“Mind, body, and spirit were lost at Hot Mess Central…”

…other wise known as the House of Blues because that’s exactly what transpired on this inescapable Sunday night on February 12^th 2006. The long awaited and highly anticipated show, the North American Come Clarity Tour, finally came through Chicago but not without incident; it was just one hot mess after another. Speaking of heat, we heard the fire marshals got involved earlier in the week. Due to the show being well sold-out in advance, the fire department established the expected body count exceeded capacity so guest lists were bumped and etcetera. Of course, with Zao being low man on the totem pole, theirs were the first to go.

After the smoke cleared, it was a shock to see the venue still remained as the sold-out crowd received complete and utter decimation from the acts on this bill. It was definitely a show not to have missed, but for those of you that were not able to attend tonight’s soirée or for those that were able to make it and would like to relive the night, here’s a recap:

Lineup: Daniel Weyandt – vocals; Scott Mellinger - guitar & vocals; Marty Lunn – bass; Jeff Gretz - drums

Historically speaking, it is hard to keep up with players without a scorecard when it comes to Greensburg, Pennsylvania's ZAO. This band goes through more lineup changes than breaths taken in any given hour. This go round, “long standing” guitarist Russ Cogdell became the latest casualty. Scott Mellinger took over all guitar duties tonight. Hell at least vocalist Dan Weyandt and Scott remain a constant.

The band ran a poll on My Space thereby allowing their fans to pick songs the band would perform on this tour ranging from the beginning of their anthology from Blood and Fire all the way to Funeral of God. They amassed all suggestions to compile their setlist. How cool is that basing a setlist solely on fan input? It may sound like an amazing way to rope your fans in, however tonight the band needed way more than that to salvage their set. To be honest, we have not read too many favorable reviews of the band this go round, which is a real shame. On any other given tour, Zao has been quite awesome, or at least that's what we thought when we saw them perform last year on the StrHess Tour last year. Make no bones about it, the band sounded great this evening, despite the fact they were missing a second guitarist. It was just that the vocals were WAY off!

For starters, on “Rising End” screaming into the microphone, Weyandt practically performed the first song on his knees facing stage right the entire time. It almost seemed like he entered into a trance-like state,  an invisible sacred circle that no one else was privy to. Remember that scene in The Doors movie when Val Kilmer/Jim Morrison went into a trance while he was performing on stage and he started dancing with the Indians? Just to clear the air, no accusations are being made as if to say Dan’s “spiritual” performance was drug or alcohol induced as in with the case of Morrison. Using Morrison was more of a visual reference/analogy than anything else. As stated before, when Weyandt performs, he retreats to a special place, a safe haven within. It was truly a trippy experience for the onlookers. At the conclusion of “Rising”, you could almost hear a pin drop, not an easy feat considering the venue was pretty full. Not sure, what Dan was thinking but he performed half of the second song on bended knee with his back to the audience and the other half pacing the stage. By the way, neither of which went over very well. Not to mention the lights on this song were for complete shit! The upside of “Savannah” was bassist, ex-band manager, Marty Lunn; he shined brightly on the poor lit stage. Weyandt finally addressed the silent crowd during the intro to “Last Revelation” as he said softly, “I don’t know if you read the flyer already, we’re Zao but there are more bands here…” the audience blankly stared back at the frontman without making a sound. As the song progressed, Weyandt may have still been perched in his favorite position, but attitudes started to shift in the audience. Half of the immoveable, impenetrable stoned faces started to emote…yes, headbanging commenced! The drummer, Jeff Gretz, really got into it at this point.

During the new song, “Physician Heal Thyself” the floor really took a radical transformation as more youth filled it. The newcomers instantly got into the band. For “Breath of the Black Muse” [a personal favorite], fans started to show a lot of love, Dan’s vocals started to get better too, thank goodness! For the intro of #7, Weyandt decided to address the crowd, “We want to thank the three bands we are touring with”, the crowd cheered, he continued, “We just got done recording record here in Chicago with Steve Albini called The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here!” He then changed direction, “Hey, when we parked our van it got tagged Xec…. Does anyone know what that is?” No one in the audience knew, he then laughed and said, “Yeah us either”! The band then ripped into the new song, “American Sheets on the Deathbed”. They got the first body surfer of the night!! The new song sounded solid. At the conclusion of the song, Weyandt bid the audience a fair adieux. Good thing they ended the set on what we thought was a good note as many horns were flying high however, the audience barely clapped.

