“Cigaro”

Enjoy!

On Wednesday I saw breaking benjamin live at the pageant in St. Louis, MO. This was my 5^th time seeing them live. I also saw them at both Pointfests, the second show at mississippi nights, and their acoustic show at vintage vinyl. On to the review…

I left a little after 5 and arrived right around 6. It took a little longer than usual getting there because of rush hour traffic. There was just one line getting into the pageant and was not very long. It was about half way down the side of the pageant. it rained pretty much the entire drive up there, but when I got there it had stopped, so I thought I lucked out, but was I wrong. After 5-10 minutes it starts raining again. Nothing really heard, but just a steady rain. Did I mention it was about mid 40’s out? All I had on was a long sleeve t-shirt. So I was a whee bit nippy. About 6:15 they split the line into 2, but I decided to stay because I moved up about 20 feet, which was good enough. A little after 7 the doors finally open. Another 5-10 minutes later I finally get inside. Here comes the advantage of being 21+, no covercahrge and the 21+ line was empty, so I was able to pass quite a few people and get right inside. When inside I headed right for the pit. It actually wasn’t too bad yet. It faded out towards the sides of the pit. I stayed to the right and was only 1 deep. I was able to move my way to the barricade by the time the first band came on at 8. I was right where the last section of the barricade bends. On to the bands…

8:00 – 8:30 skindred

I had no idea what to expect from these guys, as I had never heard anything from them. They weren’t bad, but nothing special. Lead singer is kinda a wack job. He had this little keyboard and had it play a song while he danced around.

9:00 – 9:30 moderndayzero

This was my second time seeing moderdayzero never saw them as mesh or meshstl. They are a local band, but I have never really gotten into them. I only know 1 or 2 songs by them. They put on an ok show, but for it being a hometown show they didn’t impress me. Granted I knew exactly 0 of the songs they played.

10-11:10 breaking benjamin

Now for the entire reason I was there. They came out and I could see Ben’s face and he had this “HOLY SHIT!” look on him. I must say this was one of the best shows I have seen. Ben once again confirmed that St. Louis is their home away from home. He also said St. Louis is one of the main reasons for their success. The pit was great. There was once guy trying to force his way up front and the security guy right in front of me leaped (lept, whatever) over grabbed him and basically threw him out of the pit, that was awesome. People were surfing all the time, including this one guy who must have done it 6-7 times. When Mark was throwing out pics he threw one close to he so I reached up and actually caught it. I don’t think I have ever actually caught one in the air. This is my second breaking benjamin pic. The first one I got at the second mississippi nights show. Also, this was my first time seeing them since Ben kicked Jeremy out of the band. The file in, BC, did a pretty good job. I noticed a difference a few times, but for the most part he seemed to do pretty well.

• playlist (taken from shallowbay forums), not in order
  • home
  • medicate
  • polyamorous
  • water
  • so cold
  • simple design
  • firefly
  • break my fall
  • breakdown
  • away
  • closure teaser – chevelle
  • lithium
  • wish i may
  • shallow bay
  • rain – Ben by himself

One great thing was the pageant made this a nonsmoking show, which I had nevers een before, but throught it was awesome. One of the security guys said it was new and was just something they were trying out. One guy alsot got thrown out inbetween 2 of the sets. I believe he was smoking pot, but I’m not sure. They let him stay though. Also, the show was no cameras or recordings, so I don’t have any pictures. I don’t know why no cameras were allowed. It’s a bunch of b.s. I know they were videotaping the show, but I have no clue what it’s for. Could just be for the bands personal use or maybe something else, who knows.

After the show I went out and handed out about 80 system of a down stickers, I’m on the street team. Those were gone in no time. Walked back to the car and got home around midnight. I felt like crap when I got home because I hadn’t ate since launch, but I just went to bed.

