Ben Folds -- Lawrence, KS -- October 27th, 2009

Sixth time. Best time! Good crowd, great song selection. And it was just him and his piano, only the 2nd time in like...6ish years. Amazing.

Dog
Annie Waits
All U Can Eat
Effington
Gone
Sentimental Guy
Emaline
Jesusland
Still Fighting It
Unreleased song (The Secret Life Of Morgan Davis)
Unreleased song (Girl [I think])
New Song - Picture Window
New Song - Levi Johnston's Blues
New Song - Belinda
You Don't Know Me (feat. Kate Miller-Heidke)
Kate
Landed
Freebird/Rock This Bitch
Bastard
Dr. Yang
Such Great Heights (Postal Service Cover)
Army
Evaporated
Zak and Sara
Happy Birthday to Sydney
Not The Same

Encore:
Song for the Dumped
Narcolepsy
Philosophy

10/10

First time seeing Ben Folds play Evaporated, Song for the Dumped, and I think Emaline. I think it might be the first time I've seen him do Such Great Heights, too.

The opener was Kate Miller-Heidke from Australia and she's the 2nd best opener I've ever seen with Ben Folds (first would be Rufus Wainwright). She did an excellent cover of Toxic by Britney Spears. After she helped with You Don't Know Me, Ben took photos of her and her guitarist with the crowd being happy, us booing them, and then Kate "pissing" on the stage. :D

Skipping Kansas: too much!

I've seen the history of places like the Static Bar and the Bottleneck back in the day. It's depressing how many awesome metal tours now skip over this part of the states.

Ensiferum recently announced a US tour with Hypocrisy (who have tapped Children of Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho as a touring guitarist!), Ex Deo (Kataklysm frontman's side band), and Black Guard (formerly: Profugus Mortis). The fantastic pagan tour 's closest KC-area date is most likely Texas or Minnesota.

The first pagan tour of 2010 was announced, yet is nowhere near us KC folk. Korpiklaani will be hitting the road with Tyr, and support will come from Swashbuckle and White Wizzard. Closest date looks to be Tulsa, OK at the Flytrap Music Hall on January 23rd.

And last but not least, Dying Fetus will not be coming here on their first tour supporting their amazing new album, "Descend Into Depravity", although more dates are rumored to be announced. Co-headlining will be The Faceless, and support will come from (on select dates): Vital Remains, Beneath The Massacre, Annotations of an Autopsy, and Enfold Darkness. Looks like the closest current date is Denver, CO on November 18th.

mc chris -- Lawrence, KS -- October 13th, 2009

I Fight Dragons is a fun band who plays pop punk/rock with chiptunes. They've also modified several NES/SNES/Power Glove/Guitar Hero controllers to create different sounds. Infectious as hell, I can't wait to see them again. 8/10

Don't You?
Heads Up, Hearts Down
The Faster The Treadmill...
Work It (new song)
Money
No One Likes Superman Anymore
I Fight Ganon (Legend Of Zelda theme)

3rd time seeing Whole Wheat Bread, and they never disappoint. Pretty much the same set as last time, but a longer hip-hop section. It was all great. When they're punk, they're punk as hell. And when they're crunk, they're crunk as hell. 8.5/10

206
Ode 2 Father
Throw Your Sets Up
Never Scared (cover)
I Don't Give A Fuck (cover)
Girlfriend Like This
--
Rapping part!
--
Broke
Old Man Samson
Catch 22
Lower Class Man
Police Song
Bombs Away

Third time seeing mc chris as well. He played a ton of songs, most of them new. But that's okay, because all his songs are pretty catchy and fun to listen to. Crowd was alright, could've been better. Before "mc chris is dead" he threw out a group of frat boy douchebags because they kept calling him a homo everytime songs ended. Other than that, it was a great time. 8/10

Smokin' 40's and Drinkin' Blunts
?
White Kids Love Hip-Hop
006
pizza butt
Rant about his girlfriend!
? (new)
neville
Tractor Beam
10 Year Old
Juggalo rant!
OMC
Tussin
WIID
Geek
nrrd grrl
mc chris is dead
IG-88's '57 Chevy
Fett's Vette

Dethklok -- Kansas City, MO -- October 12th, 2009

Awesome concert! I thought I was going to miss at least some of High on Fire, but I got there in time to see it all. It was a great experience.

High On Fire was my first concert of 2008, and I'd been jonesing to see them again. While they didn't get a very long set, they left me (again) wanting more. They absolutely slayed and Matt Pike is still a beast on the guitar. He rips through solos like it's as easy as not brushing his teeth and the crowd ate it up completely. Frost Hammer was amazing, and Waste of Tiamat is my favorite live HoF song still. I can't wait to see them again. 9/10

Fury Whip
Blood From Zion
Cometh Down Hessian
Waste of Tiamat
Frost Hammer
Rumors Of War

First things first: there was a huge pit filled with hardcore kiddies fighting invisible ninjas for Converge. But to be honest, they're one of the least worst "core" bands I've seen live. Maybe that's because they honestly don't try to be metal, they are at heart a hardcore/grindcore/mathcore band. But I still don't get it. A lot of times it sounded like they were leading up to a huge moment where they'd kick in and the place would explode, but nine times out of ten, it just never seemed to come. However, when they kicked it in, I really enjoyed it. I guess I was expecting a DEP-esque type of craziness, but Converge wasn't terrible. More grind, less core. 5/10

?
No Heroes
Axe To Fall
Eagles Become Vultures
The Broken Vow
Last Light
Reap What You Sow
Wolves At My Door
Dark Horse
?
?
Concubine

