Review of the "Music as a Weapon Tour"

I saw this tour last night at Auditorium Shores here in Austin. I’m gonna try and give a review of the show for those hard rock fans on the boards.

Systematic- These guys opened up the show, and they didn’t disappoint. The crowd was ready to go, so the pits were quite active. These guys are nothing super special, but they know how to rock, so the crowd was with them and everyone had fun.

Adema- This band was really, really weak. Their singer’s brother is Jonathan Davis (the singer from Korn), and that is the only reason I can see that they are playing a big tour like this. At their best they sounded like a bad Korn imitation, and at worst they just totally sucked. Their set seemed to last forever.

Stereomud- This is a very cool band. They have a solid hard-rock sound with enough originality to make them worth listening to. The pit was especially great during their song “Pain”, which is an excellent sing-along slam fest. Good set.

Drowning Pool- I was really psyched to see these guys, and for the most part I liked them, but I got really mad during an extended period with no songs in which the singer babbled on and on about his take on current US events. After this, they started playing “Master of Puppets”, but didn’t actually go past the intro, getting boos and fingers from the crowd. Ditto for “Highway to Hell”. It was worth the annoying rhetoric to be able to mosh to the song “Bodies”, one of the best crowd participation songs in current metal

Disturbed- The headliners of this tour put on a very solid show. The show starts with a short movie about people killing and hating each other for being different, complete with hideously graphic pictures from the Holocaust, Kosovo, China and other places. These images were enough to make a very riled-up crowd fall silent. When the screen lifted there was a glass box in the center of the stage, and the lead singer was led out in prison clothes by police types, and placed in the chamber. The chamber filled with gas, and he broke out in concert clothes, and the rest of the band appeared next to him. This set was amazing. Every single song was awesome, and the pits were about as insane as I’ve ever seen. I think this band is way better live than on their albums, and they have an excellent stage presence.

Overall this show was very solid, and a suitably intense experience. When I got home I looked in the mirror and saw that I was beaten to hell and that there was blood running from my nose and mouth. Whoops. Well anyway, those of you who are pit devils will definitely get a kick out of this tour. I can see how it might be boring, however, if you are the type to just kick back and listen.

LC

Dammit! Preview is my friend… mods? Please?

also… tour dates here