This turned out to be one of the more interesting shows I've gone to. Let's start with the venue, The Terminal. The Terminal isn't an actual legitimate venue. It's a place that some cool dudes run out of the down stairs area of their property. The place looked like a pretty big living room, complete with comfy couches, a little table, and a wall of speakers. In typical DIY fashion, the show started almost an hour behind schedule and the place was only full during performances, with most of the people going outside for a smoke break in between the set times, which went pretty long. The show started around 8:50ish with some doom.
The first band up was Cardinal Wyrm. They're a doom three piece from Oakland. Their sound fit somewhere between more traditional doom and stoner doom. They had a really weird shtick as well where they all wore costumes, but only one made sense to me. The guitarist wore a priest outfit, which fit the name, but the drummer was wearing kind of like a hijab or something, and the bassist looked like a mix between Lita Ford and Joan Jett, so the latter two costumes didn't really fit with the band name. But musically they were pretty solid. They hit some awesome jams and the bassist's tone sounded great. The drummer/vocalist used a mix of clean sung vocals and higher pitched screams in the songs. Sometimes it felt like the songs could've ended sooner than they did, but they didn't sound band and had good presence so I was down with it. Overall, it was a good way to start of the show.
The next band was Berkeley "shoegaze" band, Barn Burning. Honestly this set was pretty dreadful. First, their sound was one of the worst excuses for "shoegaze" I've ever heard. It was really clean and polished and had absolutely no grit. There was no wall of sound built. It honestly sounded like a guitar play-a-long book with a little bit of delay and hella much reverb. So they played like one song, then there was like a ten minute delay because of some technical difficulties with the mics, which would continue through out the rest of the night. At this point is well past 10 and we were only one song into the second band of four that night, because one band dropped off, so I knew the show was gonna last a while. After they got the sound issues taken care of, the band kept going with their super boring set that way too long. The songs dragged and there was no depth at all. I don't even think they used half their pedals and only heard some fuzz like once. Super lame band with a name that doesn't even fit their sound at all.
Up next were one of the bands I really came to see, Lycus. Lycus are a funeral doom band from Oakland and they just dropped their debut album, Tempest. In fact this show was a split CD release show between Lycus and the band Whirr, who we'll get to later. Like the last band, it took a while for them to finally get their sound dialed in because the mics were quite and Lycus didn't really wanna turn down their equipment, but after a bit they finally found a way to get everything fairly audible. They ended up just playing Tempest in it's entirety and it sounded really great. At first the guitars were a bit too loud and the mics caught that and made some higher kind of feedback go on but they dialed that out so from their it was fairly smooth sailing. They had a really crushing live sound and the vocals sounded great live. All the songs sounded really great and well rehearsed and it all transitioned really well to the live environment and I was jammin along pretty hard. I'd definitely be super down to see these dudes again.
Lycus Coma Burn Engravings Tempest
Next up were the band I was actually looking most forward to, Whirr. Whirr are a shoegaze band from Oakland and I've recently been digging their discography really hard, especially the EP the just released, Around. Unfortunately though, the set was underwhelming for me. They set up and I hadn't seen their female vocalist anywhere, then they started playing and I realized I wasn't gonna be seeing her at all that night, which was a bummer, because even if the vocals weren't too audible, her vocals are really important part to their sound. Also they were just flat out really loud, which I expected, but since the venue didn't have a proper sound system there were a lot of subtleties you hear on record that were hard to make out during the performance. Like Lycus, Whirr also just played their new release in full, and I can't say I'm surprised, but I would've liked to hear like at least one song from their album, Pipe Dreams, or something. I still enjoyed the material I heard a lot, but I think I kind of set my expectations a little to high, so I was a wee bit underwhelmed. After their set I got their first EP, Distressor on vinyl and asked what was up with the lack of the other vocalist, and apparently she's no longer in the group. Kind of wish I had seen them sooner.
Whirr Drain Swoon Keep Around
Overall this was an interesting experience with the venue, crowd and stuff like that. I'd definitely be game to check out other shows that happen hear, since they've gotten some awesome bay area acts there like Worm Ouroboros, Dispirit, and other reputable metal acts like Ash Borer and Atriarch.
Cardinal Wyrm: 7/10 Barn Burning: 3.5/10 Lycus: 8.75/10 Whirr:8/10
Thrown Into Exile - They were decent, much better than most of the metalcore this fest could have gotten, very energetic performance.