Unfortunately Dan woke up a little too late with the last two songs of the set. All in all, the performance was not god awful as there were many redeeming portions. The band was as tight as we had ever heard them but the lack of connect from Weyandt was befuddling, perhaps he was having a bad day. Hope that the band will settle down with the new line up especially since the upcoming release on Ferret, which is scheduled to drop on June 13^th will be out soon as they will tour again soon. According to the grapevine, famed Asterik Studios (Demon Hunter’s Don and Ryan Clark) will do the album art. Speaking of Demon Hunter and touring, Zao will embark on The Undying 2006 US Tour with DH and other Christian acts (Spoken, August Burns Red, and Becoming The Archetype) this spring. We definitely look forward to seeing the band on this tour, it should be very interesting! 

Zao Setlist: Rising End; Savannah; Last Revelation; Physician Heal Thyself; Breath of the Black Muse; Skin Like Winter; American Sheets on the Deathbed.

Click thumbnail to enlarge the photo

Lineup: Dez Fafara – vocals; Jon Miller – bass; John Boecklin – drums; Mike Spreitzer – guitar; Jeff Kendrick – guitar 

During the changeover the venue bustled; it came to life as people started to talk, laugh, and were overall anxiously and impatiently awaiting DevilDriver’s performance. As soon as the band took the stage, the crowd went ballistic; it was like an energy surge, enough to blow out a transformer and or supply the HOB with enough manpower for days in case of an emergency. California’s DevilDriver was just the dose of adrenaline the crowd needed to wake up. The amount of noise from the hyped crowd was deafening. Frontman Dez Fafara addressed his faithful fold from the beginning; “I want to see your fucking hands in the air!” response time from the crowd was instantaneous! It was an awesome site; the place went nuts as the band ripped into “End of the Line” off their latest mammoth release, Fury of Our Maker’s Hands. In keeping with the “hot” theme for this review, this band was on FIRE! Temperatures started to rise in the venue as well, it was quite noticeable. It was just insane. Speaking of insanity, so was the twin guitar attack from Jeff Kendrick and Mike Spreitzer; it slayed.

“The Mountain” song #2 on tonight’s setlist was astounding as bassist Jon Miller and drummer Josh Boecklin were on point. Putting it another way, the rhythm section was impassioned with fervor! At the conclusion of the song, the audience was wild with applause and horns. When Fafara began to speak, his irreverent followers dared not utter a word, “I couldn’t wait to get back to Chicago!”, the crowd lost it! The band then ripped into “Nothing’s Wrong”. During the song Dez beckoned the crowd to “bring it on”, while screaming, “Fucking scream Chicago!” well he got his wish, others in the audience screamed to the top of their lungs as a plethora of bodies simultaneously crossed the barricades. Dez smiled with glee to see his audience wrecking the place! During the break of the song, he wanted to make sure to instill some positivity and impart wisdom on his audience in the same breath, “Don’t let anything ever fuck with your life...I want to see your fucking horns in the air!” all of sudden six-seven surfers broke through the barricade at the same time. Fafara continued, “Make some fucking noise! Are you having a good time? Make some fucking noise for Zao!” for the first time in the evening the crowd defied their commander’s direct order. Disappointed in their response Dez shook his head but continued into “I Could Care Less”. During the break of the song Dez said, “Very Fucking Good”! Immediately after that he screamed, “I wanna a goddamn pit!” a ginormous one ensued.

Unfortunately, this is where the DD review ends; In Flames tour manager summonsed us to do the interview with Anders Fridén. Enjoy the photos of DevilDriver… Hey, don’t think you're the only one with a poked out lip! Believe you me!! However, you must admit it has to be one of the most legitimate reasons to miss a DevilDriver set, right?! Fortunately, the band is coming back in less than a month with Opeth! YES!!!!!!!!!!!  

DevilDriver Setlist: End of the Line; The Mountain; Nothing’s Wrong; I Could Care Less; Ripped Apart; Hold Back The Day; Grinfucked; Meet The Wretched. 

