Back From The Dead
Zero Story, Haji, Omega Alpha and Low Gear - Club Indigo on June 20th and Lesser Known God, Rex Mundi, Grain and Mudflap - Lone Star Country Club on June 21st by James

Do I really hate doing these things or am I just worried that I will make someone mad when I tell them their band is terrible? I think it may be a little bit of both. A lot of the time, I go to shows and can't think of a single nice thing to say about some of the bands, so I just skip saying anything at all. I am tired of it. I have never given undeserving praise to a band, but there are many times when I bite my tongue in the name of being a nice guy. So, as I give a run down of the bands I saw this weekend, keep in mind that the gloves are now off. If you invite me out to review your band, be prepared for me to recommend that you not quit your day job. Let the beatings commence.

Friday night found your ole buddy James at Club Indigo to see Zero Story, Haji, Omega Alpha and Low Gear. I am sorry to say that I missed Zero Story, because I have heard good things about their live show. I will try and catch yall, next time, guys. I walked in as Haji was just starting and I was a fan before the end of the first song. The vocalist reminds me a lot of Brock from 36 Crazyfists, which is great because I absolutely love that band. The band, however, was much better than that. There was a lot of a nu metal sound mixed with a prog rock slant to their songwriting. They knew exactly when to get heavy and when to get soft and everything mixed together perfectly. On top of that, the whole band looks very comfortable on stage and moved very well. Vocalist Vince Mullins did an outstanding job of working the crowd and slowly but surely dragged a lot of the iffy people from the back up to the front. There is absolutely no excuse for these guys having to play as early as they did. It really bothers me that they aren't a headlining band in Deep Ellum.

Which brings me to Omega Alpha. Now, bear in mind that when your band is playing right before the headliner, I have certain expectations of you. I expect a band with the next to last slot to be tight, if not overly creative and I expect them to sound like they know what they are doing up there. I saw none of these qualities. Omega Alpha was sloppy, clichéd and downright boring to watch. The only reason I can see that they had the slot that they had was because they have an inexplicably large crowd pull. I watched about three songs and when the lead singer said something about "this song is about popping pills and*blah blah blah" I decided to go play foosball. If these guys had opened, I would have gone easy on them, but they didn't. Not only that, but they claim to have been together seven years. I have seen bands tighter than this on their first gig after being together for six months (The Destro, for example).

Low Gear embodies what I expect from a headlining band. Great stage show, charismatic front man and songs you can tell apart from each other. It is an absolute testimony to how good this band is that I am a fan, today, because as I stated in my review of Siktunes, I didn't care for the new direction they took, at first. After listening to the CD and seeing them live on several occasions, I am hooked, though. Nothing bad whatsoever to say about these guys and I hope to get a review of Picture Show up in the next month or so.

Saturday night brought me out to Lone Star Country Club in Coppell for Lesser Known God (playing their first show), Rex Mundi, Grain and Mudflap. I kinda feel sorry for the last three bands, because I had a hard time getting into them after seeing Lesser Known God. I really had my hopes up high for these guys, because of Troy from Ventt and Joe from Daemon/Self-Propelled Messiah being in their ranks. I can say I was not disappointed. In fact, I was completely blown away. Apart from some minor hiccups during the first song (gotta keep a grip on them sticks, Tommy!!), their set was completely flawless. To my knowledge, the other three members of the band have never been in bands before (or none that got any momentum going, maybe), yet they all moved like they have been doing this for years. There were no first gig jitters, no nervousness that I could see and their front man had no trouble talking to the crowd. They managed to bring a lot of aggression while still making good use of melody, in places. The whole set was just tight as hell. They are definitely a band with a bright future ahead of them.

Rex Mundi wasn't bad, but I had a hard time getting into them. I didn't get to see much of their set as I got sidetracked talking to some people, so I can't give an honest review, either way. I give em props for covering Killing In The Name, though. If you're gonna cover Rage Against The Machine, that is an excellent choice, and they did it well. I will try and watch them more closely, if I get a chance to see them, again.

Grain is pretty good for a young band, but they don't do a whole lot to set themselves apart from the other bands doing the style of music they are doing. I thought the vocals were awesome and the drummer showed some real skill behind the kit, at times, but they just lacked*something. They were very tight, though, and moved together well. A couple of their songs had some cool hooks that I could get into, such as Hate Them In Return. I dug that song, a lot. The good thing about bands like this is they are young and can always get better. I think all these guys have what it takes to do something really cool, in the future, if they keep stepping up their game.

Mudflap finished off my weekend in grand style. I haven't seen these guys since the Big Iron show I reviewed, last year, so some of the stylistic changes they have made in that time really caught me by surprise. Last time I saw them, they had a pretty clean, old school hard rock kind of sound. No screaming and all the aggression came from the guitar. Now, Kristian has taken a much more angry approach to his vocals and the band as a whole is better off for it. There are still elements of what I liked before, when he goes into the clean vocal parts of the songs, but his scream adds a new dynamic and helps these guys really stand out from their peers. They have done a smart thing by flowing with the times instead of fighting them and their blending of something old and something new is fairly refreshing. They covered Slipknot's Sic and managed to prove that there are quite a few unnecessary members in that band. However, I did think their original material was far superior to the cover, which is always a good thing.

All in all, it was another great weekend in Dallas and I hope to have many more to come in the future. All of you that missed my more active presence on this site can stop by my message board to thank the people there for what will hopefully be more regular content from me. Those of you that were glad I left; fuck ya.