Good Music For Bad People Tour Review

Good Music For Bad People Tour Every Time I Die High on Fire The Red Chord The Esoteric HOB 10/4/05 Reviewer: Karma E. Omowale Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

“Decibel’s Good Music For Bad People Tour is a hardcore wet dream, with some good old fashioned hard and heavy rock n’ roll slid in for good measure!”

Realizing the description of this bill sounds more like the intro for a review of a porn movie as opposed to a concert, but now that we have your attention...let the review begin! Decibel Magazine and Music Choice teamed up together to sponsor tonight’s soirée. This was a great lineup for any hardcore fan with an extra-added bonus, High On Fire. It was an extra added kick in the tail, a change of pace if you will especially considering the night started off at a snail’s pace. It was a welcomed sight to see the venue almost fill up to capacity for hardworking headliners, Every Time I Die. Of course, no hxc show is complete without the presence of Jon Hunt, lead singer of Victory Record’s, Dead To Fall. Mr. Hunt attended the show in support his friends The Red Chord.

Tonight's bill was quite the tasty treat, but let's go a little further with the change of pace aspect, shall we. One could say it was a skosh on the mismatched side. Lead singer for The Esoteric, Steve Cruz agreed, "the bands clash on this tour. You've got HOF, and they're just straight up rock and roll. There's not a blast beat or a break down to it." Then again, The Red Chord is a hybrid between hardcore and death metal and with Every Time I Die, Cruz eloquently put it, "combines all of these elements". It's definitely a colorful lineup by way of all of the band's on tonight's bill Cruz adds, "everybody's way more into their own element and more of an individual type of band". Very well said Mr. Cruz, very well said indeed. And just to be fair here, The Esoteric's music is a good mixture between a heavy rhythm section latent with thought provoking lyrics along with technical and intricate guitar work with powerfully delivered vocals, post hardcore style to default to a safer-haven. Again, all bands were doing their own thing!

All in all, it was a good show, it could be classified as good music, different types for different people. Hopefully the vast differences in the types of music that were played this evening opened up new doors to those that had never seen the likes of a High On Fire or the HOF crowd would have enjoyed Every Time I Die, and so forth. If your mind were open enough, one would have enjoyed all four bands.

No pictures of HOF were taken tonight as the interview with Cruz happened during their set. In the meantime, please feel free to check out pictures of the band we captured from Sounds of the Underground Tour this summer.

Lineup: Cory White - guitar, Eric Graves - guitar, Anthony Diale - bass; Steve Cruz - voice, electronics; Marshall Kilpatric – percussion, drums

Hailing from Lawrence, Kansas, this post hardcore quintet was quite dazzling regardless if the measly audience was appreciative or not. The band opened with a “Make Fine Dreams”, a real scorcher. The crowd barely threw a horn to the band, again complete and typical behavior from the immoveable Chicago crowd. Frontman Steve Cruz decided to address the zombified audience during the intro to “Your New Burden”. He announced that it was the Good Music For Bad People tour and asked the crowd if they were ready for ETID, HOF, and The Red Chord. He got a favorable round of applause and claps considering the venue was only ¼ full at the time. Slowly but surely the floor started to fill up a skosh during their set. Seemingly, the band also had some fans in their tourmates. The Red Chord’s vocalist Guy Kozowyk sat stage right, enjoying the band’s performance while eating his dinner and talked to some fans that approached him as well. Lead singer and guitarist from High on Fire, Matt Pike, also stopped to watch the band perform.

The Esoteric was captivating to say the very least. The twin guitar attack from Cory White and Eric Graves was sharp as well as the rockin’ rhythm section of Marshall Kilpatric on drums and Anthony Diale on bass down to Mr. Cruz’s searing vocals. Steve offers some insight on why some audiences are stoic during their performance, "I think with this tour, everybody's definitely into their own; it's really obvious. Sometimes the crowd is really unreceptive towards us. Because it's new, it's really fresh. But we love that! It means that we're doing something that's our own. It feels good!" Cruz had this to say as well, "We definitely want kids to be all about it but we're not writing music for the kids first, you know. We just hope that comes with it, hope they get into it!"