Huntress - This band sounds 10x better live than on CD, the whole thing with the cape and Jill's outfit is dumb, but besides that they were good.
Battlecross - By far the best side stage band of the day, they had the only wall of death at the show. They were probably the most energetic band I watched, I love their mixture of melodeath, thrash and metalcore, definitely became a fan of theirs today.
JFAC - Only saw two songs but heard everything, this band's recordings do not even remotely do them justice, JFAC are probably the epitome of a "Mayhem" fest band.
Scorpion Child - This band were a lot of fun, and I was glad they actually had a stage, really need to see a longer set.
Machine Head - This is the 3rd time seeing them, and I've never seen more than a 5 song set, they were good as usual, but I'm sick of the half hour sets.
Amon Amarth - The second best band of the day, Johan Hegg is an incredible front man and a really cool guy to talk too as well, he said they will be coming back late this year on a special headlining tour, could not tell me with who, definitely need to see them in a club.
Mastodon - This was by far the best band of the day, they were every bit as incredible as I was hoping for, getting to see Troy and Brann at work was awesome, I've waited almost five years to finally see them, so I can shorten my bucket list a little. Overall a great set, amazing sound quality, and surprisingly enough Brent Hinds was out talking to people, which I've always heard he's somewhat antisocial, but whatever.
I left after Mastodon because lol5fdpsucks and even though Zombie is cool live, not worth standing through an hour of 5fdp. --
Only MH and Mastodon have been switching up sets so ...
MH
1)Imperium 2)Bulldozer 3)Ten Ton Hammer 4)Locust 5)Halo
Mastodon
1)Black Tongue 2)Crystal Skull 3)Dry Bone Valley 4)Megalodon 5)Stargasm 6)Blasteroid 7)All The Heavy Lifting 8)Spectrelight 9)Bedazzled Fingernails 10)The Sparrow
I got a drum head signed by Mastodon, CDs signed by Battlecross and AA, and JFAC signed my "Ruination" vinyl.
Mastodon's set has been the same for the last half of the tour it seems. I agree with Huntress though, I was iffy about them on CD at times but live they were great.
Definitely agree on the Huntress comment. I remember the day after the fest I was like "I should jam Spell Eater because that track sounded good live" then I did and it sucked. Glad you checked out Scorpion Child
Went by myself, had a fucking blast. Gonna try to be pretty brief with these reviews since there were so many bands that I ended up seeing. Also won't be scoring any of the bands since it was all outdoors.
Five Knives - Walked over to the Spotify stage just for the hell of it and caught this female fronted band as they were just starting. Really catchy electronic rock that kinda reminds me of The Prodigy and Kill Matriarch. Will definitely be listening to them more.
The Summer Set - Both TSS and TBDM started at the same time so I had to only choose one. I ended up with this mushy lovey-dovey pop rock band that had a crowd of prolly 90% girls. Whatever doe, I loved it, and they played great. Their frontman can really hit those notes too.
Upon A Burning Body - Here's where the crowd just went fucking bananas. UABB tore the main stage up with their brand of Texas deathcore and didn't let up the energy throughout their 30-min set. Always a fun band to see.
Goldhouse - Caught the last 3 songs. Never heard of them, they're like some pop band, whatever.
The Story So Far - The most punk-rock band I saw all day and it was a nice change from what I'm used to. I sat a bit further back in the seats but they pulled a huge crowd up front. Kids were moshing and crowd surfing like crazy during their set and I certainly enjoyed it.
William Beckett - Went to the acoustic stage to check out the former lead singer of a band called "The Academy Is...". He put on a really cool show and while he couldn't quite hit the really high notes, he still has a great sounding voice. Very happy I went to go see him play.
The Early November - Sat down and watched them from the seats. They were cool, nothing that stuck out to me but they're a decent rock band that I wish I had been more familiar with.
Set It Off - Next up for me was this "MCR" knock-off that I really enjoyed. They had a great stage presence that would be fun to watch even for those that aren't fans and they played all the songs I wanted to hear. Would love to see these guys again sometime.
I See Stars - Now it was time for a band I hadn't seen in 2 years and couldn't wait for. The crowd went wild for them and their clean singer really hit every part he needed to, I was impressed. They've also gotten heavier from when I've last seen them, which I'm not complaining about.