Last Tuesday, August 3, 2004, I saw lostprophets live at mississippi nights in St. Louis, MO. This was my second time seeing them live, but the last time was a couple years ago. They put on a great show. Played 10 songs, but only 2 off of the first CD, The Fake Sound of Progress. They did “The Fake Sound of Progress” and “Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja.” I was disappointed that they did not play “Kobrakai.” The other 8 songs were from the new CD, Start Something.

• Not in order:
  • We Still Kill the Old Way
  • To Hell We Ride
  • Last Train Home
  • Make a Move
  • Burn, Burn
  • I Don’t Know
  • Start Something
  • Sway

I have added the pictures I took to the gallery section. The quality blows. it was a disposable camera.

This past Saturday I went to Vintage Vinyl for an acoustic show by Breaking Benjamin.

We first went to eat at Fitz’s. This was my first time there and the food was good. While there we saw Jeremy, the drummer for Breaking Benjamin. We finished up around 4 and got in line for the show, which was at 6. There were only 4 people infront of us.The Point was there so we atleast had some music to listen to while we waited. Then we saw someone who I did not expect to see, the Governor of Missouri, Bob Holden. We got a picture with him. I will post it when I get it.

After 2 hours we finally get in. And damn it was hot in there. There were 400 people crammed into the store. After a little wait the band came out and played: Home, Sooner or Later, Polyamorous, Skin, and So Cold. Only 5 songs, so that kind of sucked. I started to get real pissed because there was a security guard right in my view and was unable to get clear shot with the camera. Also, during Sooner or Later Ben forgot the words, that was funny. Someone said something about Billy Corgan and Ben started to play “Today” and said when he did that infront of Billy he told him to knock it the f*ck off. When they were done we went in back for autographs. The only sucky part was we could only get 1 thing signed. So, I got my We Are Not Alone CD signed.

2 hour wait and done in 1 hour, but all worth it.

Yesterday was The Point’s annual music festival. This was my forth consecutive year attending. Going in I felt the lineup was not as good as it has been in the past, but there were a few bands that I wanted to see. We got there around 10, but they weren’t letting anyone into the parking lot so traffic was really backed up. About 20 minutes later they finally opened it up and we then waited in line for the doors to open at 11. The way things were set up was really different from the way things were done in the past. There was the side stage near the gates (B), but this time there was another stage behind it in the parking lot (A).

The first band Supercrush was voted into the show by a poll on the website. There were apparently 23000 votes and the band won by just 50. I have no idea who was number 2. But this first band sucked. They were a punk band, which already a minus in my book. Stage (B)

They next band, Shamans Harvest, played on (A). Followed by Adair on (B). Then, The Adored on (A). We didn’t really watch any of these bands. We saw a few minutes of Adair and they weren’t bad. They reminded me of Finch who played Pointfest last year.

It was now about 12:20 when Crossfade came out on (B). They were a mixed bag. They had some really kick ass, hard songs. But they had some that just really didn’t seem to fit in. Mainly the ones where DJ/vocalist was doing a majority of the vocals. He was rapping more than singing and I feel the other guy fits in with the band much better.

Next was a local band at 12:55, moderndayzero on (A). This was their seventh Pointfest with the same band members, but their first wit this current name. They were originally known as Mesh, but there was some really bad Sweedish techno group, or something like that, so they had to change their name and they went with MeshSTL. They did play one sang from their old band,but the rest was new. They weren’t bad.

The next bands preformance at 1:30 surprised the hell out of me, Apartment 26 on (B). They came out with a ton of energy and the lead singer was bouncing all over the place. He even climbed up the stage and came out to the barricade. I only know the one song their had on the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack, which they did not play. But I still thought they were amazing. They really got the crowd into it. People were surfing all over and a few really good size pits took place. Also the Crossfade guys were hanging around signing stuff and hanging around with the fans.

At 2:05 Flaw came out on (A). I know a couple of their songs. They were pretty good. The crowd got into them a lot. And we learned one thing; crowd surfing while wearing a skirt, not a good idea. I’m not saying I minded.

