Went to this show last night, so I’m typing with some new bruises and a sore neck 
Worked my way up next to the stage about 45 minutes before Nonpoint took the stage and traded concert stories with the people up there. No sign off my friend who I’m supposed to meet. After much waiting, sound checks, tuning, etc. the lights go down and Nonpoint takes the stage. Surprisingly enough, for their first song the croud just listened, hands in the air. I feared a lame concert was to follow, but when the next song started the pits ripped open and I went to town in there. The high points of this set were the sing-along versions of “Fuck That” and “What A Day”. I’ve seen Nonpoint before, and they were better the last time. They were just lacking something last night, some kind of energy. (3 out of 5)
After this set I drank some water and enjoyed the little outdoor patio of the Austin Music Hall before going back in and working my way to the front again. Some time later Sevendust takes the stage. Their set totally rocked, and they had the pits wilder than they were at Disturbed, which is saying something. This was such a cool set, everyone was going nuts, and at some point I got thrown to the side of a pit and my missing friend grabbed me and said hi. He then proceeded to croud surf away, make it to the front, get grabbed by security and disappear. I didn’t see him again. I continued tearing it up, and so did 7d. I went down only once, but that was hard enough to bruise my elbow badly and shred both of my knees, which I didn’t realize until I felt the blood running down my legs. Eeeeewww. In any case, they rocked really hard, not to mention the guitar sounds that they can get going. This is a really talented band, and a lot of fun to watch live. (4 out of 5)
At this point I was thinking that the concert was essentially over; I was not looking forward to Fuel, but when they did take the stage I had a surprising amount of fun. Their singer came out in full rock-star garb- a grean leather jacket with matching pants with a tight t-shirt underneath. Couple this with pretty light shows, a fun stage presence and some surprisingly good music, and I have a new band that I like a lot. I now think of these guys as sort of like Incubus, less like Smash Mouth. I may well pick up their CD, considering that I liked a lot of the songs. There was a sort of half-hearted pit going on during their set, but that wasn’t the point. This was good old arena-rock fun, although I did spot some annoyingly teenybopper girls that I know there, which made me kind of embarrassed to be digging the same stuff, but hey. Combine good songs with a fun (and HOT) stage presence to the tune of Smashing Pumpkins meets Matchbox 20 and you have something that’s a lot of fun to watch. Good show. (4 out of 5)