Between The Buried And Me -- Lawrence, KS -- March 7th, 2014

This isn't your grandpa's progressive music.

Between The Buried And Me headlined a progressive music package at the Granada Friday night that included three other bands that are continually pushing the package for conventional music, and ever pushing the "progressive" moniker to places it hasn't been before. A very full Granada Theater was extremely receptive of all four bands, filled with lots of singing, lots of moshing and lots of smiling faces.

The first band of the night was Canada's The Kindred. The Kindred is normally a progressive metal band in the vein of Last Chance to Reason and maybe even Protest The Hero. However, they were performing without their vocalist, so everything was instrumental. Their performance without vocals didn't take anything away from them at all, and actually might've even benefited them in some places. Definitely a modern take on progressive music, they combined the breakdowns and palm-muted riffing of djent with the technicality of guitar solos and keyboards to great effect. However, it seemed like without their vocalist, the music was catchy enough to stand on its own for a bit, but it was obvious the songs were written to have a singer carry it along. They didn't have the outrageous riffing or heaviness that Animals As Leaders has, but they could get there if they wanted to. A respectable first band of the night.

California's Intronaut was up next, and personally it was my first time seeing them since 2008 with High on Fire at the Bottleneck. They've changed since then, mellowing out a bit and really embracing the stoner and progressive sides of their music. Their half-hour set included mostly cuts from their latest album "Habitual Levitations." The song "Milk Leg" showcased their incredible bassist - he even had a couple of solo's during their performance. Definitely one of the highlights of the set. Overall, Intronaut was a different kind of heavy from the rest of the night, but their sound was very welcome.

There isn't a more polarizing metal band today than Deafheaven, but you wouldn't have noticed it at this concert. As soon as the band started their opening song "Dream House," the crowd barely let up with moshing and headbanging. At one point during the song, vocalist George Clarke hopped down into the crowd and everyone screamed along with him. Deafheaven's set comprised of material solely from their latest album "Sunbather," which took the metal music world by storm last year. Deafheaven is obviously influenced by shoegaze and post-rock bands such as Explosions in the Sky and My Bloody Valentine, but the majority of their sound is extreme, blast-beat laden and shrieked-vocals black metal that they do just as good as the Norwegian masters of the genre. George Clarke is one of the most impressive frontmen I've ever seen, not only from his impeccable black metal vocal abilities, but he was constantly bounding around the stage, acting like a man possessed. An explosive performance and the best of the night.

Between The Buried And Me are at the center of this new-school progressive metal movement, and they proved it Friday night by performing all of their new album, The Parallax II: Future Sequence, which has enough twists and turns to make even the staunchest of Dream Theater supporters' heads spin. However, for the uninitiated, playing through all of their latest album might be too much. "Parallax II" might be the band's most ambitious release yet, with interludes and movements-within-movements everywhere and music genres going from metalcore to death metal to pop music to everything in between in the span of one song. Luckily for BTBAM, they have some of the most talented musicians around today to keep things interesting for those not vested heavily in their music. Guitarist Paul Waggoner and bassist Dan Briggs provide enough jaw-dropping moments per song that is worth the price of admission alone. There were several moments during BTBAM's set that stood out from the rest, particularly the songs "Telos," "Lay Your Ghosts To Rest," and "Silent Flight Parliament." However, the encore performance of the brilliant "Sun of Nothing" from the equally brilliant "Colors" album further cemented it as maybe the best progressive metal song of the 2000's.

All in all, the lineup of this tour is proof that progressive metal is no longer just confined to Rush and Dream Theater and is quickly moving to the heavier side of things. Based on the performances from all four bands, that's undoubtedly a good thing.

BTBAM:

1. Goodbye To Everything
2. Astral Body
3. Lay Your Ghosts To Rest
4. Autumn
5. Extremophile Elite
6. Parllax
7. The Black Box
8. Telos
9. Bloom
10. Melting City
11. Silent Flight Parliament
12. Goodbye To Everything Reprise
====
13. Sun of Nothing

Deafheaven:

1. Dream House
2. Irresistible (over PA)
3. Sunbather
4. The Pecan Tree

Intronaut:

1. The Literal Black Cloud
2. Vernon
3. Harmonomicon
4. Milk Leg
5. The Welding

Between the Buried and Me: 7.5/10
Deafheaven: 10/10
Intronaut: 8/10
The Kindred: 7.5/10

Between The Buried And Me -- Lawrence, KS -- April 26th, 2011

It took getting past their new EP being played, but I've decided that tonight was the best time I've seen BTBAM live. They absolutely killed it opening for Mastodon last year, but the song selection and the talent that oozed from the stage tonight easily trumped any former performance of theirs.