Now it was time for a nice little two and a half hour break. We had no interest in seeing the next four bands; Auf der Maur, Von Bondies, Sugarcult, or Lit. So we went and checked out our seats. They weren’t too bad. We were about 15-20 rows back in the left section. We hung out there until about 3 when we left to go grab some food. Where a hot dog, fries and a soda ran me $12.25 which is ridiculous. We went back to our seats, ate and waited around until a little before 5. We started to make out way back to the 2 side stages when we ran across this fan that blew water. That thing was amazing. It felt great.

At 5 Thornley came out on (B). The lead singer had issues with his guitar, but they got straightened out after the first song. They were pretty good. I feel bad for them though because the next band was Story of the Year, who are a local band, so people began migrating to the other stage where they were playing next. We were not one of them, we stayed for their entire set.

Story of the Year played at 5:35 on (A). This stage was in the parking lot and had a small opening in the fence to get to the stage. We decided to stay on the outside of the gate becuase the crowd was huge. Also my friend ran into a couple people that he knew so we just hung out there for a few songs. Where we saw Ben from Breaking Benjamin. He was making his way to the stage with a few ladies, go Ben. Anyway back to the band. I am not a big fan of theirs, so we decided not to stay for their show. Plus I had already seen them live before.

They were the last band to play the side stages. Now it was onto the main stage.

6:35 Papa Roach was the first band up on the main stage and they kicked ass. This was my second time seeing them live. The first time was way back in Nov. of 2000 on the Anger Management Tour. Coby came out into the crowd during a few songs. They had a lot of energy and just seemed to be really glad to be playing live. They played some news songs that will be on their new cd which will be out September 14. They also mentioned that they will be starting up a new tour for about 3 months where they are gonna play small clubs that hold in the neighborhood of 300 people. So that should be really cool.

• SET LIST (Not in order) I got this from a post on their message boards, so if any of it is wrong don’t blame me.
  • Deadcell
  • Broken Home
  • Last Resort
  • Angels and Insects
  • Blood Brothers
  • She Loves me not
  • M-80
  • Born With Everything die with nothing
  • Getting Away with Murder
  • Done With you

8:00 Now comes the band I was waiting for, Breaking Benjamin. This was my third time seeing them live. The first time was a year ago at the last Pointfest. Then I saw them just a couple months ago at Mississippi Nights where they were taping the show. That show was unbelievable. They played for about an hour and a half. And I was dead center only one person infront of me. Anyway back to last night. They kicked ass as usual. StL loves them and it showed. When Ben asked how many owned the CD, the response was atleast 75% of the people. And there was about 18,000 – 20,000 people there. Ben dedicated the last song to all of us shallowbay.net users, which I am a member. My username on the forums is artimeg. They only had an hour to play which sucked because there was no Tool cover song.

• SET LIST: (In order)
  • Home
  • Wish I May
  • Medicate
  • Water
  • Phase
  • Natural Life
  • Skin
  • So Cold
  • Break My Fall
  • Polyamorous
  • Shallow Bay

Last up was the last show for The Urge. Not well known outside of St. Louis, but they are huge here, because they are a local band. They actually broke up a couple of years ago, but got together for a few shows and decided to do one more at Pointfest. They say they won’t be doing anymore shows ever, but we’ll see in a couple years. They were amazing as usual and played all of their big songs. They were scheduled to play for 1 hour but I knew there was no way they would that long. They played for about an hour and a half, which is well short of their 2 and a half to 3 hour shows in the past.

I guess that’s about it. All in all it was a great show.

Pointfest will be on June 5. Breaking Benjamin will once again be playing. That’s the only band I know of for sure.

Rock on!

Update: The Urge, Story of the Year, Breaking Benjamin, Sugarcult, Auf Der Maur, The Von Bondies, Crossfade, Apartment 26, moderndayzero, plus 11 more to be announced.