The Amity Affliction - Pretty standard metalcore band from Australia that had that song "Open Letter" being played all over XM/Sirius for weeks. They sounded really good though and I wish they could have played longer.
New Years Day - Goth-rock band with some pretty cool tunes despite the fact that they've toured with some really awful bands in the past. They had some kind of "spooky" dark stage setup but I thought it was alright and all the members were interacting with the crowd. Would really have liked to catch more of their set as I came in about halfway through.
Hands Like Houses - Another Aussie band that plays a whole different style of post-hardcore. There aren't any harsh vocals in their songs and the guitar work was phenomenal. Their sound was some of the best I heard all day, very clean sounding group that also has great stage presence. I'm really glad I checked them out.
Crossfaith - Electronic/metalcore band out of Japan that drew a pretty damn good crowd given the small stage they had. The music was fucking great and the whole crowd went nuts but I couldn't help but crack up whenever the vocalist spoke between songs. It would go like "Darras Texas, are you ready to roose your fu-cking minds?! This rast song is called.....RREVIATHAN!" But yeah they were fantasic.
Anarbor - Caught the last 3-4 songs. Not familiar with them either, they were cool. Pretty standard rock/pop-rock.
Gin Wigmore - Hot damn this band impressed the shit out of me. Awesome blues-rock sound from this band of Kiwis. The singer was fucking great and the rest of the band was moving and dancing like crazy. One of my favorites of the day for sure, and a damn nice change of pace from what you usually see at Warped.
Tonight Alive - Another Aussie group, go figure. Finally got to see this pop-rock band for the first time since 2011 and they put on a great show. I'd really love to hear their cover of "Little Lion Man" live doe.
August Burns Red - Here's where the shit got real. The sun was down as they began so the heat wasn't a factor anymore and it showed. Huge pits opened up as the first riff rattled off and I found myself towards the front of the crowd for the whole set. ABR sounded fantastic as always and they know how to get a crowd moving. They even had one circle pit going around in the opposite direction of another one inside of it, it was sick. They played every song I could have hoped for in a 35min set and while it was rough as hell, it was worth it staying up front. This band has never disappointed me and I always look forward to seeing them. Such a perfect way to end a very long day of music. Oh and I even found an ABR pick after they finished. #SWAG 11/10
Comments
This turned out to be one of the more interesting shows I've gone to. Let's start with the venue, The Terminal. The Terminal isn't an actual legitimate venue. It's a place that some cool dudes run out of the down stairs area of their property. The place looked like a pretty big living room, complete with comfy couches, a little table, and a wall of speakers. In typical DIY fashion, the show started almost an hour behind schedule and the place was only full during performances, with most of the people going outside for a smoke break in between the set times, which went pretty long. The show started around 8:50ish with some doom.
The first band up was Cardinal Wyrm. They're a doom three piece from Oakland. Their sound fit somewhere between more traditional doom and stoner doom. They had a really weird shtick as well where they all wore costumes, but only one made sense to me. The guitarist wore a priest outfit, which fit the name, but the drummer was wearing kind of like a hijab or something, and the bassist looked like a mix between Lita Ford and Joan Jett, so the latter two costumes didn't really fit with the band name. But musically they were pretty solid. They hit some awesome jams and the bassist's tone sounded great. The drummer/vocalist used a mix of clean sung vocals and higher pitched screams in the songs. Sometimes it felt like the songs could've ended sooner than they did, but they didn't sound band and had good presence so I was down with it. Overall, it was a good way to start of the show.
The next band was Berkeley "shoegaze" band, Barn Burning. Honestly this set was pretty dreadful. First, their sound was one of the worst excuses for "shoegaze" I've ever heard. It was really clean and polished and had absolutely no grit. There was no wall of sound built. It honestly sounded like a guitar play-a-long book with a little bit of delay and hella much reverb. So they played like one song, then there was like a ten minute delay because of some technical difficulties with the mics, which would continue through out the rest of the night. At this point is well past 10 and we were only one song into the second band of four that night, because one band dropped off, so I knew the show was gonna last a while. After they got the sound issues taken care of, the band kept going with their super boring set that way too long. The songs dragged and there was no depth at all. I don't even think they used half their pedals and only heard some fuzz like once. Super lame band with a name that doesn't even fit their sound at all.
