Concert Review: Buzzfest XVI
Every year, 94.5 The Buzz, the alternative rock radio station in Houston, puts on two music festivals known, very creatively, as Buzzfest. This past weekend was the fall instance of Buzzfest, the sixteenth installment. To two different people I talked to Saturday, I described it as "Houston's version of HFStival [an annual music festival in Washington, D.C.], except not quite as good." But I admit, that was largely nostalgia talking (along with the fact that I tend to get far drunker at HFStival), and The Buzz put on a pretty good show in their own right.
At the last minute, due to the upcoming World Series, the venue was moved from Minute Maid Park to the good ol' Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. On the plus side, this made the tickets cheaper, but unfortunately, CWMP is practically in Oklahoma, so I'm sure the money saved on tickets was eaten up in gas. So I went with Aaron, and got to see the following bands:
Institute: For those of you who don't know, Institute is the side project (or is it the new band?) of Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale (a.k.a. Mr. Gwen Stefani). They played Bush classics Machinehead and closer Everything Zen along with their own material (including radio hit Bullet-Proof Skin. Their show was tight and the music sounded good, but it sounded just like Bush, and I kept wondering why it was necessary for Gavin to completely change bands just to keep recording the same kind of music.
10 Years: I don't know if the song Wasteland is getting played as much outside of Houston as inside, but it's been inescapable for Buzz listeners here. Aaron has their album "The Autumn Effect" and says it's pretty good, but he also said after their set that they managed to play the entire album except for the two best songs on it. And they played them mediocrely at that. I fully expect this band to continue towing the line of run-of-the-mill wish-we-were-Tool gloom rock bands like Chevelle.
Cold: The first of the bands whose albums I had actually heard and enjoyed. They played most of the hits (Just Got Wicked, Suffocate, and Happens All the Time) as well as upcoming single A Different Kind of Pain. Sadly, the latter is the only one that sounded worth a damn. At one point, lead singer Scooter Ward apologized for technical difficulties, but was obviously very pissed off, and they stormed offstage before playing certain closer Stupid Girl, much the chagrin of most of the audience. So they were pretty mediocre, but probably would have been better if the sound mix hadn't sucked.
Our Lady Peace: Where Are You? was a question on the lips of many (certainly Aaron and myself) when this band suddenly failed to appear on the schedule. I later learned via their website that they've cancelled several shows due to family illness. So there went the band I was most looking forward to. Oh well, it wouldn't be a day in the life of Mike in 2005 without something going wrong. Moving on...
Yellowcard: I have to respect a punk rock band with a violin. These were the only guys I managed to see on the second stage, and I only caught half the set. Fortunately, that included a tight performance of Ocean Avenue, my favorite song by them. The new single Lights and Sounds also sounded pretty good. It's available on their website for those interested.
Seether: They opened predictably with Gasoline and closed just as predictably with Broken, but predictability notwithstanding, it was a damn good set. The Gift was excellent live, and radio favorites Fine Again, Driven Under, and Remedy were all solid. The cover of the Deftones' Change (In the House of Flies) was about as random as when Deep Ella launched into Fake Plastic Trees at Scout Bar, but it sounded great. I would have replaced Burrito with Sympathetic and fit Simplest Mistake in there someplace, but regardless, Buzzfest had begun to pick up.
Nickelback: Yes, everyone makes fun of these guys for all their songs sounding the same. And yes, I was tempted to sing the lyrics to How You Remind Me when they played Someday. And yes, those songs as well as the new single Photograph are victims of ridiculously massive radio overplay. I don't care - these guys put on a good rock show. They made good use of pyrotechnics and even threw in a drum solo for good measure. Besides, it's hard not to respect a band that hauls out a crate full of cold beer in the middle of the show and starts tossing cans into the audience. As for the actual show, they did a solid job of hitting the highlights and keeping the audience into it. Fortunately, even old favorites such as Breathe and Leader of Men made appearances. (Chad Kroeger admitted the latter had been written while on 'shrooms, which, let's face it, makes sense.) All in all, their live show offers a valid explanation as to how these guys have stuck around.
Audioslave: I had seen these guys before (at the aforementioned HFStival in 2003) but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm, as the new album "Out of Exile" is solid and, better still, I had heard that they had begun playing some of their old material from the Soundgarden and Rage days. And I hadn't heard wrong. This show sealed my night. From opener Your Time Has Come to closer Cochise, they played every Audioslave song I had expected, but that was the only predictable part of the show. About five songs in, Tom Morello suddenly launched into the open riff of Rusty Cage and followed it up with Spoonman. A few songs later, Chris Cornell announced they were going to do a "mellow jam", which quickly exploded into Sleep Now in the Fire. As if that weren't enough, they also got to Killing in the Name, and I enjoyed the hell out of pumping my fist in the air screaming, "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" (As an added bonus, Cornell twisted the lyrics in the second verse around, singing, "Some of those who hold office / Are the same that burn crosses".) But the absolute highlight of the show was when Cornell walked out with an acoustic guitar. I thought, "Okay, here's I Am the Highway." At which point, the opening notes of Black Hole Sun began drifting through the speakers. I, along with most of the crowd, went nuts as Chris Cornell tore through the best rendition of the song I've heard, just him and a guitar. It was amazing.
Overall, I enjoyed my Buzzfest XVI experience. The presence of OLP and better sound for Cold might have heightened it further, but I'll take what I got. It was a lot of fun.