Lineup: Matt K. Heafy - lead guitar / vocals; Paolo Gregoletto – bass; Travis Smith – drums; Corey Beaulieu - guitar

After DevilDriver’s rousing performance, Florida’s Trivium definitely had their work cut out for them, afterall DD is one tough act to follow! Only time could tell if this now well-seasoned quartet could pull it off. The manic crowd had yet to die down with excitement as  and why would they! In truth, the changeover seemed to be relatively painless this go round (that's gotta be a first) yet the mounting tension was stifling. All of a sudden, the instrumental, first track off their latest and popular release, Ascendancy, "The End of Everything”, flowed through the PA. Of course, we all knew what that meant…it's show time! The crowd ROARED! Then the band came out with horns high; they were just as happy to be there as the crowd was to have them there! Before they could really queue up, a pit broke out. Frontman Matt Heafy addressed the manic stricken crowd, “Sing it with me Chicago, this is Like Light To The Flies”, we all had a nice little sing along with the band. Something very uncharacteristically occurred during the song; Matt’s vocals became distorted as the sound overall took a nosedive, not sure what happened there. The band soldered through the technical difficulties like it never occurred in the first place. Talk about showing signs of maturity or what. Right before the solo, Heafy screamed, “Get your horns in the air! Make some noise Chicago!”, the audience happily complied with metal horns flying high.

During “Rain” we noticed that Heafy’s mic stand was further up; that last growth spurt must have been a bitch, huh? We swear that boy has gotten taller again, guessing Matt and the other guitarist Corey Beaulieu are standing about 6’3”+ EASY these days. Pardon the derailment, Heafy’s connect with the crowd was awe-inspiring. We were secretly hoping Weyandt was taking pointers. Before the solo Heafy yelled, “Open that shit up”! Speaking of solos, there were some new licks thrown in for good measure on top of some extra shredding in the body of song. These young men have really come into their own. The crowd roared as soon as the song concluded. “How the fuck is everybody tonight? It’s circle pit time! This is Drowned and Torn Asunder”. As soon as the song kicked in, a pit erupted. Right before Beaulieu's awesome solo, Heafy screams in disbelief, “Circle pit time, I know you KNOW how to fucking do it!” immediately a vicious pit broke out. All smiles Heafy replied, “There you go”! The crowd roared a while. Bassist Paolo Gregoletto let loose on this song!

Heafy introes the next song, “You guys can pick up a copy of the CD if you don’t have it. Here’s a song off that album, this is Declaration”. The crowd went nuts. Now if memory serves us correctly, this is a new addition to the setlist; we cannot recall them playing this song before. It's also nice to see them change the setlist up some. Variety is the spice of life...but Houston, we have a problem. The song itself is long on the CD, weighing in at a lofty seven minutes. Since it wasn’t shortened by that much during the set, the down tempo from their normal live repertoire brought the energy level of the crowd WAY DOWN! Good thing they chose the next surprise number to recharge the batteries of the audience. “A while ago Dimebag was taken away from us, whether or not you love us or hate us, everybody pay your fucking respect RIGHT now! From Cowboys from Hell “Domination”! The crowd went absolutely apeshit, the floor responded in kind with a tremendous pit! The band then ripped into “Walk”…all you could hear LOUDLY and PROUDLY was “Re – Spect – Walk”! On the outro, the crowd chanted over and over “Dimebag, Dimebag, Dimebag…” It was perfect, damn near a tearjerker! Heafy immediately addressed the ever-pumped crowd, “Fucking Chicago, keep the memory alive!” The audience howled in appreciation. Hailz to the band for keeping the memory alive of the fallen guitar god “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott.

“Time to pick up the pace, everybody move with us, this is "The Deceived"!” The crowd thrashed about wildly throwing their horns. To intro the next song Heafy said, “The video is out for this already, this is Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation”. You could feel the entire floor move from up above, then all of a sudden the most sizeable pit of their set broke out. During the middle of the song Matt said, “Make some noise for our new friends Zao and the bone crushing DevilDriver and for the legendary In Flames!” the venue roared for each band, it was awesome. “Chicago, you are some metal motherfuckers! This is your last chance to fucking headbang, sweat, throw your fist, bang your head, bang your dick…whatever!” The crowd went into hysterics! “We will be at the tent [in the back of the venue] after the set to sign anything you want!” Awesomely drummer Travis Smith kicked off the last song of the night “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr” the crowd lost it! For the outro Heafy screamed, "As I said Chicago you kick ass! We will see you at Sounds of the Underground!"