Up next were one of the bands I really came to see, Lycus. Lycus are a funeral doom band from Oakland and they just dropped their debut album, Tempest. In fact this show was a split CD release show between Lycus and the band Whirr, who we'll get to later. Like the last band, it took a while for them to finally get their sound dialed in because the mics were quite and Lycus didn't really wanna turn down their equipment, but after a bit they finally found a way to get everything fairly audible. They ended up just playing Tempest in it's entirety and it sounded really great. At first the guitars were a bit too loud and the mics caught that and made some higher kind of feedback go on but they dialed that out so from their it was fairly smooth sailing. They had a really crushing live sound and the vocals sounded great live. All the songs sounded really great and well rehearsed and it all transitioned really well to the live environment and I was jammin along pretty hard. I'd definitely be super down to see these dudes again.
Lycus
Coma Burn
Engravings
Tempest
Next up were the band I was actually looking most forward to, Whirr. Whirr are a shoegaze band from Oakland and I've recently been digging their discography really hard, especially the EP the just released, Around. Unfortunately though, the set was underwhelming for me. They set up and I hadn't seen their female vocalist anywhere, then they started playing and I realized I wasn't gonna be seeing her at all that night, which was a bummer, because even if the vocals weren't too audible, her vocals are really important part to their sound. Also they were just flat out really loud, which I expected, but since the venue didn't have a proper sound system there were a lot of subtleties you hear on record that were hard to make out during the performance. Like Lycus, Whirr also just played their new release in full, and I can't say I'm surprised, but I would've liked to hear like at least one song from their album, Pipe Dreams, or something. I still enjoyed the material I heard a lot, but I think I kind of set my expectations a little to high, so I was a wee bit underwhelmed. After their set I got their first EP, Distressor on vinyl and asked what was up with the lack of the other vocalist, and apparently she's no longer in the group. Kind of wish I had seen them sooner.
Whirr
Drain
Swoon
Keep
Around
Overall this was an interesting experience with the venue, crowd and stuff like that. I'd definitely be game to check out other shows that happen hear, since they've gotten some awesome bay area acts there like Worm Ouroboros, Dispirit, and other reputable metal acts like Ash Borer and Atriarch.
Cardinal Wyrm: 7/10
Barn Burning: 3.5/10
Lycus: 8.75/10
Whirr:8/10
Thrown Into Exile - They were decent, much better than most of the metalcore this fest could have gotten, very energetic performance.
Huntress - This band sounds 10x better live than on CD, the whole thing with the cape and Jill's outfit is dumb, but besides that they were good.
Battlecross - By far the best side stage band of the day, they had the only wall of death at the show. They were probably the most energetic band I watched, I love their mixture of melodeath, thrash and metalcore, definitely became a fan of theirs today.
JFAC - Only saw two songs but heard everything, this band's recordings do not even remotely do them justice, JFAC are probably the epitome of a "Mayhem" fest band.
Scorpion Child - This band were a lot of fun, and I was glad they actually had a stage, really need to see a longer set.
Machine Head - This is the 3rd time seeing them, and I've never seen more than a 5 song set, they were good as usual, but I'm sick of the half hour sets.
Amon Amarth - The second best band of the day, Johan Hegg is an incredible front man and a really cool guy to talk too as well, he said they will be coming back late this year on a special headlining tour, could not tell me with who, definitely need to see them in a club.
Mastodon - This was by far the best band of the day, they were every bit as incredible as I was hoping for, getting to see Troy and Brann at work was awesome, I've waited almost five years to finally see them, so I can shorten my bucket list a little. Overall a great set, amazing sound quality, and surprisingly enough Brent Hinds was out talking to people, which I've always heard he's somewhat antisocial, but whatever.
I left after Mastodon because lol5fdpsucks and even though Zombie is cool live, not worth standing through an hour of 5fdp.
--
Only MH and Mastodon have been switching up sets so ...
MH
1)Imperium
2)Bulldozer
3)Ten Ton Hammer
4)Locust
5)Halo
Mastodon
1)Black Tongue
2)Crystal Skull
3)Dry Bone Valley
4)Megalodon
5)Stargasm
6)Blasteroid
7)All The Heavy Lifting
8)Spectrelight
9)Bedazzled Fingernails
10)The Sparrow
I got a drum head signed by Mastodon, CDs signed by Battlecross and AA, and JFAC signed my "Ruination" vinyl.
