Houston We Have a Problem Festival

This post is long overdue because the Houston We Have a Problem festival happened March 18th 2012.  Hectic would be the word to epitomise that entire day/night.  In a nutshell, Vicci and I ventured to Houston to this festival to interview Asking Alexandria and I See Stars for Rock Edition, and after much goose-chasing around backstage and in the back parking lot, it never ended up happening because long story short: some tour managers are difficult to get a hold of.  I'm just going to leave it at that.  On the flip side, Vicci and I received wristbands from the gracious Shawn of Sumerian Records which granted us backstage access and access in front of the barricade to take photos and such.  It was a great experience overall.

The festival combined two tours, the Still Reckless Tour and the Fire and Ice tour, with co-headliners of We Came as Romans and Asking Alexandria.  In total, sixteen bands played from 1pm to midnight, and because so many bands played, I'll listen them all with commentary on a few of them.  Be sure to click the names and check out their music yourselves!  It may seem unfair that I'm writing about only a few bands, but unfortunately I cannot recollect all memories and thoughts about every single band.  They were all good and gave good performances, and the audience loved them all!

Smoking Hearts

Make Me Famous
I had heard of these guys several times via AP Magazine, and they impressed me!

mychildren mybride
Upon a Burning Body
Attila
Stick to Your Guns

I See Stars
I was looking forward to I See Stars the most because last time they were in Austin, they had to cut their set short due to technical difficulties, so this was my chance.  (Plus I was under the impression that we were going to successfully interview them.)  The entire festival consisted of hardcore metal screamo bands, and I wondered about I See Stars fitting in here because although they are screamo...they still have more of a pop rock sound too while the previous bands scream through entire songs.  But much to my pleasant surprise, I See Stars pulled it off.  They were energetic, they got the crowd pumped and they got the security guys in front of the barricade working hard!  Devin told the crowd to make their way to the stage crowd surfing and such, and the audience obliged.  It literally was a wave of people climbing over the barricade one after the other.  One thing I learned afterwards about I See Stars is that a few days earlier at SXSW, Devin went to the hospital for headbanging too hard and hurt his neck.  From watching them at this festival, I would not have guessed that at all, and that's awesome.

Motionless in White
Chelsea Grin
A Skylit Drive
Born of Osiris

Bless the Fall
Heard about these guys from different people, and they were really good!

For Today
Emmure

We Came As Romans
One word: flawless.

Asking Alexandria
I had been meaning to check these guys out a long time ago, and I always confused them with Attack Attack! because of the double A's.  They put on an awesome performance, and I wouldn't mind seeing them again!  And I had no idea they were from Britain!