Being the true road warriors that they are, Trivium undoubtedly squelched any naysayers that would have questioned whether they could pull off playing after DevilDriver. These young men have always been a more than credible live act however; they have kicked their performance into high gear, despite the sound problems tonight...further displaying their sage. Touring for damn near two years straight will cause one to master their craft and approach! We look forward to seeing them on SOTU this year.

Trivium Setlist: The End of Everything; Like Light to the Flies; Rain; Drown and Torn Asunder; Declaration; Domination/Walk (Dimebag Tribute); Requiem; The Deceived; A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation; Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr.

Lineup: Anders Fridén – vocals; Jesper Strömblad – guitars; Björn Gelotte – guitars; Peter Iwers – bass; Daniel Svensson – drums

Prodigious, impressive, phenomenal are some ways your could describe one of Gothenburg, Sweden’s finest or as frontman for Trivium Matt Heafy probably said it best tonight, “The legendary In Flames”…well hey guess what folks, its now THEIR turn to have their fun in the sun!! The sardine packed crowd grew restless during the changeover; the air was as thick as pea soup with the distinct smell of stale beer filling the smoke-free air. Yum...not!!

Sending the crowd into further hysterics, the house lights went down, white lights started bouncing off the stage creating a disco ball effect. It always felt like you were peering into a radio as all focus was on the gigantic In Flames banner that hung on the wall in back of the stage. It was gorgeous sight as you knew you were in for one extravagant light show. Then the intro to "F(r)iend" piped through the PA, the crowd proceeded to scream, "In Flames, In Flames…" before the song could properly kick in, drummer Daniel Svensson came out, gave horns to the crowd, and started to play, the rest of the band joined him nanoseconds later giving horns to the crowd. Guitarist Björn Gelotte spotted DevilDriver's guitarist, Jeff Kendrick, in one of the opera boxes upstairs and gave him horns. How cool is that? The band immediately ripped into "Pinball Map", soon thereafter, a pit broke out. During the song frontman Anders Fridén screamed, "Hej Chicago"! The energy in the place kicked up to an unprecedented eleven; the place went wild! The conclusion of the song the applause was deafening, it was so amazing to see everyone in the crowd getting into the band. For the intro of "Leeches" Anders addressed his crowd in a strong Swedish accent, "Nice to be back! Lots of nice memories from this place!"; all of a sudden a big cloud of smoke puffed from the smoke machine, engulfing the singer. Fridén quipped, "I hate smoke but the guys love it!" the crowd laughed. "Are you ready for this?" the crowd roared yes! Obviously not satisfied with the first response Anders asked again with more passion in his voice this time, "I asked you a question! ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?" the crowd really went ballistic. "All right then sing along mother fuckers, this is "Trigger"!" The crowd definitely sang along and loudly at that! On the solos guitarist Jesper Strömblad and Gelotte were excellent as the dazzling light danced around them.

"Time to play some old shit for you…" members in the audience started shouting out titles, Anders then jokingly said, "We played those last time we were here! This one's called "Worlds Within the Margin" it's off Whoracle". At this time, a crowd surfer tried to grab a hold of Fridén and he smiled at the kid as security helped him down to the floor. During the song, Anders started pumping his fists as the crowd happily mimicked. On the next song "Insipid 2000" a monstrous pit exploded in the middle of the floor. On this song, you could honestly hear every little nuance even over the screaming crowd. During the outro of the song, Fridén declared that he had to pee. He made a crack about toilets being called a "badrum" i svenska...oops in Swedish. Either way you look at it, he was in for a long haul.

