D.R.U.G.S.
Strength In Numbers (S.I.N.) Tour – 2/24/2012
Bogarts Theater – Cincinnati, OH
For someone who spends as much time listening to and reading about music as I do, it doesn’t often happen that I discover a band through someone else and end up really liking them. However, I have to give credit where credit is due. Last year my brother-in-law Joe mentioned a band to me called D.R.U.G.S. and said that they were great and I should check them out. He was spot on. I quickly learned that D.R.U.G.S. was the new project of ex-Chiodos singer Craig Owens, and he was back with a bang, supported by a solid group of musicians and boasting a really good self titled first album.
Since last year, I had been looking for an opportunity to see D.R.U.G.S. live, and this show, at good-old Bogarts near the University of Cincinnati, was a no brainer. A strong opening couple of sets from Hit the Lights and Like Moths to Flames, opened the door for Owens to deliver, and by all means, deliver he did. I’m a sucker for incredible lead vocalists, and Owens was good enough to make this show one of the best I’ve seen in a while.
The Venue:
Bogarts is a favorite venue of The Music Pill, as it is a just over an hour and a half drive from our home town of Indianapolis, and has an incredible string of shows come through year in and year out. I’ll spare you specific details, as I’ve blogged about Bogarts before, but this was another great set of bands who proved why indoor shows at smaller venues are so much more powerful than big festival shows. By the end of the show, we were literally 10 feet from front center stage, and the crowd was the perfect size – big enough to be exciting, but small enough that I didn’t feel like a sardine. I left this show doing what I always do on the drive back from Cincinnati….looking up what shows Bogarts has in the near future to see when I can head back.
The History:
People who like this genre of music all know who Craig Owens is….and there’s no impartial fans. Many of his diehard fans say he was unfairly abandoned by his best friends in Chiodos in 2009 when he was battling a drug addiction and needed them most – others say he was full of himself and his drug addiction and mental illness was holding Chiodos back, despite their countless efforts to help him. Regardless, I think most decent people were thrilled to hear early in 2011 when it became public that he had successfully completed rehab and overcome his addictions, and with that sobriety came the return of his desire to write music and perform. Thus the stage was set for the formation of the appropriately named band Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.), and the release of their self-titled album.
The fact that we traveled over an hour to see a band headline that only has released one album shows you how good this band’s initial release is. From cover to cover, the entire album is packed full of great songs, which means that they really don’t have the option to play any songs live that I don’t like, because they only have 11 songs, and I really like them all.
The Show:
From beginning to end, this was Craig Owens’ show. In true veteran form, he dominated the stage, showing not only his incredible stage presence, but also his incredible vocal abilities. This dude can hit wild notes, and has the ability to transition flawlessly between clean and unclean vocals all within the context of the same song. I’m not trying to take anything away from his bandmates, as they are solid in their own right, and do help contribute to a great live experience, but there’s no doubt about it – this is the Craig Owens band. Typically, I am skeptical of one-man-shows, but in this case, I really feel that he is one of the few that is good enough to deserve the attention.
D.R.U.G.S. live show really took advantage of many of their songs that use stylistically abrupt transitions in intensity and pace. They used these transitions, along with their incredibly passionate fans, to create an experience to make the crowd feel like they were experiencing the emotional climax of the show, except it happened over and over and over. A great example of this was their encore, called If You Think This Song is About You, It Probably Is, which spends the first minute alternating between sections of huge guitar riffs and heavy drums, and sections of a Cappella vocals. Owens used the vocal ‘down time’ to create a quite impressive wall of death, and then unleashed it when the song finally transitioned fast – causing teenagers to fly everywhere and everyone go nuts.
Another great example is the song Stop Reading, Start Doing Pushups, which has multiple points in it where it goes from slower verses to incredibly hard instrumental parts (like the opening of the song which layers awesome screams with a huge instrumental section that spawned the biggest mosh pit of the night). It forced the crowd to constantly be on it’s toes, anticipating the next break-down. In addition to that, it largely features Owens’ unclean vocals, which are GREAT. Easily one of the great moments of the night for me.
There are countless other examples of this exact type of brilliance, and it really left me thinking of Craig Owens as a puppet master – as a spectator to his show, you felt the exact emotion he wanted to convey, for the exact amount of time that he wanted you to feel that emotion, before he changed gears and made you feel completely differently. It was a truly amazing, jaw-dropping display of raw talent for me.
Other highlights of the show include the following:
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- I’m Here to Take the Sky, which is a song that Owens wrote about overcoming his drug addiction, started off with just him on stage, playing the acoustic guitar. Later the band joined him on stage, and by the end of the song, the crowd was singing so loud he walked away from the microphone, and stood center stage, relishing in the fact that his fans loved his music so much. Even more impressive than that, he preceded the song with a 5 minute speech about his drug battle, and how thankful he was to overcome it, and about the dangers of kids getting involved with drugs. Great to hear someone that kids look up to say that publicly.
- He sang one of the songs while standing on the fence, laying on his back on top of the crowd’s hands. He hit every note of this song in full voice perfectly, and I can personally attest to that, as I was so close to him that I heard the notes coming out of his mouth before they went through the microphone.
- The opening of the show, which was the multi-part vocals at the beginning of The Only Thing You Talk About, showed that they were on top of their game, and had the crowd going crazy 15 seconds into the show.
- The song Graveyard Dancing, which is a really fun and goofy song that reminds me a lot of The Used, and showcases the soprano notes that Owens sings effortlessly. This song also featured some nifty guitar playing, and was the first time that I noticed that the lead guitarist was pretty solid on backup vocals.
- Finally, I have to commend the awesome bartender on the “Side Bar” that put up with us making annoying puns that were not the least bit funny to anyone who had consumed less than 3 beers. (Things like “Did someone just Hit The Lights?” and “Sorry we are Bogarting this bar…..ouch.)
Key takeaway from this show was what one of my friends said on the way home – Craig Owens epitomizes the term “Professional Musician.” Not because he makes a lot of money doing it – because he really just makes everyone else look like amateurs. I can’t wait to see what the future has for D.R.U.G.S., as they have already announced they are working on their next album.
Thanks to D.R.U.G.S. for a great show, and thanks to you guys for reading!! Until next time.
