JJO Bandcamp

Alliant Energy Center
Madison, Wisconsin – 7/30/2011

A few months back, when I was scouring the internet looking for concerts that looked awesome, I found a festival I’d never heard of in Madison, Wisconsin called JJO Bandcamp.  Bandcamp is an annual festival put on by a local Madison radio station (WJJO) that has been around for about a decade now.  The bill for this year was chocked full of really good smaller bands, like Pop Evil, Egypt Central, Dope, and Anew Revolution, and had three of my top 10 bands as major acts – All that Remains, Clutch, and Five Finger Death Punch.  Seeing as how a good friend from college who loves concerts lives about an hour south of Madison, we finally had that excuse we’d been looking for to head up and visit him. So, once again, the Indianapolis crew hit the road, driving roughly 400 miles north in search of the next great metal show.  This blog will hit some of the highlights of the show, discuss some new bands we discovered, and talk about how WJJO may single handedly be keeping my faith in the radio.  Enjoy!

The History

Obviously we had no history with Bandcamp, and really didn’t now what to expect when we got there, but I have plenty of history with the big bands that we were playing.  All that Remains is one of my favorite bands, and I have blogged about them before, most recently during my Rock on the Range blog.  I’ve also been a Death Punch fan for a long time – I saw them on several side stages before their debut album had even been released.  Finally, thanks to my friend Austin, I uncovered the greatness that is Clutch in 2006 and have been obsessed with them ever since.  So, needless to say, I was very much excited to see these bands again.  In addition, the smaller bands at this concert had some real promise for me as well.  A few of them I had heard of because of ROTR, but then ended up missing their show in Columbus.  Bottom line – if a lineup is good enough to get us to drive that far, we must think that it’s pretty good.

The Venue

Alliant Energy Center was quite an impressive complex, and while I don’t pretend to know all that is going on there, I can speak to the section that the concert was held.  In the back quadrant of the complex is a massive open field with two ponds.  They call the area Willow Island, and it turned out to be a quite fantastic place to hold a music festival. The sound at this venue was really quite good.  I have absolutely no complaints about either stage’s sound, and think that they did a great job.  Often times the unnatural outdoor venues (I.E. stages fabricated specifically for the event) either have the bands get drowned out by the open space, or have it turned up so loud that it is saturated and sounds like blaring music through old car speakers.  The staff and set-up crew at JJO did their jobs quite well.

The place was set up as a two-stage venue, with the stages sitting nearly side by side, which is a fairly common thing.  However, the uncommon thing was that the entire area between the two stages was called the “Beergarden” and was 21+.  This obviously didn’t affect me, but I can see how it would majorly suck if you were underage.  If you weren’t 21, you had to walk all the way around the beergarden to get from stage to stage, and had a relatively small standing area on the outside of both stages to catch the show.  However, if you were 21, you could basically stand sort of in the middle and see both stages, or walk back and forth easily and be closer for each show.  It was an interesting setup, and worked for us old folks, but sucked for the younger people there.

JV Bands

I’ll be the first one to say that I hate standing out in the 90 degree heat surrounded by sweaty dudes with their shirts off.  So why do I go to outdoor festivals?  Without a doubt, its because I love discovering new music.  Bands like Aranda, Anew Revolution, and Dope were barely even recognizable to me before this show.  Even after I saw their name on the bill, got a hold of their music, and listened to it in preparation, its still really hard for me to identify with a band until I see them live.  Outdoor festivals give you a chance to see these newer bands with no risk – even if they suck, you still have the headliners coming up. This festival was one of the deepest lineups I can remember, meaning that top to bottom, the bands that we saw all day long were really talented.  Below are the three JV bands that I took notes on.  (Keep in mind, I mean no disrespect by saying JV, only that they aren’t widely recognized).

Pop Evil

I heard about Pop Evil before Rock on the Range, but wasn’t able to see their show there, so I was looking forward to seeing them here.  I really like their music on the album, and so was interested to see what their live show would do for me.  Overall I have to say I’m a bit disappointed….  It certainly wasn’t awful, but just didn’t do anything for me especially.  I love the lead singer’s album voice, but really think that the he sounded a SMIDGE whiney live.  I did enjoy hearing 100 in a 55 and Hero, but overall just wasn’t that impressed with their show.  The lead guitarist looked a bit goofy (and not in the awesome Adam D way…) and their drummer looked like he was playing a miniature drum-set.  Seriously, the cymbals were above his head and the toms were like a foot off the ground.  Very awkward.  Decent show, but nothing to write home about.  For a vocally driven band, the singer has to bring more than that to a live gig keep me interested.

