Bullet For My Valentine - 9/25/2008

Bullet For My Valentine, with Bleding Through & Black Tide
9/25/2008 - The Warfield - San Francisco, CA



I almost don't have the words. This was by far my best concert since Arch Enemy & Dark Tranquillity back in May. Kickass music, awesome audience, some pleasant surprises - just a great night overall. This is the kind of live show that i live for.

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(Be forewarned, this may be long-winded; feel free to skim and/or just look at the photos (but do click on the little images to see their larger counterparts)).

So i've been hitting a lot of concerts this year, and right now i'm in the middle of a 6-week marathon with one show after another - fun but tiring. I felt like i was running out of steam last week at Children of Bodom/Black Dahlia Murder. Great bands, and they both played really well, but the show just felt par to me; i wondered if i'd taken on too much. But Bullet & co completely fired me back up! I did everything right, i think, and a lot of factors just came together nicely.

I managed to arrive at the venue exactly on time (instead of way early) - i walked through the door just as Black Tide was starting up. I saw them open up for All That Remains back in February and was only whelmed by these kids (yes, kids - their ages range from 14 to 19); i mean their guitarwork was great, but the vocals just bugged me.

So pleasant surprise #1 of the evening - i really enjoyed Black Tide's set! Maybe it was low expectations, or maybe Gabriel's voice has developed after 8 more months of puberty. And again, their music always has been good - solid tunes in the vein of old-school thrash. Whatever it was, i'll take it; good show, guys!





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Fun sidebar: There's always pre-recorded music played between sets as the crews teardown/setup the stage for the next band. The tunes (chosen by the crew, i'd assume, or maybe the band) tend to run in same genre as the bands on the bill. At my shows this means a healthy mix of metal (both old and new) with maybe some Alice In Chains or AC/DC thrown in.

Tonight there was something different. After Black Tide's set, i heard something oddly familiar start up...the unmistakable intro of the song i made my own in the world of social dance. It was Michael Jackson's "Thriller". And there i was with nobody to lindy with :-( Even so, i had to fight the impulse to bust out some dance moves (it helped that the floor was concrete and thus no good for moonwalking). After "Thriller" came "Billy Jean" - turned out to be one of his singles collections; fortunately the soundchecks drowned out some of the lame ballads, and the crew was done by "Pretty Young Thing".

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Bleeding Through was next. I've always liked their singles (and i saw them play in 2004 with Arch Enemy and Cradle of Filth), but they never caught my attention enough to buy a cd. I was a little anxious that their hardcore style would attract hardcore fans who would proceed to mosh improperly and ruin the floor for the rest of us (this happens at a lot of my shows).

Pleasant surprise #2 - i thoroughly enjoyed Bleeding Through as well! Their songs really fired me up, and the mosh was quite acceptable (i stayed out of the pit, mostly, except to use it as a travel conduit).





Midway through their set, Brandan announced that there would be a special guest joining on vocals for their next song...Robb from Machine Head! (Robb is from Oakland; i'm guessing he still lives here & is friends with the band). Nice!


Two screamers, no waiting!

So straight hardcore acts do nothing for me, but these guys also bleed (pun intended) thrash metal and even some industrial into their sound which makes for some interesting music. These elements translate really nicely into their live show; high-energy, aggressive, heavy rhythms, strong stage presence anchored by Brandan (screamer), Brian (lefty lead guitarist), and Marta (cute keyboard player).





Also, i think Jona (their other guitar player) looks a lot like Charlie from Lost. Anyone else see the resemblance?


"You All Everybody!"


Awesome set from Bleeding Through. Congrats, guys - you've been promoted to tier2 solid.

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Finally it was time for Bullet For My Valentine! I've been wanting to see these guys for a looong time. I almost saw them back in 2005 at Rob Zombie & Lacuna Coil, but they were kicked off the tour before the Chicago date. I wasn't familiar with them at the time but the band caught my attention shortly thereafter and slowly grew into one of my tier1 favorites. I missed a few of their subsequent tours because of logistics (namely the 3+ hour drive to Chicago from Champaign). They did come right into San Jose this spring, but it was as part of an 8-band emofest which i decided wasn't worth the overhead.

So i was buzzing with anticipation when the house lights finally went down. The intro music started up, the guys slipped onto the stage one by one, then launched into the title track from their latest, "Scream Aim Fire". The floor exploded into motion, and i found out how good the night was about to get.






I absolutely loved their set. My favorite shows are the ones where i know most (if not all) of songs on the setlist, and this was definitely the case here. I knew they'd play most of my favorites, but the one song i *really* wanted to hear was "Hand of Blood" which they rocked towards the end of the night, to my elation. The setlist (not quite in this order) included:

- Scream Aim Fire
- 4 Words To Choke Upon (the four words, btw, are "Look...at...me...NOOWWW!")
- Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow (one of my absolute favorites!)
- Eye Of The Storm
- Disappear
- Tears Don't Fall (wonderful singalong)
- Hit The Floor
- Waking The Demon
- Deliver Us From Evil (which Matthew wrote when he was going through some personal issues and trouble with his vocals (had to cancel shows and go through surgery))
- Hearts Burst Info Fire (such a wonderful warm song; i was surprised at how quickly it hooked me the first time i heard it).
- Hand Of Blood (yay!)
- Creeping Death (!)

Yes, that's right. For their final song of the night they covered "Creeping Death" by Metallica. Oh hell yeah! I couldn't have asked for a better closer! All of Metallica's old stuff rules, but "Creeping Death" is one of my personal favorites. It really does warm the heart to see so many new bands embracing (and paying tribute to) old Metallica - Trivium with "Master of Puppets", Black Tide with "Hit The Lights", Bullet with "Sanitarium" and "Creeping Death". And even more important that the next generation is keeping thrash alive. Death to nu-metal! Long live *good* metal!



(i love the shoulder-to-shoulder jam)
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I enjoyed (and participated in) the mosh for the first time in a long while. Why? Because these kids are awesome. A far cry from the usual big shirtless assholes who seem to use concerts as an excuse to wail on each other. I mean really, if all you want to do is hurt people, join a fight club or enter into the bloody UFC. But Bullet clearly draws a much different audience. I hate to use the term "Hot Topic crowd", but i haven't seen this many young kids at a show before, all prettied up and amped for the band the way only teenagers can be.

And really, that's what it's all about. I felt these amazing surges of energy as song after song washed over me, and looking around i saw that my peers were feeling the same thing. It was *so* *much* that it just had to be expressed physically. I don't even want to call it moshing - it was old school, thrashing at its finest. Not three guys hitting each other and pissing off everyone around them, but the entire front of the floor jumping, bouncing, crashing through waves of movement, feeding off of the music and each other, loving every minute of it.





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A few thoughts on the band's style. Bullet For My Valentine are sometimes classified as "emo" or "metalcore". This is quite inaccurate. Sure, maybe they have a few emo qualities. And maybe they do employ the some of the smooth riffing and catchy hooks of metalcore. But there's so much more to this band. I mean successfully rocking old Metallica is a proving ground all its own, but their metal underpinnings flow through all of their songs. Guitar solos. Good balance between clean vocals and screaming. Delicious melodies. And great songwriting, charged with emotion.

I heart this band. Every time i play one of their albums, it hits me all over again. And finally seeing them live has cranked them up yet another notch. Maybe even another candidate for my white-tag list.





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My night belonged to Bullet, of course, but the bill was still 3 for 3 which is a rare gift (and even better as a surprise). This show has revitalized me; prepared me to take on my concert calendar for the next few weeks and, indeed, through the rest of 2008. Rock! \m/