The Sound of Madness

See, a new quick post again! But only because had one of the best days so far, going to West Palm Beach for the Buzz Bake Sale 2008. One day full of great music, and some fine Florida weather!

As you can see in the photo album of Buzz Bake, I took an early train to WPB (these things only go every two hours, during weekends, I remember why I loved train transport in Holland so much). This Tri-Rail had a little delay, leaving around 8:50 instead of 8:40 as it was intended to, and we didn't quite get there with just 10 minutes delay either. But hey, it was comfortable, and only 4 dollars. Try that for gasoline, anywhere. Even with these prices (well under 2 dollars for a gallon - which is about 3.8 liters).

The cab fare was a bit more off, as it costed me little over 30 bucks to get from the train station to the Cruzan Amphitheatre. Well over 9 miles as Google Maps mentioned. That's quite far from a train station still. But hey, everyone has a car here, so who needs anything close to a station, right?

The morning started out with Sponge [7,5/10], playing at 11:00. With a nice sun on the crowd, they played a few nice songs, keeping everybody happy. I was reasonably up front as my favorite band of that day would be playing afterwards.
Favorite band, they were, but the title for Band of the Day definately does not go to Anberlin [8/10]. What can I say? They played the songs I expected, they entertained the crowd a lot (judging the amount of crowdsurfers around, there was enough energy. Or maybe they just wanted to release some hormones in general) but there was something off with the guitars. There seemed to be too much noise on them, almost drowning out their own solo in one of the songs during the set. The vocals were amazing, as good as I know Stephen can deliver, and KNate did an awesome job drumming through the day, but the set-up of guitars just made all a bit less perfect than it should have been.
Went to the Pick The Band stage, where small bands played, and saw two songs from Transmit Now from afar. Didn't really caught my attention, and honestly I wasn't involved enough to rate them. Might be unfair. Back to the second stage to see my favorite pianist. The man I adore for ever leading (and writing for) Something Corporate. His new outfit Jack's Mannequin [8/10], put up a solid performance. There was nothing much exciting about it though, and the music in general never touched the greatness of the music portrayed on the Something Corporate DVD I have back at home. One of the better things about Andrew, next to his energetic piano playing and movements, was that he told people to "in case you missed the message, take your aggression elsewhere as we're not that type of band".
After that, off to the main stage, where I had a seat, rather than a place on the big grass field behind everything else. Sat down and enjoyed music from The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus [9/10]. These guys played a great show. A really proper display of their diverse qualities. Great high-pitched vocals changed with good grunts (all from the same man), and an amazing cover of Filter's "Hey Man, Nice Shot". Heard two of their main songs, Don't You Fake It and Face Down during the setlist too. Stage activity could have been better, or maybe it's been because of the half-filled seating area that it just wasn't all that impressive in the end, but they have nothing to complain about, music wise.
Up next was Saving Abel [5/10], a hard rock outfit complete missing their chance to make me a fan. Their song "Addicted" is nice to hear, but having a show consisting of songs that all sound alike, with little interaction and a guitarist that looked like he could get an orgasm on stage due to his own guitar playing... Just not that good, really.
Back to the Second Stage to catch a bit of Skindred [6,5/10]. Maybe I have a biased opinion on this one, but from where I stood, the music (except for guitars) wasn't that amazing, and the band tried to play the audience, more than they tried to play their music. Went away after 3 songs to catch some more Main Stage action.
By the time I got there, Flobots [6,5/10] had taken the stage. They played a combination of music I've loved before. Guitars, drums and rap. They even added in a violin, I've also seen that work on stage. However, nothing about the show, except for the violin play, really got to me. Hardly anything good to say about the sounds coming out of the other instruments too. I stuck around because there was not much else to see, and now I can admit I've seen them live and form an opinion, but I wasn't that impressed here.
After that, I got some company on the seats as my neighbours for the night, entered to watch a few bands before their main band Avenged Sevenfold would play. They witnessed Hawthorne Heights [7,5/10] put up a good show. I think I remember seeing them with 3 guitarists about two years ago, on Lowlands, and honestly, I thought they sucked at the time. This second chance, however, was one during which they changed my mind about them. With only two guitarists and a nice display of music (though the vocals, for some reason, just can't appeal) they earned their score. The guitarist (and screamer) missing this time, died of drug overdose a little over a year ago.
Next up was a band I know through their vocalist contributing on a song for a Spider Man movie, where he sings the theme together with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger. Josey Scott, lead singer of the band Saliva [6,5/10] apparently gained more weight since then, and came up on stage, dressed in black and slight obesity. One of their guitarists seemed completely wasted/fucked up, as he poured a bottle of wine/champagne all over him at the start of the concert, making moves that might have worked for Ozzy Osbourne someday. The clean vocals weren't always up to standard and other than that I also didn't really like the music overall. Their ending song, Your Disease, is the song I knew before their show, and even that one failed to really impress.
Up next, one of the bands I really anticipated seeing. Atreyu [9/10]. I think they owe their score to their music more than their vocals or presence today, or maybe even the fact that I know all songs. The music was good, the vocals were as they should be (though the clean vocals from screamer Alex are not something he should focus on) and the crowd loved it too.
My band of the day was Shinedown [10/10]. With a vocalist/frontman that earned himself a spot in my Top 3 of Stage Presence Musicians (alongside Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and 30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto), everything looked and sounded great, and the interaction between songs were nothing short of great entertainment. The sea of lighters and cell phones that he commanded looked really, really amazing, and the song "45" they played during this event, was really good. I've been listening to their last album "The Sound of Madness" the entire day now. If anyone can catch these guys playing their city/state/country, they should definately do so. Amazing band.
As amazing as they were, as amazing the act of Avenged Sevenfold [10/10] was. The man responsible for lifting the score from [9,5/10] to [10/10] was lead guitarist Synyster Gates (Brian Haner Jr.), who single-handedly amazed me. Up until the time where he took the entire stage alone, to mess with his guitar, play an amazing solo, and then play the introduction to the next song before the rest of the band came up again, the band had been performing perfectly. The music was amazing, the vocals nothing short of extraordinary (both screams as well as clean) and the band was enjoying a marvellous lightshow aiding their conquest of fans all over the place. In addition, I think I've never seen that many people with band merchandising in one single show. Let alone on a full concert day. Avenged Sevenfold (or A7X) can't get much bigger than they are right now.

Next concert for me, seems to be December 27. There For Tomorrow, Go Radio! and three other bands. I'll report back at the time.

Here is the first single taken of Shinedown's 2008 album, The Sound of Madness.
This one is called "Devour", and they opened with this song.