Egypt Central

A buddy of mine has been talking this band up for a while, with the caveat that they are better live than on the album.  While I found that hard to believe, this band did REALLY kill their set at Bandcamp.  Their success on stage relied heavily on the enormous amount of energy that they brought.  In fact, their persistence to get the crowd into the show was borderline annoying at first, but after about two songs, I just gave up, and let them win.  The rest of the crowd did too, and the show turned out to be a ton of fun.  While the lead singer was great, it was really the bassist that impressed me the most.  Not only did he expend a TON of energy rocking out, but he also put in a tremendous amount of effort to get the crowd involved.  He was jumping all over the place, calling sections of the crowd for being lame, and providing quite excellent back-up vocals.  In addition, I was pleasantly suprised that the tremendous amount of energy wasn’t just smoke and mirrors.  Behind all the screaming and running around was some really good music.  The highlight of the show for me hands down was when they closed with the title track off their new album, White Rabbit.  (Check out this song – its been getting a lot of play on my Itunes lately).  Also loved You Make Me Sick, which had absolutely killer back-up vocals, and Kick Ass, which I hadn’t heard before that day.  Overall, a really good show.

Anew Revolution

This band was a total unknown for me before Bandcamp, and as a friend of mine often tells me, the last thing I need is another Nu-Metal band to listen to.  Unfortunately, even though I wasn’t expecting much, I was a bit floored by how much  I enjoyed their show.  This band was completely dominated by their lead singer.  No knocks to the rest of the guys in the band (who all sounded good), but I don’t even remember what they looked like.  The singer was all over the place, including a majorly impressive “walk” through the crowd where he basically crowd surfed upright so it looked like he was walking on people’s heads.  Their show was very clean for a band that played as early as they did, appropriately reflecting that they have been touring since 2005.  The highlight of the show for me was when they played what I think is their best song, called Head Against the Wall.  Great mix of clean and unclean vocals, and the song translated very well live.  Also love their song Rise, which had the crowd screaming “STAND THE F*** UP AND RISE” that was pretty cool.  Looking very much forward to seeing more out of this band in the near future.

The Big Guns

(NOTE:  This is as good a place as any to drop some unfortunate info.  I attended this metal show with a very injured ankle for which I have surgery scheduled for to repair two severed ligaments.  Because of that, I was literally unable to stand for the Five Finger Death Punch show, and so just sat and listened.  The show sounded great, and friends say it was fantastic, so please don’t take the absence of 5FDP from this blog as anything but an unfortunate turn of events.  It’s a goal of mine to catch a show on their upcoming Share the Welt tour so that I can blog specifically about them).

So, with 5FDP out of the running, that only leaves two big guns in my opinion (no pun intended).  Both shows were fantastic, unique, and made the trip (and subsequent pain in my ankle that I’m still recovering from 5 days later) worth it.

All that Remains

All that Remains has come a long way in the past few years in my opinion.  I remember seeing them for the first time at ROTR 2009, and thinking they were pretty good, but with their last album For We Are Many, they really stepped up their game.  Here’s a few highlights/critiques of this specific show:

• I really thought their song selection for this show was excellent.  Their new intro, which is the first song off that album called Now Let Them Tremble, starts every show off great.  However, at this show, instead of rolling directly into For We Are Many as they usually do, they spun it into This Calling (originally written for Saw III).  I also love that they still play the older stuff (This Darkened Heart, The Air that I Breath, and Become the Catalyst), as well as songs off of their newest album, and their “greatest hits” (Two Weeks, Six).  Really did a great job of reflecting their entire music Library.  I would LOVE to see this band headline a show sometime.
• Phil’s vocals were good again this time.  I wouldn’t rave about them like I did after ROTR this year, but  he sounded pretty good on clean vocals, and I maintain he’s one of the best live unclean vocalists around.  His screams are just great.
• I was also impressed with the bassist, as always…. so cool that chick can provide such good backup screams.
• I still don’t see how the drummer plays the cymbals that fast with traditional grip (think Jazz drummers).   I rarely see any metal drummers doing it, and it always impresses me.
• They did a very cool thing at this show where they brought up a contest winner to play guitar on one of their tracks.  She won by sending in a video of her playing the lead guitar part on the song Hold On and got picked as the best entry.  I was quite impressed with this chick’s skills, but rightfully so she looked like she was freaking out.  Phil did his best to loosen her up by jumping around her like an idiot and making her smile, but it didn’t help.  Cool idea, and talk about the opportunity of a lifetime for her.
• The lead guitarist looks exactly like my friend Joey would look if he was in a metal band.  Same mannerisms, same motions, same ridiculous hair.  They even play the same shaped guitar.  I will be calling this dude Joey from now on.

