Welcome to The End of the World Party

Another successful show tonight!  Only saw three out of five bands due to me having class until 7PM:  I See Stars, IWRESTLEDABEARONCE, and Of Mice & Men.  According to the That's Outrageous' drummer, Max Wrye, they played first, and they have a sound that's similar to I See Stars - pop mixed with hardcore.  I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed to have missed their set, but I will take a listen to their music and write about them for my next "New Band of the Week."

Disregard the blurred quality

When I arrived at Emo's East, I See Stars was finalizing their stage setup.  Perfect timing.  Unfortunately, these guys only played four songs due to technical difficulties.  After talking with several people, the situation was that their mixer/sampler was not working therefore they "couldn't play" their songs.  I realize their sound effects and whatnot are important to them, but I think they still could have played their set without it.  They have fans there who paid money to see them, and the band's gonna cut it short because they couldn't get their laptop to sync up?  Well, they made that decision, and what's done is done.

Regardless of the shorter set-list, they still did an awesome performance.  To go on with the show, they performed three songs off their first album and closed with their hit single from their second album (and my personal favorite), "The End of the World Party" (below).  As always, I See Stars had great energy on stage.  Devin (lead singer) did cool microphone tricks, and the rest of the band played their instruments and danced in sync with each other, which is a common performance technique utilized by Michigan bands.  With much disappointment, their performance was cut short, but they will be back headlining in January with an hour and a half set!

("The End of the World Party")

The next band to perform was IWRESTLEDABEARONCE (I Wrestled A Bear Once).  They brought utter chaos to the venue.  All their movements onstage were incredibly intense - I thought the guitarist was going to fling his guitar at me.  In all honesty, I probably wouldn't listen to this band on my own time, but there's no denying that they put on a great show.  What impressed me the most is that their lead singer/screamer is a girl, which I've never seen before.  She can seamlessly change from singing with a pretty voice to a hardcore scream in a second.  That's pretty awesome. 

An interesting aspect to their music is that it can be unpredictable.  Sometimes when a band plays, even if you're not familiar with their songs, you can figure it out as it progresses, but with IWRESTLEDABEARONCE, it's completely different.  For the most part, you can figure out the songs, but sometimes they'll play a fast section of the song then instantly transition to a slow section.  They even included elements of (what I wanna call) "Louisiana" sounds, which is where they're from.  I have to say that they did strike a chord with me, and I wouldn't mind seeing them again.  I feel as if I can only see them live and completely forget about buying or downloading their music.

Last but not least, Of Mice & Men.  I wrote about them in my previous post for "New Band of the Week," and they definitely did not disappoint me.  Seeing them live is a whole different experience than just simply listening to their albums, which could also be said about many other bands, but it holds extremely true to Of Mice & Men.  They too brought an immense amount of energy and their performance was insane.  They literally controlled the crowd and told them what to do, and everyone in the audience was pumped up.

My friend and I were not close to the pit but close enough to see it, and we still managed to get pushed and shoved and ran into.  That's how intense these guys made the crowd feel.  The bassist and vocalist, Shayley Bourget, has a phenomenal voice that will make you think, "Damn, he can really sing!"  What's amazing as well is that he claims to not being able to hear himself as they were performing because he didn't have the right earplugs, and I have to give him props for singing without them.  They really know how to perform, and it shows.  Even a little choreography was incorporated to their playing as well.  You can tell they're giving it their all onstage and can see they love doing what they do.

Tonight was genuinely great to say the least.  It's been awhile since I've been to a hardcore show like this...probably since the "Scream It Like You Mean It" tour, but this one was a lot more intense.  I can't wait for the show tomorrow night (or tonight I should say) and definitely can't wait to see another full performance by I See Stars in January!