Last night I had the privilage of witnessing the
awesomeness that was 97.1's BFD concert. Eight bands performed in all their
blazing glory.
For quick review, in reverse play order:
RAMMSTEIN!!! IN-FUCKIN-CREDIBLE. Rammstien has, undoubtedly, the best stage presence of any band currently on the face of this planet. The pyrotechnic work was beautiful and the lighting was amazing. The one hour setup time was well worth it (most bands only took 20 minutes). The integrated flame work with the lyrics was well done, and not corny or over-gimmicked. For example, during the song Mein Herz Brennt {My Heart Burns}, the stage was pitch black, minus a red light bulb that pulsed with the singer. At the point of the vocalist's intro, his hand ripped the light from his chest and it was revealed to be a bright red flare. The coolest part of the whole show was during the performance of Feuer Frei! when the vocalist brandished a flame thrower which shot over the crowd with every uttering of "BANG BANG!". To sum up, Rammstein used the perfect mix of good talent, pyrotechnics, and crowd interactivity (having the crowd sing along during Links 2,3,4 and other songs).
STAIND: Overal, a nice performance. The solo performance of the acoustic version of "Outside" was well recieved, as expected, and was even better without that moron Fred Durst crapily dancing around like on the video. The new-classic "A while" was also enjoyed. The problem with Staind was simply this - no one knew ANY of the other songs apart from Outside and A While. Well, a few people did, but not enough for listening to be enjoyable. The lighting was nothing original, and the band eventually just got this repetitive feel as all the songs sounded the same. Not bad, but not great.
Toadies: Excellent performance. Though I did not see it (I was in line for autographs from Rammstein!!! HELL YEAH BABY!, anyway...), I heard them, and they sounded awesome. Possum Kingdom was the only song I really knew, and it was great.
Tesla: After 5 long years, Tesla is back on the road, and I'm not sure they should have come back. The cover of "Signs" was well done, and everyone knew it. Unfortunately, it seemed to be the only song anyone remembered. Their intro song, "Comin at you live", was horrible. It had the CHANCE to be good, but didn't take it. It seems that after 5 years, Tesla forgot that when you HAVE talent, you don't have to cover up with volume like bands that don't have talent. So even if the music was good, we couldn't tell, as our eardrums were bursting from the insanely loud (even for a concert) music. Sorry boys....
Saliva: Never heard of 'em before, and wasn't really missing much. They played a decent set, nothing really impressive. Nothing I remembered either...
Cold: Decent performance, but I didn't hear much as, again, the speakers were too loud to compensate for lack of talent. While they weren't bad, they certainly didn't hold my attention.
Puddle Of Mud
: A surprisingly decent local band to Dallas/Ft. Worth. I expected the same crap with the screaming and overvolume of the preceding band, but they were fairly good. Decent soft rock style band. It was obvious that they were newbies, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear from them again later.
some random SHIT band I never heard of and never want to see again: I don't even remember the name of this shit hole group. The speakers were cranked high enough to where I was surprised they didn't burst. Their lyrics (surprisingly understandable) were inane and the guitar riffs were pathetic, at most two power chords played in weird patterns.
So overall, only 37.5% of the bands were really good (3 of 8, Rammstein, Staind, and Toadies). And if the bands weren't enough entertainment for ya, there was a chick flashing the audience for 30 of the 60 minutes Tesla played. So a fun time was had by all,
drunk or sober.