Well, no one cares but I'm going to do a live review anyway.

Headed out to the show early that morning to get to Nashville (which is about a 3 hour drive) to do some xmas shopping and whatnots and spent the day wandering stores mostly. Worked my way through evening traffic to arrive at the venue around 5:00 and waited in line for the doors to open.

About 15 min before the door time one of the venue workers came out and announced that Trap Them had dropped the show due to illness and that Misery Index were half way between the last city and Nashville because their van engine exploded so we were down 2/4 bands for the evening and had picked up some "local" opener. I was looking forward to seeing both of them so this kind of sucked but in the long run the two bands I was planning to see were still there.

The venue itself is actually the second "stage" at Rocketown. The main being a 1300 capacity room in the main building, the White Building where we were is a converted mechanic garage with what I believe is around a 5-550 capacity, and the third a 150 cap small stage in the main building. This being the second time I've been in the White Building it's an excellent place for a show, one room very intimate with the bands setting up their own gear, running merch, little security and the ability to literally prop your foot on the stage and watch. I managed to snag a spot about a foot away from the front between the left main and the stage. The crowd was small (it being a monday night) but filled the better part of half the room I'm fairly certain there were some late people expecting two full opening acts.

Promptly at 7 the "local opener" Demeanor took the stage. They were a two piece hardcore/powerviolence (I guess) band from Southern Kentucky and by all accounts and my knowledge...were fucking terrible. The stereotype most people have for metal/extreme music (the whole one chord as fast as possible and screaming incessantly at the top of your lungs intelligible things and swear words) was absolutely true. They played 8 songs in 15 min and they all consisted of one chord, lots of cymbal, and the vocalist literally just screaming in the exact same pitch and tone. After this we all sincerely missed Misery Index. By this point the building had filled out to a pretty nice crowd and pretty near what I expected for the night.

Demeanor left the stage and after just a few min of mingling with others in the crowd the boys in Skeletonwitch took the stage and finished their gear set up. From the first riff to the last I have to again say they were absolutely fucking excellent. Third time seeing them was not boring at all and seeing an unfamiliar crowd enjoy them as much as this one did (Chance did a poll asking who had seen Skeletonwitch before) was rather awesome. Having managed to maintain my spot during Demeanor I was directly in front of guitarist Scott Hendrik and bassist Evan Linger. They started with a number of selections from Breathing the Fire, which the crowd devoured. When my neck wasn't moving it was just as entertaining to watch the bodies fly and moshers actually destroying the few hardcore dancers as it was the band on stage. They largely concentrated on BtF but did a few of the highlights from BtP as well as a few lesser known ones and even hit The Skullsplitter from At One with the Shadows. After destroying my neck for a good 50 min I pushed it further with the opening riff of Within My Blood the ever present closer. Just as good as the first two times I saw them it's nice to see that even after three times the band can still play material I haven't seen live and keep a fresh and interesting set while including their standards.

After the Witch were done only JFAC remained on our small set for the night. The band already had their amps set up and mic'd off stage while Skeletonwitch were performing so all that remained was to set up the drums and soundcheck which went marvelously fast (a fact I like to attribute to bands doing their own set up). Again proving itself the "little tour that could" JFAC had to announce their bassist would be out for the night because he was curled up on the van in a half lucid state thanks to the flu one man down however they decided to storm the last night of the tour with intense ferocity. The first time I witnessed JFAC was at a festival which in no way can capture their intensity on stage. With the amps off stage the three mobile members of the band had plenty of room to move and perform. I enjoy them on album but live is truly where JFAC shines there is a strong intensity that just inspires headbanging even after the near continuous bang to the Witch. Slow headbanging became the highlight of the night with some of their heavier riffs just inspiring a slow powerful full headbang. It was obvious that the crowd was theirs. From the first chord to the last the room exploded. The entire back half of the room was a pit (again amazing full of moshers keeping the hardcore dancers in check) and the front half filled with bangers and flying hair. The band had a brutal intensity but unlike most death metal and core bands I've seen had the ability through their lighting, various audio tracks, and their post song presence to keep a real feel of mysticism and darkness surrounding them. The set centered mostly around their newest album Ruination but they in no way neglected their older material, hitting three songs from the Doom EP and three from their debut Genesis. In the end after over an hour of onslaught they left the stage as they came in silently and calmly.