Clutch

Simply put, I think Clutch is one of the best live shows around.  I’ll be careful to state that they can’t compete with the Avenged Sevenfold towers of fire and theatrics, but in the category of “Bands that don’t spend any money on their show and rock the stage with their sound and excitement” Clutch is at the top of the list. This section will be a bit difficult for me, as I often times have trouble articulating what is so good about Clutch’s show.  Each time I see them live (this was my third time), I am completely and utterly blown away by how good they are.  Their music transcends genres, pulling in elements of blues, rock and roll, metal, and even hardcore punk.  They also have a bit of jam-band flavor to their show, as they extend songs just a bit to allow for the musicians to really show off their talent.  (However, not to the annoying Dave Matthews extent.)

Its almost as if the musicians all seem like they are in a different world up there, like they can barely keep up with their own music.  While this may sound less than ideal, the sound they put out is so incredible that it distracts you.  In addition, the lead singer is incredible at connecting with the audience.  His natural voice is much lower than most vocalists, meaning he really resonates with low notes, and has a throaty full sound to his high notes that makes him a very gifted vocalist.  Every time I hear the word “timbre” I think of Neil Fallon, because of how unique his tone quality is.

The show at Bandcamp was no different than the others I saw.  An enormous amount of crowd energy,  a well-honed show that reflected Clutch’s 20 years of touring experience, and a sound that was nearly indistinguishable from the albums.  They dropped a bomb early, playing Mob Goes Wild second in the set, but it worked for me because I was literally so excited to hear that song,  I couldn’t stand it.  In addition, they played so many other great songs, including Animal Farm, 50,000 Unstoppable Watts, and Power Player.

Finally, they closed with One Eye Dollar, which isn’t my favorite song of theirs, but is a great song none-the-less.  (A bit slow for a closer, but the crowd was going nuts)  I was a bit bummed that they didn’t play 101, but read later on that it’s because they no longer tour with a keyboardist, and that song has a ton of keys in it, so I wasn’t too upset. Best moment for me?  I’ll also go on record saying there are very few moments in live music that can rival watching Clutch play Electric Worry.  It’s absolutely fantastic.  For a taste of their live show, check out this video.  You’ll love it. So, needless to say, I left this Clutch show like I have left the other two.  Utterly blown away, with my love for Clutch re-solidified.

I think I’ve yet to introduce anyone to Clutch, and particularly their live show, that hasn’t pretty much become a fan instantly. I’m sure the crew that was with me at this show would 100% agree….every penny you spend to see this band live is absolutely worth it. And with that, I’ll say that other than missing 5FDP and being a bit disappointed, Bandcamp was a success!! Another great show in the books.

My final point?  As we drove all over the place, we listened to WJJO in the spirit of the concert we are attending, and what an amazing rock station!  I mean, the songs they played literally made me not turn on a CD because it was so good.  I mean we even heard Metal songs, we heard Hard Rock songs, we heard rare songs.  It was awesome.  I mean we even heard Dragonfly by Shamans Harvest (which I am a sucker for….I love that band).  It was GREAT.  Major props to WJJO for not being like every other “Rock” (Read:  90’s Alternative) station that I’ve had to listen to.

The After Party

Thanks to the heavy dose of night-before Baseball and Beer Pong, there wasn’t much post-game activity, other than some delicious Taco Bell, and an hour drive back to Rockford, IL where we were staying. Special shout out to our Wisconsin friends for letting us pregame at their house.  The Apple Pie shots made with everclear get me EVERY time.  🙂  

Anyone guess what lyrics I’m gonna close this one out with?  I bet those who were there know whats coming.

“Please allow me to adjust my pants.  So that I may dance the good time dance.  And put the on-lookers and the innocent bystanders into a trance.”

See you next time!