Havok last night were the best live band I saw this past week.
Went by myself, had a fucking blast. Gonna try to be pretty brief with these reviews since there were so many bands that I ended up seeing. Also won't be scoring any of the bands since it was all outdoors.
Five Knives - Walked over to the Spotify stage just for the hell of it and caught this female fronted band as they were just starting. Really catchy electronic rock that kinda reminds me of The Prodigy and Kill Matriarch. Will definitely be listening to them more.
The Summer Set - Both TSS and TBDM started at the same time so I had to only choose one. I ended up with this mushy lovey-dovey pop rock band that had a crowd of prolly 90% girls. Whatever doe, I loved it, and they played great. Their frontman can really hit those notes too.
Upon A Burning Body - Here's where the crowd just went fucking bananas. UABB tore the main stage up with their brand of Texas deathcore and didn't let up the energy throughout their 30-min set. Always a fun band to see.
Goldhouse - Caught the last 3 songs. Never heard of them, they're like some pop band, whatever.
The Story So Far - The most punk-rock band I saw all day and it was a nice change from what I'm used to. I sat a bit further back in the seats but they pulled a huge crowd up front. Kids were moshing and crowd surfing like crazy during their set and I certainly enjoyed it.
William Beckett - Went to the acoustic stage to check out the former lead singer of a band called "The Academy Is...". He put on a really cool show and while he couldn't quite hit the really high notes, he still has a great sounding voice. Very happy I went to go see him play.
The Early November - Sat down and watched them from the seats. They were cool, nothing that stuck out to me but they're a decent rock band that I wish I had been more familiar with.
Set It Off - Next up for me was this "MCR" knock-off that I really enjoyed. They had a great stage presence that would be fun to watch even for those that aren't fans and they played all the songs I wanted to hear. Would love to see these guys again sometime.
I See Stars - Now it was time for a band I hadn't seen in 2 years and couldn't wait for. The crowd went wild for them and their clean singer really hit every part he needed to, I was impressed. They've also gotten heavier from when I've last seen them, which I'm not complaining about.
The Amity Affliction - Pretty standard metalcore band from Australia that had that song "Open Letter" being played all over XM/Sirius for weeks. They sounded really good though and I wish they could have played longer.
New Years Day - Goth-rock band with some pretty cool tunes despite the fact that they've toured with some really awful bands in the past. They had some kind of "spooky" dark stage setup but I thought it was alright and all the members were interacting with the crowd. Would really have liked to catch more of their set as I came in about halfway through.
Hands Like Houses - Another Aussie band that plays a whole different style of post-hardcore. There aren't any harsh vocals in their songs and the guitar work was phenomenal. Their sound was some of the best I heard all day, very clean sounding group that also has great stage presence. I'm really glad I checked them out.
Crossfaith - Electronic/metalcore band out of Japan that drew a pretty damn good crowd given the small stage they had. The music was fucking great and the whole crowd went nuts but I couldn't help but crack up whenever the vocalist spoke between songs. It would go like "Darras Texas, are you ready to roose your fu-cking minds?! This rast song is called.....RREVIATHAN!" But yeah they were fantasic.
Anarbor - Caught the last 3-4 songs. Not familiar with them either, they were cool. Pretty standard rock/pop-rock.
Gin Wigmore - Hot damn this band impressed the shit out of me. Awesome blues-rock sound from this band of Kiwis. The singer was fucking great and the rest of the band was moving and dancing like crazy. One of my favorites of the day for sure, and a damn nice change of pace from what you usually see at Warped.
Tonight Alive - Another Aussie group, go figure. Finally got to see this pop-rock band for the first time since 2011 and they put on a great show. I'd really love to hear their cover of "Little Lion Man" live doe.
August Burns Red - Here's where the shit got real. The sun was down as they began so the heat wasn't a factor anymore and it showed. Huge pits opened up as the first riff rattled off and I found myself towards the front of the crowd for the whole set. ABR sounded fantastic as always and they know how to get a crowd moving. They even had one circle pit going around in the opposite direction of another one inside of it, it was sick. They played every song I could have hoped for in a 35min set and while it was rough as hell, it was worth it staying up front. This band has never disappointed me and I always look forward to seeing them. Such a perfect way to end a very long day of music. Oh and I even found an ABR pick after they finished. #SWAG 11/10