And, as I've often said, if brevity truly is the soul of wit, I'm the least witty person ever (with the possible exception of Polonius). In spite of this, I have to close with a song lyric:
"You can come by any time you want
I'll be around
You were right about the stars
Each one is a setting sun"
- Wilco, Jesus, Etc.
At the last minute, due to the upcoming World Series, the venue was moved from Minute Maid Park to the good ol' Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. On the plus side, this made the tickets cheaper, but unfortunately, CWMP is practically in Oklahoma, so I'm sure the money saved on tickets was eaten up in gas. So I went with Aaron, and got to see the following bands:
Institute: For those of you who don't know, Institute is the side project (or is it the new band?) of Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale (a.k.a. Mr. Gwen Stefani). They played Bush classics Machinehead and closer Everything Zen along with their own material (including radio hit Bullet-Proof Skin. Their show was tight and the music sounded good, but it sounded just like Bush, and I kept wondering why it was necessary for Gavin to completely change bands just to keep recording the same kind of music.
10 Years: I don't know if the song Wasteland is getting played as much outside of Houston as inside, but it's been inescapable for Buzz listeners here. Aaron has their album "The Autumn Effect" and says it's pretty good, but he also said after their set that they managed to play the entire album except for the two best songs on it. And they played them mediocrely at that. I fully expect this band to continue towing the line of run-of-the-mill wish-we-were-Tool gloom rock bands like Chevelle.
Cold: The first of the bands whose albums I had actually heard and enjoyed. They played most of the hits (Just Got Wicked, Suffocate, and Happens All the Time) as well as upcoming single A Different Kind of Pain. Sadly, the latter is the only one that sounded worth a damn. At one point, lead singer Scooter Ward apologized for technical difficulties, but was obviously very pissed off, and they stormed offstage before playing certain closer Stupid Girl, much the chagrin of most of the audience. So they were pretty mediocre, but probably would have been better if the sound mix hadn't sucked.
Our Lady Peace: Where Are You? was a question on the lips of many (certainly Aaron and myself) when this band suddenly failed to appear on the schedule. I later learned via their website that they've cancelled several shows due to family illness. So there went the band I was most looking forward to. Oh well, it wouldn't be a day in the life of Mike in 2005 without something going wrong. Moving on...
Yellowcard: I have to respect a punk rock band with a violin. These were the only guys I managed to see on the second stage, and I only caught half the set. Fortunately, that included a tight performance of Ocean Avenue, my favorite song by them. The new single Lights and Sounds also sounded pretty good. It's available on their website for those interested.
Seether: They opened predictably with Gasoline and closed just as predictably with Broken, but predictability notwithstanding, it was a damn good set. The Gift was excellent live, and radio favorites Fine Again, Driven Under, and Remedy were all solid. The cover of the Deftones' Change (In the House of Flies) was about as random as when Deep Ella launched into Fake Plastic Trees at Scout Bar, but it sounded great. I would have replaced Burrito with Sympathetic and fit Simplest Mistake in there someplace, but regardless, Buzzfest had begun to pick up.
Nickelback: Yes, everyone makes fun of these guys for all their songs sounding the same. And yes, I was tempted to sing the lyrics to How You Remind Me when they played Someday. And yes, those songs as well as the new single Photograph are victims of ridiculously massive radio overplay. I don't care - these guys put on a good rock show. They made good use of pyrotechnics and even threw in a drum solo for good measure. Besides, it's hard not to respect a band that hauls out a crate full of cold beer in the middle of the show and starts tossing cans into the audience. As for the actual show, they did a solid job of hitting the highlights and keeping the audience into it. Fortunately, even old favorites such as Breathe and Leader of Men made appearances. (Chad Kroeger admitted the latter had been written while on 'shrooms, which, let's face it, makes sense.) All in all, their live show offers a valid explanation as to how these guys have stuck around.
Audioslave: I had seen these guys before (at the aforementioned HFStival in 2003) but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm, as the new album "Out of Exile" is solid and, better still, I had heard that they had begun playing some of their old material from the Soundgarden and Rage days. And I hadn't heard wrong. This show sealed my night. From opener Your Time Has Come to closer Cochise, they played every Audioslave song I had expected, but that was the only predictable part of the show. About five songs in, Tom Morello suddenly launched into the open riff of Rusty Cage and followed it up with Spoonman. A few songs later, Chris Cornell announced they were going to do a "mellow jam", which quickly exploded into Sleep Now in the Fire. As if that weren't enough, they also got to Killing in the Name, and I enjoyed the hell out of pumping my fist in the air screaming, "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" (As an added bonus, Cornell twisted the lyrics in the second verse around, singing, "Some of those who hold office / Are the same that burn crosses".) But the absolute highlight of the show was when Cornell walked out with an acoustic guitar. I thought, "Okay, here's I Am the Highway." At which point, the opening notes of Black Hole Sun began drifting through the speakers. I, along with most of the crowd, went nuts as Chris Cornell tore through the best rendition of the song I've heard, just him and a guitar. It was amazing.
Overall, I enjoyed my Buzzfest XVI experience. The presence of OLP and better sound for Cold might have heightened it further, but I'll take what I got. It was a lot of fun.
And, as I've often said, if brevity truly is the soul of wit, I'm the least witty person ever (with the possible exception of Polonius). In spite of this, I have to close with a song lyric:
"You can come by any time you want
I'll be around
You were right about the stars
Each one is a setting sun"
- Wilco, Jesus, Etc.
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