It's Out With The Old, In With The New At Taste Of Chaos

Arrow Hall

Mississauga, ON

on Apr 13 2006

Shehzaad Jiwani (CHARTattack)

04/17/2006 3:00pm

Screamo fans had a great way to kick off the long weekend last Thursday when the second annual Taste Of Chaos tour made its way to Arrow Hall for one of the last dates on the trek. Though co-headliners Thursday announced earlier in the week that they were not going to perform, the venue was still packed with sweaty teenagers whose T-shirts gave away which band they came to see.

The side stage was generally treated as background music for bathroom breaks between the headliners' sets and, for the most part, the bands featured there weren't worthy of mention. Art-rockers Dredg seemed out of place between bands like Adair and Greeley Estates, but they managed to play a solid opening set despite the lack of attention.

Burlington, Ontario's Silverstein got the crowd revved up for some of the heavier acts on the bill and they were an obvious favourite of the kids who arrived early enough to catch them.

If not for the side stage set between their performances, it would have been hard to tell when As I Lay Dying stopped and Atreyu began. Both bands clearly marked the heaviest part of the night. The pit was at its most fierce during As I Lay Dying's set and, as soon as they left the stage, the crowd did a collective about-face and went straight to their merch table. This happened again with Atreyu, who were one of the biggest draws of the night. They played material mostly from their recent album and were arguably the most energetic band on the bill.

By the time crowd favourites Thrice hit the stage, there were no more stragglers milling about, and all eyes were on the stage. As one of the few bands to truly innovate within the melodic punk/metal scene, Thrice played both old and new material to demonstrate why they've become so respected and adored by heavy music fans. After opening with Vheissu's "Image Of The Invisible," singer Dustin Kensrue belted his way through a set of surprisingly softer numbers like "Stare At The Sun" and "Music Box." Guitarist Teppei Teranishi got a chance to show off his guitar acrobatics on older cut "Kill Me Quickly" and the crushing closer, "Deadbolt."

After their set, a large portion of the crowd headed to the back, and the older fans made their way up to the front in anticipation of the Deftones.While setting up their gear, Street Drum Corps played a set that was easily the most entertaining of all the bands on the side stage, sounding much more compelling than they do on record.

Even though they were headlining, the crowd seemed a bit smaller for Deftones. It also seemed as though vocalist Chino Moreno knew this, as he wasn't quite as energetic as the last few times the band came to town. He kept stage banter to a minimum and hardly communicated with those who stuck around 'til the end. As a treat for fans who came for them, the band's set list was comprised almost entirely of songs from their first two albums. Though this was probably an attempt to hide their lack of new material, it was still a thrill to hear older cuts like "Engine No. 9" and "Root." It may have been different if the Deftones had new material to promote. However, the kids' attention spans only seemed to accommodate what was hot and current, and aside from the headliners, that's exactly what they got.