I'm glad that the world is full of people with different opinions and tastes. It would be boring if we all wore purple hats, pink socks, and black lipstick while blaring our Frank Sinatra CDs from our cars. I know some men however that wouldn't complain about the purple hats.
Yep... the world sure would be boring. On that note: Finger Eleven sucks. I first wrote that in capital letters but I felt bad, slightly guilty, so I de-capitalized it.
I went to a concert last night. Finger Eleven, Chevelle, and Evanescence. My junior year of high school I saw Chevelle playing songs from their Wonder What's Next CD with Disturbed. Chevelle was great. Really great and you could tell that they were going somewhere.
Since then they have released one more CD, This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In with the fourth coming out next month Vena Sera. But they haven't quite made the splash I was hoping they would make. Everyone knows 'The Red' or 'Vitamin R' but they aren't the household name they deserve to be. Unless you live at my house.
But Chevelle, Pete Loeffler (Guitar/Vocals) Dean Bernardini (Bass) and Sam Loeffler (Drums) were great. I wish they would front their own tour instead of opening for other bands because they could do it all on their own. Chevelle has a great energy on stage. The lead singer talks to the crowd enough to make it feel like if you met him face to face he would be a decent guy. I would pay to see just them and I would even drive a couple of hours to do so. And on the drum was a picture of Britney Spears with her head shaved. I had to laugh.
Evanescence, you ask?
Are they goth? Is the music? Because I never really thought that they were. Okay... so the lead singer Amy Lee is very dramatic and they tote all that Goth gear but they are not hard core. They are an ex-Christian band for heaven's sake. (so is Chevelle by the way but they don't come with Goth trappings) Every other person at the concert was gothed up; black eye liner, lipstick, fingernails the whole nine yards. And when the hell did black fingernail polish become the 'in' thing?
Article comments
1 - sam
i went to the evanescence, chevelle, and finger eleven concert last night too. and i just want to say i thought evanescence was wonderful. im not even that big of an evanescence fan (i went with my boyfriend and two other friends) and i thought they did great. and yes, chevelle did great too, that was my first time hearing them and i liked them. they could really interact with the crowd. but just because when evanescence came on stage people were screaming things to amy lee doesn't mean it should take away from THEIR proformance. i don't understand why that "made it a little hard for you to take it all seriously." like honestly, what were you expecting? everyone to sit quietly throughout the concert? and yes i understand your view on the goth thing, but still, it shouldn't matter what the band is wearing. amy lee has an amazing voice. and i think evanescence and chevelle BOTH did great. (i don't really have much comment on finger eleven because i didn't hear much of them.)
2 - Katie McNeill
I did say that Amy Lee did a nice job. You must have missed that. And no I did not expect everyone to sit still. I was on floor and know better than to expect quiet and stillness there of all places.
but teen boys screaming 'have my baby' makes me laugh. I was close enough that when she sat down to play her piano and asked for quiet (she said something like 'let me sing this one myself' I can't remember for sure now.)you could see the screaming was maybe a little irritating to her. Scream all you want but not while someone is singing. And not in my ear. I had one boy scream the whole time right in my ear.
3 - Tia
I have seen Evanescence live several times and each time it has been a great show. Finger Eleven and Chevelle also did a good job. Evanescence was never a Christian band. It was merely the Christian music industry that wanted to label them as such. And since they don't even consider themselves as Goth, you must have been addressing the fans and other individuals that share in the misconception that they are a Goth band. And since when does the crowd determine the genre of a concert? I thought it was about the music-and in this case, amazing music-that the band creates. I did not know that it makes you less of a rock star to have adolescent and teenage fans that have a crush on you.
4 - Lisa
When i go to a concert or listen to a song for the first time I really am not thinking to myself "now, what would this be classified as?" That seems a little silly. Just as it seems silly to comment more about whether or not a band fits in their supposed genre, than the music itself. I like good music and I have hopped across several genres to find it. And finding new truly good, thoughtful music is so rare these days, that I would hardly ask that it also fit the standards for some 'record company' induced genre. Evanescence makes great music. The sound is beautiful and inspiring, while the lyrics are powerful and complete. Once music reaches a certain level of greatness, the classifications we place on it become meaningless altogether. As for Finger Eleven and Chevelle I enjoyed both of their sets and I really appreciated how each band added a different element to the concert.
5 - aj
I was at the concert and having never seen any of the headlininf bands live before I was excited to be there. For me Finger 11 were clearly the best. I am not a huge fan of any of those bands but I love live music for the energy and character of the bands. I had only heard one of their songs prior to the concert, that didn't matter. They sounded great, but the highlight was the fact that they oozed stage presence and energy. I was looking foward to Chevelle playing. I am sorry but standing still playing guitar is not energy or good satge presence, niether is walking to the edge of the stage during every course of every song and holding the same one pose. It becomes very predictible very quickly. They did sound good, infact they sounded great, but if I wanted solely great sound, I'd listen to a CD. Evanescence too sounded great, Amy Lee was great. I thought the rest of the band were dull. The fact that they got out of time didn't impress me at all. I walked away very dissappointed as did my girl. In short, all 3 bands sounded good (except for the one mishap from evanescence) but the stage show overall was poor.