Pixie Drink and Punk Rock

So, i totally went to see the rockstar energy drink taste of chaos tour last night, and apparently i am much more susceptible to marketing than i had thought, because i now inexplicably love rockstar. Weird, i know. But my weird new craving is not what i'm gonna write about today. Inspired by professor Barnum's scintillating rant about last nights Hey Rossetta! show (which i am kind disappointed i had to miss to see one of my favorite bands ever, Four Year Strong) i think i'm going to write a review of the concert i saw last night. So last night i saw the Taste of Chaos tour, on the bill were Edmonton locals Somastate, Pierce the Veil, The Cancer Bats, Four Year Strong (fuck yeah!), Bring Me The Horizon, and Thursday. All the bands were pretty heavy punk bands and none of them disappointed in the performance area, in fact they all put on a really good show. The music wasn't all my style, i found Pierce the Veil to be far too 'cock-rocky' for my tastes, their music and attitude was to modern punk what Poison is to metal. That aside i found that their performance was extraordinary, they were so entertaining that i actually enjoyed it despite a general distaste for their fairly generic brand of music. The Cancer Bats put on a good show and were as good as i expected, their syle isn't really for me, but it was good nonetheless. Somastate, though i only caught their last couple of songs was also good, it pretty much par for a local band. Bring Me The Horizon put a lot of energy into their performance, but i found their metalcore stylings to be uninspiring, it was pretty much just loud and powerful, not a lot of nuance or melody. In addition to this their screamer (because i really can't call him a singer) couldn't sing. My favorite portions of BMTH's set was actually when the very melodic (and very high-pitched) singer from Pierce the Veil joined them on stage, his skilled singing was given a backdrop with balls, and BMTH gained some much needed dynamics. I have saved my favorite two acts for last, Thursday and Four Year Strong. Thursday have been around for quite a while, they have a deep catalogue of albums and a lot of good songs, that said, i don't really like their albums that much, they're good but not really great. However, when they step onstage and play those "just ok" songs live, the songs take on a life of their own, they are heavier and the energy behind them is really projected into the crowd, this was my second time seeing them live and i really have nothing bad about them to say. And now, the best act,which i have saved for last: Four Year Strong. FYS is a sub-genre defying punk band from Massachusetts, they combine hardcore guitars, melodic singing, heavy dynamics, and synthesizers. They put on an awesome show, they engaged the crowd and inspired what passed for moshing (i'll get to that in a bit) and were my fave of the night, the only problem being the set was too short. That said they have been one of my favorite songs ever since i heard their track 'Bada Bing Wit' a Pipe' on last years Warped Tour compilation, so i may have seen their entire performance through rose-colored glasses (and that said, i don't give a fuck lol). Aside from the bands there are a lot of other stuff that goes into a concert. First, at this show i found the crowd to be lacking, there weren't a lot of seasoned music fans, but a bunch of little SWEB kids that were a concert mainly because its 'cool'. My thoughts towards them consisted mostly of " *sigh*, you don't know how to do anything". Another problem was a percentage greater than half broke the golden rule of concert going as stated by Jeremy Piven in PCU and devoutly followed by me: never, that is NEVER wear the shirt of the band you are going to see, the exception being if you by some freak circumstance you have no other shirt. Really if you break the golden rule, you look like a fanboy douchenugget (what a great word). Mostly they were just bad a being a crowd though, they moshed for like fifteen seconds then stopped, and the cruelest moshers were not the big shirtless guys, but the little SWEB girls who relentlessly pummel the ribs. The venue was good, i really have no complaints about the Edmonton event centre, its a really good venue. My only real complaint about the venue is with the sponsors of the tour, who, taking advantage of my extreme thirst got me hooked on their addictive purple pixie drink, which i am even now drinking...PIXIE DRINK 4 EVR!!!!!