The Saints and Sinners tour allows concertgoers of all ages to explore two poles of ontological existence. Whether you are attracted to fire and brimstone or prefer to walk on the sunny side of the road, the four bands that played the House of Blues offered sonic and lyrical explorations of human nature. A screamo, metalcore, pop-punk, version.
What made the conceit of saints and sinners enjoyable was trying to cut through the piercings, tattoos, and blistering guitars to figure out which camp the band fit into. Since I was mostly unfamiliar with the bands before the evening, this little game was more difficult than you might think. Bands these days eschew clichéd devil salutes or upside down crosses, and Stryper hasn’t recently toured, so it took me a few songs before making a final decision. Here’s my scorecard:
Haste the Day
From behind messianic-length hair, Stephen Keech barked, sang, and grunted through a heavy set. The band did away with banter between songs, likely to not distract from the heaviness. This was good metalcore, straight-out adrenaline for forty minutes. A fair amount of moshing and crowd surfing kept the security guards involved, ushering the tossed bodies back into the pit if they got too close to the stage.
Too close to call. But then, Keech lowered his voice and asked why the kids came out to the rock show tonight. His reason was to give glory to Jesus Christ. Of course! That’s why the band name seemed so familiar; it’s a line from one of my mom’s favorite hymns. Score one for the Saints.
To be honest, I can’t tell you who was surrounding Keech on stage since the Haste the Day lineup has recently changed. Their founding drummer left in December, right after the band released their fourth album Dreamer. While the sound was composed, the chemistry between each band member was lacking. I am not looking for constant high fives, or back-to-back guitar duets, but there should be a level of interaction that extends beyond a passing glance. With more time on the tour, look for more solidity from Haste the Day, and do listen to their song “68.” This one had the crowd punching along, ready to ditch the dark side.
Senses Fail
This one was easy. Frontman Buddy Nielsen and his bandmates in Senses Fail took to the stage with punky, emo joy. Flying kicks punctuated the music, a full body assault against empty space. One song in, and Buddy informed the crowd that there would be no profanity. When the audience responded with a few choice words, he turned serious and said, “I’m smarter than that.” Yep, this was a saintly band, too.
In contrast to the redemptive imagery of Haste the Day, Senses Fail revel in New Jersey Buddhist ennui. Their sing-along hooks launched Lansdowne Street into a frenzy. Kids go for songs about teen angst voiced with a carpe diem mentality. The solid guitar work of Heath Saraceno and Garrett Zablocki looked downright staid compared with Nielsen, who vaulted into the audience some three times. What impresses me about Senses Fail is their earnestness. Buddy doesn’t just run into the crowd because that’s what a band is supposed to do. His leaps, slides, poise: it’s all from his heart, and this brings a connection with the audience. When asked to form “The Wall of Death,” (which I now know means that audience members split apart some 20 feet, then rush full force into the vacant area), the crowd gleefully obliged. Look at the photos, and see Nielsen acting as traffic cop. It was great.
I’m a bit jaded to enjoy the Oedipal laments found in many of Senses Fail’s songs. From their new album, Life Is Not a Waiting Room, Nielsen sings, “Daddy where did you go/When I was 5 years old,” and the more graphic lament, “I wish I could drain/Out his half of blood in me/But I still have his face.” Still, I smile that for many of the under 18s, this might be their first encounter with Charles Bukowski—the band’s first disk makes use of his poem “Let it Enfold You.” The poem’s speaker shares Buddy’s song of finally accepting peace and happiness after years of fighting to prove his manhood. Previous distancing away from these “dumb, unsophisticated” feelings, gives way to a place of openness where the senses fail and some kind of transcendence begins. To symbolize this, while their backdrop banner displaying “Senses Fail” continually fell down in an awesome meta-fail, the band played on.
Well, I certainly thank my lucky stars that only the Saints portion of the Saints and Sinners tour responded to my pass requests. I missed out on classic bangers like “FreaXXX” by brokeNCYDE, sinners by virtue of stealing T-Pain’s vocoder, and Hollywood Undead, a fun blend of metal and hip-hop by guys in clownish masks. Sinners be damned; I’m marching in with the saints.
DOWNLOAD: Senses Fail - Wolves at the Door (MP3) or Follow us for more Senses Fail MP3s (Twitter)
he is amazing bro his style can not be touched....some people dont know what he is talking about caz u dont do what he does he is sickkk bra
by dylyn on Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 11.59 am from the entry: Wiz Khalifa: Burn After Rolling (Mixtape)
Wow,Great post.Thanks for sharing with us. land wi
by wisconsin land on Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 09.53 am from the entry: of Montreal + Gang Gang Dance - Orpheum Theatre (Boston, MA; Oct. 30, 2008)
Ugh. Paste’s profile of Free Energy made me kind of hate them. So does your review. It’s this unctuous defense of good-time rock-and-roll ("we’re just here to party, and we’re awesome!") that seems more self-serving than fun-loving.
by beth on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 09.41 pm from the entry: Foreign Born + Free Energy - The Knitting Factory (Brooklyn, NY; Mar. 12, 2010)
that inescapable feeling you are referring to, is that like when you hear something and you could have sworn you heard it before because of the nostalgic catchy quality? or is is like when you’ve heard a band exactly like said band?
great post by the way!
by paul on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 03.15 pm from the entry: The Novel Ideas - "The Sky Is A Field" - Borrow It
Whoa! I had no idea she was enegaged. You would never know with the way she behaves! Wow!
by art on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 09.48 am from the entry: Nikki Darlin and John McCauley: 1+1=1
This comment stream is so meta. Great review Kelly.
by chris on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 07.50 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
no prob. The whole album is excellent, combining some of the harder sonics of Los Angeles with the meat of his debut and obviously difficult to summarize in only 50 words… 
I’d say it’s on par with the debut, but better than Los Angeles.
by kelly on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.23 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
Love the deep blue colors on that first photo! So apropos.
Hey great photography. The show was amazing. I’m actually just barely visible in the first one. Anyways I was wondering if you could reformat your slide show so the pictures could be copied because I would love to have them.