I, at first, thought it was lame that Mastodon was performing all of Crack the Skye still. But as I quickly found out, CtS translate extremely well live and made for a really memorable performance. Sound trouble happened at the beginning of the set, but was fixed by The Czar. Speaking of that song, the 2 songs I liked the best from their set were the longest from CtS, The Czar and The Last Baron. Absolutely chill-inducing when heard live. And the brutality of their pre-CtS material as the encore was amazing. The crowd went insane during Mother Puncher. Awesome show. 9/10

Oblivion
Divinations
Quintessence
The Czar
Ghost of Karelia
Crack The Skye
The Last Baron
--
Circle of Casquatch
Aqua Dementia
Where Strides The Behemoth
Mother Puncher
The Bit

Anyone who still doubts the intentions of Brendon Small and Dethklok just need to attend a show to see what all the fuss is about. The straight up melodic death metal approach from Dethklok really paired well with the prog-attack of Mastodon. I will say that Dethalbum I songs are better than Dethalbum II songs. But the crowd loved it all. Craziest pits I've seen all year. Brendon Small and his band are really, really talented. You can't help but headbang through their set. 9/10

Detheme
Bloodlines
Burn The Earth
Hatredcopter
Black Fire Upon Us
Birthday Dethday
Dethjingle
Dethsupport
Awaken
The Gears
Murmaider
Thunderhorse
Go Into The Water
Fansong
_________

Kylesa -- Lawrence, KS -- October 10th, 2009

Lionize had to drop and the rest of the bands had shortened sets because of bad weather conditions to the west of Topeka. It was still a good concert, but would've been better with everything in its right place.

Opening the show was Wrath and Ruin. Last time I saw them was before the Impaled show last year, and somehow they went from a 3 piece to 5 members. And the easiest way to describe them is...well...Xasthur. They sound almost exactly like what Xasthur would sound like live. Keyboards and all. They sounded fine but unless the vocalist was shrieking, you couldn't hear them. Lots of their songs sounded similar, so maybe it's a good thing Malefic doesn't perform live? Not too bad. 5/10

Up next was Red Fang and besides checking some youtube videos on them, I really didn't know what to expect. They all have crazy facial hair (except for the drummer, kinda like how ZZ Top's drummer's last name is Beard yet he doesn't have one) and for the most part, they rocked. Some of their songs started to sound same-y after a while, but when they were good, they were really good. I would absolutely love to see them again. 7.5/10

Third time seeing Saviours, second time this year! We had to wait a while for them to get in, so we got a criminally short set. And by criminally short, I mean only about 4 or 5 songs. And what sucks is that they were really hitting their stride right as they ended. The duel guitar solos were still salivatingly good and they kicked it into overdrive several times. Lots of headbanging and moshing. (There were surprisingly few hipsters here! Awesome!) Really needed to be a longer set. 8/10

For months leading up to this concert, I was saying it'd be the heaviest show of the year. Did Kylesa deliver? Yes. Kind of. It wasn't as loud as I expected, but it was still very heavy. Some of the songs off of Static Tensions translate insanely well live, especially Said and Done and Unknown Awareness. We only got two encore songs, one from their first album (I'm guess it was either Testing The Good Of Man or Dream Of The Freedom To Come) and the Pink Floyd cover Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. Which is the only time I would willingly listen to Pink Floyd. 8/10

Scapegoat
Insomnia For Months
Said And Done
Unknown Awareness
Running Red
Nature's Predators
Almost Lost
Only One
Perception
To Walk Alone
? (either Testing The Good Of MAn or Dream Of The Freedom To Come)
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Pink Floyd cover)

Peelander-Z -- Lawrence, KS -- October 1st, 2009

Kansas was invaded by aliens from the Z sector of planet Peelander tonight, and they brought with them giant aliens, limbo lines, human bowling, and a smile to everyone's face in attendance.

I've heard people say that you don't really go to a GWAR show for the music, you go for the show. That's partly true for Peelander-Z. The trio (Peelander Yellow, Red, and Green) do put on an amazing show with great crowd participation, but their music is also infectiously fun pop (or maybe Peelander?) punk that you can't help but jump along to.

Just to emphasize how much fun this was, here's a partial list of everything that went on during the 50 or so minutes that Peelander-Z played:

* Bass player came in from outside during the first song playing while wearing a giant alien space costume
* Peelander Yellow crowd surfed around the bar while playing
* Peelander Red played the bass while standing on peoples shoulders
* During Mad Tiger, they passed out drumsticks and pots until most of the crowd was banging along with the beat. Eventually, they pulled up someone on stage to keep the beat until the only sound left was the pans banging together from the crowd
* During the aforementioned pan banging, the band made a makeshift limbo contest and the crowd participated
* Peelander Red led a human train all around the bar while playing his bass which culminated in a crazy moshpit
* They brought up audience members to play their instruments
* Peelander Green and the drummer for the opening band, Birthday Suits, set up their kits in the middle of the crowd to have a drum duel
* We all moshed in circles around the drummers


They spent as much time in the crowd as they did on the stage during their set.

All this went on while nearly every song had motions to it that Peelander Yellow was more than happy enough to explain. Also, the songs usually led with an amusing rambling from Yellow about how they aren't Japanese, they aren't human, but they are from the Z sector of planet Peelander! Nothing I can put down in words and even describe how much fun this show was.

Partial/Out of Order setlist:

P-Pop High School
Beautiful Sundae
Handsome
Super Health
Autograph
So Many Mike
Ninja-High Schooool
Mad Tiger
S.T.E.A.K

10/10

Go see this band.