The EP, "The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues" (played in its entirety tonight) definitely wasn't bad live. In fact, Lunar Wilderness had some jaw-dropping parts in it. It's just that the songs hadn't matured to be fully appreciated in a live setting. Still great, but what came afterwards just blew the EP out of the water. Focusing mostly on their last two records, the snippet (by snippet I mean about 10 minutes) of Swim To The Moon and the whole Ants Of The Sky performance were definitely the highlights from BTBAM. The soundscapes they create and the pure emotion they put forward in those two songs are unmatched. Sun Of Nothing was epic with lots of crowd sing-alongs, and I was definitely happy they pulled out Fossil Genera - I had forgotten they were playing it on this tour! The band themselves were spot on, the guitar and drum solo's were really awesome, and it was just a fantastic performance. A killer rendition of Selkies ended the set, and I hope they come back soon.

But I hope they come back with a better band directly opening for them. After a few minutes of backtracking, this is the third time I've seen Job For A Cowboy (i've paid to see them five times - blech) and they have honestly gotten worse over time. They pounded out the first three or four songs with no downtime in between them and it came out as just a cacophonous jumbling of dissonant down-tuned notes with no apparent direction in mind. I would blame it on the venue for their sound, but I know better. Job For A Cowboy just prefers their music to sound like this, and it just doesn't sound good.

Opening the show was The Ocean. People were wary about what to expect, but I think they won over the crowd around the third time the vocalist dove into the crowd! I didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. I'm eager to check them out on record.

My only comment on the crowd is that I am a firm supporter of the "don't mosh during BTBAM" movement. That's all.

Specular Reflection
Augment Of Rebirth
Lunar Wilderness
Sun Of Nothing
Ants Of The Sky
Guitar Solo
Swim To The Moon (partial)
Drum Solo
Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain
---
Selkies: The Endless Obsession

Between The Buried And Me: 9/10
Job For A Cowboy: 3/10
The Ocean: 7.5/10

Kansas Gets Prog

Between The Buried and Me just announced they've signed to Metal Blade Records and announced a tour which is coming to the Granada in Lawrence!

Between The Buried And Me
Job For A Cowboy
The Ocean
Cephalic Carnage

April 26th
Granada
Lawrence, KS

Too bad JFAC is randomly thrown in there, another proggy-type band would've been great. But BTBAM puts on a great show!

Between The Buried And Me -- Lawrence, KS -- August 5th, 2010

Frontman Tommy Rogers of Between The Buried And Me (BTBAM) announced to the crowd that the show tonight in Kansas will be their last for the year. Although they didn't pull out anything special, they played spot on their entire set for another jaw-dropping performance.

Sandwiched in between Underoath and Blessthefall, this might have just been one of the oddest lineup's I've come across in recent memory. BTBAM does not incessantly tell the crowd to mosh, tell them to sing along, chide them to crowd surf, like blessthefall did so much. BTBAM's music speaks for itself and it incited just as much moshing and surfing as the other bands. The guitar solo during "White Walls" and the bass solo during "Disease, Injury, Madness" were nothing short of awe-inspiring, as they should be, Tommy's vocals were a welcome respite from the clean singing, emo-type vocals used by every band other than BTBAM.

Although it was clear most of the kids in the crowd were young and there for other bands, BTBAM made a huge mark on them.

Setlist:

(B) The Decade Of Statues
Obfuscation
Disease, Injury, Madness
White Walls

Underoath - n/a
Between The Buried And Me - 9/10
blessthefall - 4/10
To Speak Of Wolves - 5/10

Mastodon -- Lawrence, KS -- May 16th, 2010

I have a DVD of Andrew W.K. and it shows a clip of him performing somewhere on Sept. 11, 2002 and he says something about how we shouldn't remember the fallen with a moment of silence, but a moment of the loudest, most raucous noise we can muster up to celebrate their lives and accomplishments. For about 5 hours tonight in a college town in Kansas, Mastodon, Between The Buried And Me, Baroness, Valient Thorr and a ton of fans inside Liberty Hall honored and celebrated the fallen Ronnie James Dio with as much energy and noise as they could produce.

For some reason, I had some apprehensions about seeing Valient Thorr. Dunno if it's the combination of not liking the song of their's on Guitar Hero or being turned off that they have a shtick where they're aliens, but they were really fun and a great way to start off the show. They related what all their songs were about to the passing of Dio and then gave a really positive light on the whole drab situation. To describe Valient Thorr would be to imagine if AC/DC had formed in 2000 or if Motorhead was from Georgia. Equal parts rock and metal, the whole thing was a lot of fun, even if their sound wasn't the greatest.

Baroness got the first real big response of the night, and they blew my expectations away. Undoubtedly the heaviest band of the night, they would sound even better in a bigger place with better sound equipment. I was loving their set a lot. I recognized the songs they played off the Red album and even some from the Blue album, which I am really itching to hear more of now. I can only hope that they'll be back and soon.

1. Bullhead's Psalm
2. The Sweetest Curse
3. Isak
4. Jake Leg
5. Ogeechee Hymnal
6. A Horse Called Golgotha
7. War, Wisdom, and Rhyme
8. Swollen and Halo

Between The Buried And Me (BTBAM) is definitely the odd man out on this tour. Too progressive and too "core" for some in the crowd, but most of the people there loved it. They left a kinda bad taste in my mouth (at least live) after I saw them open for Children of Bodom in 2008, but they were much better this time around. All the members are brilliant musicians, especially the bassist. During Disease, Injury, Madness he had a solo which was just mind-blowing, probably the best bassist I've ever seen live. Would love to see them play a longer set.