After the show which ended at a very early 10:15 I sat around and chatted with Scott and Chance from Skeletonwitch about their Memphis show last year and the tour in general. Both really cool guys I've had the honor of getting to meet every time I've seen them and thanks to last night of the tour deals managed to score a JFAC shirt, their Ruination album, and a new Skeletonwitch shirt all for just $25. While I was originally disappointed by the lack of Trap Them and Misery Index after the past few shows I've been to being borderline festival tours a quick get in get out and get destroyed show was a nice change of pace.

Sounds like a great time, I really want to see JFAC in a small venue now...

BTW is Rocketown a chain of places? There is a venue here with the same name, and it has multiple stages.

I don't believe so (just did a bit of research) I believe the one here anyway is a single venue/company.

Skeletonwitch



JFAC lol

Glad you enjoyed yourself though.

I had forgotten that you liked Skeletonwitch =o and thank you sir.

That's a bit smaller than the one I saw Blind Guardian at. Perfect!

Going to a show on Sunday for some pop punk band I've never heard of. Time to mosh mosh mosh!

Yup, White Building is awesome. I do like the main venue as well though. It's big but not too big. And wow man xD what band?

Versaemerge is the band name.

:o I'm actually jealous. They aren't really pop punk though more post hardcore.

haha, I'm gonna listen to some of their stuff tonight so I actually know some of the songs before I go xD

Usually a good idea....

Very nice review, did JFAC sound pretty good without bass? Bass a lot of times isn't too prominent live but I can see how it could make all the difference.

Also glad you got to meet Chance, he is one cool dude. Do you know if it was still considered their Skullsplitter tour? That's the one I caught them on in November and they also played Skullsplitter (obviously)

Sorry to hear two of the bands dropped, but glad to hear you had a good time and got to hear the two you wanted to see most. Fucking Skeletonwitch, I really want to see them again...

Yeah they sounded good. I mean I missed that heavy low end but they put on a great show and I would love to see them again with the full band. But to answer the original question yes they were good. And no they were opening for JFAC so it was not Skullsplitter tour.

Glad you had a good time. I'm not a fan of deathcore at all but I'm sure deathcore bands put on pretty high energy shows. There is actually a lot of music that I wouldn't really listen to on recordings but I would really enjoy live

Honestly JFAC haven't had much core in their style since the first album to me. Really moved in a death metal direction.

They did, but I enjoy the Deathcore a lot more than the Death Metal they did.

dont listen to them but i liked reading the review. they are always interesting for some reason.

Skeletonwitch sound incredible live. I need to go see them next chance I get.

Deathcore is even worse live because of the fans

waaaaah^

My show tonight was decent, the opening bands were ok, but VersaEmerge's drummer couldn't make it so they played an all-acoustic set, which was boooooooring.

There For Tomorrow was pretty good though, got a good pit going as well

That sucks MC glad you got to have a good put though lol.

someone is listening to attack attack?!?!?!?!?!


































































this person must be sacrificed.

I mean come on, you make fun of me for liking folk metal!

I'm still in denial, really, someone must have hacked your account. At least bands like A Day To Remember have talent so I can let that slide, but this is just unforgivable.

MC is secretly Olli Sykes.

Olli Sykes is awesome >_>

I don't care if you like the band or not. He's still a whiny ****.

He was a really cool guy when I met him, and if your talking about lyrically I don't really care >_> lol.

Back when I was blissfully unaware of who they were I read an interview with him in my brother's Kerrang and, holy fuck, he can whine. The whole interview was him whinging on about how shit his life is. Oh, we feel so sorry for you, Olli, with your successful band and thousands of fans. I'm not saying I'm not sympathetic for that sort of stuff but when you dedicate a whole interview to it....there's such a thing as milking it.

Meh I'm sure he can he's still cool though I haven't read a handful of interviews with him but based from when I met him he seemed to be a real subdued guy like on stage total beast off he's real quiet and sort of side steps compliments and stuff. I don't know the guy personally though so who knows lol.

He is fucking hot though

wait.... someone is listening to attack attack still?





















































what evil is this...

Point being Attack Attack sucks ass. Proven fact by scientists who don't lie or piss me off

was it science? or was it Odin?











































its both...

It was Zeuss.

Oli Sykes isn't hot

Bear in mind my friends are 16 year old girls.

I have a man crush on Oli Sykes.

Why are we talking about shitty scene kid bands still?

Because DF brought BMtH up and me and MC like them so we like talking about them.

Invalid response.

Sure.....