Best is yet to come

Saw yet another great concert the other night (5/16/2012) at The Rave...P.O.D. and RED with Icon For Hire and Love & Death. It was a last minute decision on my part to go. I bought the tickets yesterday afternoon. I am so glad I did. I last saw P.O.D. at Summerfest in 2006. If I remember correctly, they weren't even a headliner. They played at 8:00pm. At that time, I knew they had a couple of good songs. What I didn't know was how good they were live. Last night was just as great of a performance. P.O.D. is set to release a new album this Summer, their first album since 2008. Here's the recap...

The opening act was Icon for Hire from Decatur, IL. This four-piece band was pretty good. They have a female lead singer. Now normally I have a difficult time getting into rock/metal bands with female singers. Sometimes they seem to try to hard or something and the singing is just terrible.  As I've written in previous blogs, the drummer may be the heartbeat of a band, but the singer can make or break a band altogether. This is especially true for established bands that change their lead singer. It really is a different band with a different singer. Whoa...let me reel myself back in and get back to talking about Icon for Hire... this singer is really good and she was backed by a talented band. It's usually a good sign when the drummer, as well as the rest of the band, has a lot of energy. They only played a short half hour set, but threw in a cover of House of Pain's Jump Around. Nice!

Next up was Love & Death, the new band of former Korn guitarist and co-founder, Brian "head" Welch. Another short set, though they haven't even released a full album yet. I could definitely hear the Korn influences in their music. Near the end of their set, they performed and instrumental cover of Korn's Got the Life and a pretty awesome metal cover of Devo's Whip It!


RED was up next. I've seen this band several times over the last few years and never get tired of them. Great music and always an awesome live band! RED came right out and hit us with song after song and barely stopped in between. Beginning with the opening track off their latest cd, Until We Have Faces, RED performed with tremendous energy.

RED Setlist

Finishing off the night was P.O.D. They played six songs from their upcoming album, opening with the title track Murdered Love. Their set was filled with power and energy and the crowd really go into it. A large mosh pit developed in the middle and P.O.D. provided the fuel for the swirling bodies, especially when they rocked favorites Boom, Youth of the Nation, Southtown, and Alive. During Youth of the Nation, they brought out a young 17 year old Milwaukee kid, whom they met earlier that day, to play drums. The kid did a fantastic job...talented.  Right before the final song, lead singer Sonny's son came out (with assistance) to give his dad a birthday cake. All of the other bands were on side stage to celebrate as well. Sonny told the crowd that he would share the cake after the song. Needless to say, as soon as the cake touched the crowd, you would have thought it exploded...cake everywhere! Happy Birthday Sonny!

P.O.D. Setlist

Great show! So glad I went! Great live music is therapeutic...it's feeds the soul!

Check out the pictures.

"Don't ever let life pass you by"

Great lyrics from a great band...Incubus.  Friends and I saw them last night at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, WI. Amazing show! I've been wanting to see them for several years, but they haven't been on tour since like 2008. So finally I get my chance.

Tickets were general admission, which I thought was odd considering the Riverside Theater normally is a numbered seat venue. I knew the show was sold out. I just wasn't sure what to expect upon arrival. What I didn't expect was the line waiting to get in to be so long. It wrapped around the building, alongside the river, across the bridge the next street down, and back down alongside the river on the other side. People had been waiting in line since 4:00pm.  We arrived about 6:30. Hey, we weren't the last ones in line. Fortunately there isn't a bad seat in the house.

There was no opening act, just about an hour and a half of great music from Incubus. No frills. No talking. No stories. They just flowed from one great hit to the next. Lead singer, Brandon Boyd's voice is simply amazing. He has such a powerful voice and vocal range. In some ways he is similar to Chris Cornell. Both are outstanding vocalists. Incubus played all of my favorites and even a couple of obscure songs that I wasn't that familiar with, such as Earth to Bella and A Certain Shade of Green. With so many great songs from their albums, the setlist was awesome from the top to the bottom. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this show. Live music has a way to clear your head and feed your soul, especially when it's a great band like Incubus.  Check out the pictures from the show.