"Behind Space" was brutal, as well as the enormous pit too! The pit was sooo large you saw space on the floor from above. We did say it was sold-out remember! During the intro to "Cloud Connected" Anders decided to connect with his fans by inviting them to the bar where they will be guest DJ'ing tonight, "Come down to Exit, and buy me a whiskey. Talk to me!" in response, the crowd rejoiced. Right before the intro to "Only For The Weak", the comical frontman spoke again, "We are the worst band in Sweden! This is dedicated to all the people here tonight!" Someone then screamed, "We love you man!", the band and Anders beamed. Guessing it had to have not been loud enough for the band in order for the fan to be heard so clearly. Fridén quipped, "Chicago are you still fucking with me?" the crowd roared, "Chicago are you mother fuckers alive? Well this is "Only For The Weak"! Incessant body surfing kicked back up, security had their hands full this go round! The rest of the "stationary" fans commenced to jump and down wildly and sang along loudly to the song. Anders hit the hands as they passed by, he even razzed some of them too for various reasons or another! The conclusion of the song Fridén spoken again, "That was great! Thank you very fucking much! You're the reason why we're here".

"You guys wanna hear a heavy metal hit? We've got shit loads!! This one's Episode 666"! To intro the next song Fridén really let loose, "You're actually paying attention to what I'm saying right now. You're like a Japanese crowd, I never thought an American crowd could be so polite, this is called Vacuum"! For the next two songs "The Quiet Place" and "Touch of Red", details are more than sketchy. Please excuse the selfishness but we were too busy rocking out. To intro the final song, Anders had this to say, "I hope you are having a good time tonight and I hope we can come back! This is our last song my friends. Hope to see you some time in the next year!" The band then ripped into "My Sweet Shadow". The crowd gave the band a proper sendoff by shouting, "In Flames, In Flames, In Flames…"  The band clapped for the audience as well. An hour and a half set without one (1) break...and here we thought he had to pee so badly, but you couldn't help but feel for Fridén's plight! What a class act! As luck would have it, the Americas will soon see IF again during the SOTU, hells yeah baby!!!!! Vi ses!

In Flames Setlist (changes nightly in songs and sequence): Pinball Map, Leeches, Trigger, Worlds Within the Margin, Insipid 2000, Behind Space, Crawl Through Knives, Black & White, Take This Life, Dial 595-ESCAPE; Cloud Connected, Drifter, Gyroscope, Scorn, Only For the Weak; Episode 666; Vacuum; The Quiet Place; Touch of Red; My Sweet Shadow.

Other Links of Interest

q       Click here for Interview with Anders Fridén of In Flames

q       Here for Ozzfest 2005 Photos / Review (IF/Trivium)

q       Here for Invaluable Darkness 2007 Tour Photos / Review (DevilDriver) 

q       Here for Ghost Reveries 2006 Tour Photos / Review (DevilDriver) 

q       Here for SOTU 2005 Photos / Review (DevilDriver)

q       Here for Interview with Dez Fafara of DevilDriver

q       Here for Interview  with Jon Miller of DevilDriver

q       Here for Interview with Trivium (the entire band)

q       Here for strHess Tour 2005 Photos / Review (Zao)

q       Here for Interview with Dan Weyandt and Scott Mellinger of Zao

q       Here for Photos / Review of Zao on the Pure Hostility Tour

North American Come Clarity 2006 Tour

In Flames w/support Trivium, DevilDriver, & Zao

Jan. 25 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre

Jan. 26 - Las Vegas, NV - House of Blues

Jan. 27 - San Diego, CA - Soma

Jan. 28 - Los Angeles, CA - Avalon

Jan. 29 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore

Jan. 30 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theatre

Jan. 31 - Vancouver, BC - Croatian Cultural Centre

Feb. 01 - Seattle, WA - Showbox

Feb. 03 - Salt Lake City, UT - Salt Air Pavilion

Feb. 04 - Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre

Feb. 06 - Austin, TX - The Back Room

Feb. 07 - Houston, TX - Meridian

Feb. 10 - Detroit, MI - Harpo’s

Feb. 16 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

Feb. 17 - Philadelphia, PA - TLA

Feb. 18 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium

Feb. 19 - Montreal, QC - Le Medley

Feb. 20 - Quebec City, QC - Theatre Capitole

Feb. 21 - Toronto, ONT - Kool Haus

Feb. 24 - Charlotte, NC - Tremont Music Hall

Feb. 25 - Atlanta, GA – Roxy Theatre

Feb. 26 - Orlando, FL – House of Blues

All photos Copyright © 2006. Pictures may not be used without the written consent/permission of FourteenG