Lineup: KATATONIA / SCAR SYMMETRY / INSOMNIUM / SWALLOW THE SUN
This was one of the few tours that looked like it was going to be good from top to bottom. Honestly, it was hard to believe that these bands were going to be playing in my area, so woot! This was also my first trip to the newly reopened_relocated The Static Bar, which I must say turned out very nicely. Though I do have one suggestion for them if your website says 8 p.m. then you should start at 8 p.m.! I was pretty irritated that I missed SWALLOW THE SUN because of it and on top of it barely got there just in time for INSOMNIUM.

Before I go further I want to say I was not a big INSOMNIUM fan before I went to the concert. I had serious problems getting into their music because their vocalist sounds too much like cookie monster for me well at least on record he does. Within the first few seconds of The Gale my head was definitely nodding. Their musical abilities were extremely well projected in the live setting. I was in utter disbelief how they sounded live; just barely beyond perfect. There was very little talking going on between songs, I assume to get all of their songs in since they only had 35 minutes. I couldn't really tell you which was the highlight maybe Since The Day It All Came Down as I said before I didn't even like the band before I came. However, now I believe I can officially confirm myself an INSOMNIUM fan. They also said at the end of their set that they would be back very soon, so maybe they have another tour in the making.

INSOMNIUM's set list:

- The Gale
- Mortal Share
- Drawn To Black
- The Killjoy
- Daughter Of The Moon
- Since The Day It All Came Down
- Devoid Of Caring

SCAR SYMMETRY was truly the band that I was there to see. I was thoroughly disappointed when the DARK TRANQUILITY tour didn't come anywhere close to here earlier this year so not only did I miss DT I also missed SCAR SYMMETRY which is what really frustrated me. Once they came on stage I moved directly to the front center since the crowd wasn't big, but it was larger then expected probably 75. They opened with Slaves To The Subliminal which was perfect with the tandem punch of the second actual song Reborn. Christian the singer had us in the palm of his hand as well as the guitar player Jonas who was also a real pleasure to watch. Jonas was probably easily the most animated guitar player I have seen in person and so close. He was very crowd oriented almost every solo was directly in someone's face (2 were in mine) and then in one of the solos he used my friends shoulder as a bridge (I think that is correct musical term). Christian as getting the crowd going by letting people sing certain parts of the choruses into the microphone (I got the last line of Mind Machinery). The last three songs are 3 of my favorite and I couldn't believe that they played them in that order at least. I was totally expecting The Illusionist to be last since it was the first single from Pitch Black Progress I hope to see them again as soon as possible.

SCAR SYMMETRY's set list:

- Intro
- Slaves To The Subliminal
- Reborn
- Path Of Least Resistance
- Abstracted
- Mind Machinery
- Dreaming 24_7
- Chaosweaver
- Calculate The Apocalypse
- Retaliator
- The Illusionist

KATATONIA, I think I need to be in the mood for since I found them to be very tight live in their playing ability, and the songs sounded just like they do on the album. I think it was just a matter of the fact they followed one of favorite bands; on the whole though I found KATATONIA to be pretty boring. While I own and enjoy several of their albums I might as well stay home and listen to them since I get about the same kind of feeling from the music either way.