Concert Review: System of a Down, Mars Volta, Hella--5 Strings

sorry these photos are small--thats how far away i sat. ill review each of these bands seperately...

hella:
in the halls outside, i heard a buch of people say, 'hella suck', as in 'they hella suck'. im not sure if they do or not, but i would like to take this moment to assert that, in general, its a bad idea to use an adjective as your band name. stinky, ugly, stupid...all lend themselves to all sorts taunts.

i was indifferent to the band. sure it was different and whatnot. but what really blew me away was their drummer who played like i was having a seizure the entire time. it reminded me of animal from the muppet show...a constant vibration of bass drum against my chest. kind of soothing.

mars volta:
rolling stone wont shut up about these guys. they did a few songs in spanish, and there were 8 mofo's on the stage...a much bigger band than i had thought. they have everything the modern trendy band needs: defiant lead singer with a high voice, rambunctious guitars and a keyboard player. the lead singer also has that new straight-backed-seizure-sing-herkyjerky motion that seems to be real hip right now.

these fellas really sounded like Rush, without the talent. same vocals. "were gonna do one more song..." said the spazzy lead singer. thought, 'thats cool.' 45 minutes later, they finally wrapped up the song. let me go on record saying that i hate jam bands. i know thats uncool and makes me sound old, but listening to average musicians play a 'song' for 45 minutes just kills me. that sort of stuff just reeks of self indulgence.

system of a down:
loads and loads of irony. way massive sound for a basic 4-piece band. the vocals were live and everything was in the moment (something even motley crue didnt even pull off). no real showy stuff here. just plenty of noise, and plenty of lights. the pit on the floor was massive and sweaty. the one guy who wasnt sweaty was the lead singer of SOAD.

like me, it was mostly a radio crowd, who really only got down for the songs that they knew. nothing like a rousing chorus of, 'f--- u pig' during a song. to their credit, they sang 'system of a down' to the tune of dire straights', 'sultans of swing'. in an interesting move, the guitar player would start each song by himself, singing the chorus...which helped for the losers like me who dont own the albums.

which brings me to another point. i dont own any SOAD albums, because im boycotting the music industry. not enough money goes to the artists, and they are suing their listeners (f u pigs).