The first concert for the Temple's Kansas branch (which is just me) was this lovely little gathering of a few Emo-kids (also known as wastes of space), a few troo kvlt Black Metal fans there with their armbands of doom for GOATWHORE, my friend and I, and finally a fucking shit load of Metalcore kids everywhere! If there is one thing about Kansas that I hate a lot is that there is so many Metalcore and Emo kids in this area, but I was going to persevere with 32 oz beers known as Headaches and rum and cokes to try to forget they were there.
The first act was a local one AT THE LEFT HAND OF GOD, who happen to be up for a few local awards via Heavy Frequency. They began their set with about 3 pretty good Metalcore songs that were definitely better than average. As I stood there and tried to rock I was having a problem and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then it came to me as the singer was doing some kind of hip gyration, the singer was out of place. Not to say this guy didn't have some good stage presence as far as crowd interaction, but his overall vocal tone belongs in a much more Death-styled band. I found his tone to be very one-dimensional, very deep and it just didn't vary enough for me. The two guitarists in the band were above average guitarists nothing spectacular. They had some good parts not entire songs. The bassist should also work on making less funny faces as I was almost cracking up because of it. The rest of the set was semi-ruined because I couldn't get around the vocalist and how he should be in a different band.
ARSIS was next who now feature in their ranks my friend Noah Martin on bass guitar. I was interested to see how the new drummer was since I just saw them in September with their recently departed drummer. We were greeted with the news that their regular singer James Malone would not be singing this evening because he was sick, so Mike sang instead. After talking with Noah later on in the evening Mike is one of James' long time friends so he was a perfect fit on short notice. Back to the set; everything sounded and looked great from where I was standing from the guitar players to drummer, well I couldn't really see him because his kit was so large. The guitar players laid down some real sick solos just as awesome as before. The new drummer Darren Cesca destroyed his kit well what he could, goddamn that kit was big.
Although I know this is going to sound bias because Noah is my friend, but he really helped pull the band together and give some real good presence on stage. The other members just stood there and played their guitars for the most part while Noah was moving around headbanging etc. My friend brought to my attention later on in the evening that the entire time Noah was stage he was doing this thing with his eyes at chicks that was essentially saying you want to fuck me. Normally a chick does the fuck me eyes, but Noah was doing it as was evident by his little fan club of 18 year old chicks afterward. All in all the set was better than last time except for the singer, but you gotta give that guy a break. I am very partial to James he just has a really good voice for their brand of Melodic Death Metal, and Mike couldn't live up to my standards. But then again neither did the sound that the club gave his voice anyway, so they may have been at fault as well. The set list was well varied and had some very nice selections in it ending with The Face of Innocence just as they did last time, which is just fine with me because it is my favorite ARSIS song.
Next up was THE HUMAN ABSTRACT from California, now with these guys I didn't really know what to think other than I knew where all the Emo-kids came from. The singer for this bands looked like he should be in FALLOUT BOY and he sang like it as well, it was just terrible. The guitar players like the guys in AT THE LEFT HAND OF GOD were above average players, but they just weren't doing enough during the songs other than certain parts and solos. I was really disappointed by this band. BLEAH!
At this point it was time for some more familiarity in the evening when MNEMIC took the stage, whose bass player looks strangely like my friend Roger from Detroit and ProgPower USA and he was just as weird as he was last time. Anywho I have seen MNEMIC before when they opened for ARCH ENEMY back in November of 2005 and they were just as solid as they were last time except for the sound. Their sound just didn't come through quite as well as it did at The Bottleneck a little over a year ago. They also changed singers from the last time I saw them and he did a good job just not as good as the original. Their set list was as good as they could have made it in the 30 min. allotted for them with one or two off the first album, 3 off the second, and I think 2 off the their newest one, Passenger, which is due out through Nuclear Blast in Feburary.
By this time in the evening the troo kvlt guys with the armbands were ready for GOATWHORE, I however was not really. My friend and I stayed for about 4 songs and then exited. He hated them and I had already seen them recently. We both have seen GOD FORBID several times and after discussing with their guitar player about how similar their set was to last time I saw them I opted for the door to try to get through our one hour car drive ahead of us.
