer was completely out of touch. I guess in an effort to hype the crowd and show that he knew where he was, he kept throwing "Jacksonville" in to the songs. But it was at completely inappropriate times, like during "Take a Picture", he goes "...take my picture Jacksonville, but I won't remember.." Not the best place to put that in if you are trying to kiss-up. But that was minor compared to the embarrassment that he caused next. He said, "Everyone says that Jacksonville is the place to play." I can't even hold it in, I call "BULLSH**!" To which the guy in front of me turns around and goes, you are absolutely right, WTF!?!? We have Orlando, Miami and Tampa in Florida and Atlanta is 6 hours north. There is no way that any self-respecting musician is going to say that Jax is the place to go. Say that in Austin, that is dubbed the "Live Music Capital of the World" or any major city, but not Jax. He embarrassed himself and worse embarrassed us by saying that. It was insulting because it was so obviously not true and yet he sounded like he meant it sincerely. Too many trips for you. Please don't trip like he does.
Grade: D- (The Jax comment alone could have given him this grade, but they were awful.)
Shinedown:
So somehow I got my wires crossed and thought that Shinedown was the headliner for the concert, but it was apparently Serj, go figure. Yet another line-up mistake. We saw Shinedown at EdgeFest as well and they were the main reason that we went to Band Camp this year. They are awesome and we were a little concerned to get too close in Dallas, because that was a serious mosh pit. They put on a very solid show and in three years their fame has only grown.
Jax is their hometown, so I really expected an awesome turnout, but it was disappointing. Chris and I were 4-5 rows of people back. There was no crowd surge and I had at least a 12-inch radius of free space that I could have around me at anytime with only a slight shift of position. It was truly appalling. We were still to the left of the mosh pit and this is when the fist-fight broke out, but I merely stepped 12-inches to the left and was plenty clear of the incident. The most danger that I was ever in was the long-haired 40+-year-old that was jumping during one of the hit songs falling on me and taking me out. He had a little too much to drink and his girl had to keep a guiding hand on him to keep him in a controlled area.
Shinedown does an awesome job of working the crowd. The lead singer is an amazing performer. He challenged the crowd to "beat" their upcoming tour dates and he would post the winner on their website. A rather sneaky way to get you there. Then he has the crowd singing along to one of the NEW songs. Any crowd can get into an old favorite, but selling them on the new, UNRELEASED (until 6/24) songs is quite a sell. He did it though. They played several of their well-known hits and several of their new songs off their upcoming album. It was an awesome performance. I really look forward to the new album. I will go see Shinedown everytime possible. They are awsome!
Grade: A++
Serj Tankian (formerly of System of a Down):
So I have listened to System of a Down for more than 5 years now. There are some songs I love (read: "Aerials") and some songs that are just crap (read: "Sugar"). I also like a lot of their in-between stuff, like "B.Y.O.B." and "Prison Song". They either have some provocative lyrics, nice contrasts in the songs, or cool changes in the rhythms. Chris thinks that they are crap and that Serj can't sing at all. Granted he is not Michael Buble, but he can warble out certain songs in a five-note range and this music is experimental, so we are not expecting anything really. I enjoy "Empty Walls", but Chris and I both agreed that Serj was not worth staying for. So I did not see him at all once we saw that he was the final act.
Grade: I (for Indeterminate, wasn't there so can't say)
Overall:
Overall the concert was well-worth the price ($65 for 2 tickets with all of Ticketmaster's "Convenience charges"). Shinedown and Theory of a Deadman are worth paying that for and we got Hurt thrown in as a bonus. I also know now that I do not need to waste my time seeing Ashes Divide at Projekt Revolution in Aug, but I could have called that without actually seeing them. Even though the concert promoters have probably screwed us out of another Band Camp, I enjoyed this event.
Grade: B+