Chiodos
The Return of Chiodos Tour – September 15th, 2012
The Egyptian Room – Indianapolis, IN
Chiodos became sort of big when I was in high school, although I was never a huge fan. However, in the past couple years, I have been following lead singer Craig Owens story – he helped start Chiodos in high school, and then enjoyed early success with them before struggling with bi-polar disease, substance abuse, and depression. He was let go of Chiodos in 2009, due to undisclosed reasons, and started a “supergroup” called Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.). This is when he came onto my radar…because the first D.R.U.G.S. release was absolutely incredible. I was able to catch them live, and they put it on a great show.
So, when it was announced in early 2012 that Craig Owens was leaving (…essentially disbanding) D.R.U.G.S. and re-joining Chiodos, I was a bit disappointed and intrigued at how Chiodos would come out of the whole fiasco. Their reunion tour came through Indy, and I couldn’t miss it. Chiodos – lets do this.
The crowd at this show, while small, was very, VERY excited. I don’t know what it is about Craig Owens, but he gets a Jared Leto-esque response out of crowds. People LOVE him. Throughout the show Craig made several comments about how thankful he was to be back in the band, and at one point, asked the audience “How many of you thought you would never get to see us play together again?” When the crowd cheered, his response was “Yeah, me either.” Very cool to see anyone overcome addiction and personal issues and be back where they belong, but especially someone with Craig Owen’s talent.
Here’s some notes from the show:
- In a bold statement, the show started off with The Only Thing You Talk About off of the D.R.U.G.S. album. Very big of the other Chiodos guys to let Craig make this statement.
- The old songs that they played really showed how much this band has grown in musicianship. I went back and listened to a couple of the albums that I have of theirs, and they sounded MUCH, MUCH more clean and tight on stage at this show. This only makes me MORE excited for whats to come for this band.
- The two songs that stick out to me are “The Words Best Friend are Redefined”, and “The Final Battle”, which they closed with. On the closer, Craig Owens was standing on the fence screaming his head off, and it was very cool to see.
I’m writing this review about 2 months after this show, so I’m sure pieces of the show have escaped my brain, but I remember thinking that this show was enjoyable, but didn’t blow me away. I’m looking forward to what Chiodos has to come, but because Owens set the bar so incredibly high with D.R.U.G.S., it remains to be seen whether I am glad for the reunion.
Until next time!