1. Fossil Genera – A Feed from Cloud Mountain
2. Prequel to the Sequel
3. Backwards Marathon
4. Disease, Injury, Madness
5. Mordecai

Mastodon comes around these parts often, and the crowd tonight let them know just how much we appreciate it. After weeks of hearing about Brent being too drunk to play and storming off mid-set, leaving some shows to get cut short, he was absolutely brilliant tonight. The Mastodon I saw tonight is a band that deserves every ounce of praise they get and is standing on the edge of bigger and better things. The solo's on The Czar, The Last Baron, and an improvised solo before March Of The Fire Ants showed just what Brent can do, and the rest of the band was insane. They gave so much energy and the crowd gave it right back with crazy pits and tons of crowd surfing. One of the best performances I've heard from them.

At the end of the night, Brann came up to the mic from behind the drumkit to thank the crowd, and the last thing he said was "Rest in Peace, Mr. Ronnie James Dio." The crowd went absolutely nuts one last time, and thus ended the greatest celebration of a fallen legend's life that I've ever been witness to.

1. Oblivion
2. Divinations
3. Quintessence
4. The Czar
5. Ghost of Karelia
6. Crack The Skye
7. The Last Baron
---
8. Crusher Destroyer
9. Crystal Skull
10. I Am Ahab
11. Circle of Cysquatch
12. Iron Tusk
13. March Of The Fire Ants
14. Blood And Thunder

Mastodon returns. AGAIN.

Mastodon was here last October with Dethklok, High on Fire, and Converge. The show was awesome.

They were also here in August or September at the Granada.

And I know for a fact that they've played The Granada again at least once (with Converge) and The Bottleneck at least once opening for someone.

Well, they're back.

The Volcom Tour at Liberty Hall on May 16th (that's 6 days after Converge + Coalesce at the Bottleneck)

Mastodon
Between The Buried And Me
Baroness
Valient Thorr

DUDE

Skipping Kansas: In Flames

In Flames just announced a US Tour, and it's skipping Kansas City. There is no Chicago date, and In Flames likes to tour, so I think there'll be more dates announced, possibly for early 2009. Closest date at the time is Texas. Full dates here. Support comes from Between The Buried and Me, 3 Inches of Blood, and The Faceless.

Children of Bodom -- Kansas City, MO -- September 27th, 2008

I don't feel like writing up a huge review, so I'll just kind BS it right here:

BTBAM: I thought they were going to be good, but they were mediocre. I guess I was expecting like...I guess maybe Dillinger Escape Plan-esque crazy tempo changes and stuff? But, no, just metalcore. No terribly breakdowns like, say, Unearth or anything like that, but just nothing stood out about them. 6/10

BDM: Always put on a good show and tonight was no different. Their vocalist cracks me up, he always has a huge grin on his face. He's so happy! He ends every song the same way. Music cuts out, "FUCK YEAH!" They're fun. 7/10

Bodom: Best band of the night, they were really fun to listen to! The solos sounded fantastic live and that keyboard is awesome! Alexi Laiho is really awesome at what he does and every song, give for "Blooddrunk", was really engaging and powerful. No encores with silly jam songs, but that's okay. Bed of Razors was the highlight. 8/10

The Crowd: A lot of hardcore dancers during BTBAM but they were the "pick up the change" kind. During BTBAM there was a huge lack of devil horns too, which was weird. Everyone did rap hands during the breakdown-esque parts of BTBAM and Black Dahlia for some reason. During Black Dahlia, there were less hardcore dancers but they were the fucking most annoying I've ever seen. They would stand on the sides and, like, fucking do this stupid ass move to wait until the pit died down so they could go in. Like...the move was...okay, put your hands out in front of you like you're riding a motorcycle. Doing it? Okay, now act like you're revving the gas, and while doing that, imagine if a gangster was doing it. That's what they were doing. I was so fucking pissed off at them. People picked up on their faggotry and just kept running into them whenever they tried to do anything so they just left after BDM. In fact, about half the people there left after them. But then a bunch came in just for Bodom, so it evened out.

Children Of Bodom:

Follow the Reaper
Smile Pretty for the Devil
Silent Night, Bodom Night
Living Dead Beat
Hellhounds on My Trail
Sixpounder
Blooddrunk I did not really like this song
Angels Don't Kill
Children of Decadence -> Chokehold (Cocked 'n Loaded)
Hate Me!
Bed of Razors Probably the best song of the night
In Your Face Extremely fun
Hate Crew Deathroll
Downfall

The Black Dahlia Murder (partial):

What A Horrible Night to Have A Curse
A Vulgar Picture
Statutory Ape
I Worship Only What You Bleed
Everything Went Black

Between The Buried and Me:

Foam Born B: The Decade of Statues The only song I knew by them
All Bodies
Prequel To The Sequel
White Walls Part of this was very good