Minnesota is starting to warm up these days. That means it’s getting in the 50s. It was a perfect time to go check out an early Friday show.
The night got off to a great start with Protest The Hero opening things up. They have a great stage presence and you would swear you were listening to a recording. Bassist, Arif, is out of control. The man can pull off utterly massive bass lines and be flailing around stage at the same time. Unfortunately, most of the young crowd at the Triple Rock tonight was unfamiliar with this band. The bands latest, Kezia, was just released on Vagrant Records this past Tuesday. This may be why they received little fanfare that night. It just so happened they were selling copies of that very album for only $5. I picked myself up a copy. These guys stole the show as far as I was concerned. All indications point to Protest The Hero having a very good 2006.

Grade: A

As Cities Burn’s set can be summed up with one word: disappointing. Son, I Loved You At Your Darkest was a decent enough album. It turns out it doesn’t translate well to a live show. For the most part the band was just plain boring. At one point the lead singer was standing with his hand in his pocket for a good minute and a half of a song. Maybe this type of music just doesn’t work well live. The spacey parts of their songs served as snoozefests for a majority of the crowd, though, there were quite a number of As Cities Burn t-shirts floating around.

Grade: D

Things got rocking again with Since By Man. I am admittedly not a fan of their style, but they have a lot of energy live. The smaller portion of the crowd who knew the band were getting into it and there was much hardcore pitting and dancing.

Grade: C

After Since By Man, The Bled were up. Having seen the band once before at the same venue opening for Avenged Sevenfold (seems weird now), I knew I was in for a treat. Lead vocalist, James, is a mixture of brash and sincere. At this point in the show, I was joined by Decoy photographer Matt Birhanzel and his camera. The Bled’s set bounced between old favorites and offerings from Found in the Flood. They are at their best on previous album’s tracks though. About two-thirds of the way through the set, James paused to tell a story. Some kid had given him a pair of shop glasses and he told him he would wear them on stage and with that they ripped into “Spitshine Sonata.” The night closed in full force with “Red Wedding.” As Birhanzel had said, “A perfect closer.”

Grade: B+

Overall Grade: B-