From the looks of it, it felt good to them too. They looked as if they had something to prove, the fact that these young men were not about to go down without a fight. By the end of their set, they won over some of the hard to please crowd. Heads were bopping and horns were a flying. At least the growing congregation created a small mosh pit when Cruz said, “What do you call it? A mosh pit! So spiral out”!! Overall, it was a solid and impressive set. Hopefully their next time through will be in front of way more people.

The Esoteric Setlist: Make Fine Dreams; Until The Grave Gives Up The Ghost; Your New Burden; This Is Dedicated…; Somnambulist; Ram Faced Boy; His Eternal Enemy.

Click here for interview with Steve Cruz

To enlarge photo click the thumbnail

Lineup: Guy Kozowyk – vocals; Mike McKenzie (a.k.a. Gunface) – guitars; Jonny Fay – guitars; Gregory Weeks – bass; Brad Fickeisen – drums

Massachusetts’ own The Red Chord came out the chute blazing. Vocalist Guy Kozowyk opened with, “You’re gonna have an up close and personal night with The Red Chord, Every Time I Die and High On Fire! On whatever fucking night this is”! The crowd roared, well if you could consider this to be a crowd. Unfortunately, there was still a lot of space on the floor. Giving it the good old college try in order to make the most of his buddies' set, DTF’s Hunt violently started moshing with the rest of the yokels. It got the party started, that's for sure!

TRC's set was blistering; they are truly one hell of a live act, guessing they should be with their overly aggressive touring schedule that they keep. The Red Chord have probably toured more times than we've taken breaths! They recently toured with Between The Buried and Me, Darkest Hour, A Life Once Lost, and made a brief appearance on the SOTU tour…this list is psychotically endless to be quite honest! This band has taken what it seems as permanent residence on the road. How they do it is anyone’s guess. All hats and horns go off to them for their tenacity. It definitely seems like it is paying off!!

Kozowyk's vocals and growls are amazingly deep and penetrating. During "Black Santa", Kozowyk turned the mic over to a fan in the front row, the kid sang the entire chorus. He actually sounded pretty damn good, even the band was impressed. Guy then dedicated the next song,  "Antman", to "anyone with facial hair or a beard" as it was to protect themselves from the antman???? What? I think Mr. Kozowyk has been discussing one story too many with his clients! Just kidding!! Mr. Hunt once again resurrected the pit of death. On the intro to "Nihilist", Guy, with his best impression of a deranged killer stared at the fans in front and screamed, "I don't care if you don't know the words, as long as you are making noise!" And noise they definitely made afterwards!

The entertaining frontman totally lived up to his role as he continued to amuse the audience. "I don't care what you do after the show, but whatever you do, go home, and listen to Crowbar. It's an amazing album!" During "Blue Line Cretin" Hunt made good use of the floor once again, he started up a pretty sizable pit this go round he then made a beeline to the front of the barricades where Guy was to sing the rest of chorus. Guy exclaimed over Jon's fine moshing skills and job well done on "Blue Line". "That was beautiful Jon!" After the conclusion of the song, Guy then commented on how much he liked Jon's [newly grown] handlebar moustache. Guy stated again, "best way to fend yourself from clients". Guess Kozowyk was a step ahead of the game since he has been sporting a full beard for quite sometime now. You think Guy has a hair fetish or something?

Kozowyk ordered the audience to clap during "Upper Decker”. As the insistent clapping continued, he bellowed, "I wanted pyrotechnics for the set...” Then again we also know the good people at the HOB would rather die first than to allow something like that to occur in their sacred space. He then started to talk about Elwood, as in the Blues Brothers. Followed by, "Take my Elwood" as in his bassist, Gregory Weeks which scrawled the words Elwood on his knuckles. By the way, we are just reporting what happened, not that this occurrence made any sense. A lot of the on lookers were puzzled themselves however, a tale like this made for excellent entertainment. No doubt! Damn good set, young men!

The Red Chord will undoubtedly play in a venue near you, go and see them, as a matter of fact they are heading back out on the road for a mini tour with Converge following this one. And if you've seen them already, then go and see 'em again!

The Red Chord Setlist: Fixation on Plastics; Like a Train Through a Pigeon; Lay The Tarp; Black Santa; Antman; Clients; Nihilist; Blue Line Cretin; Upper Decker; Dreaming In Dog Years.

Click here for interview with Guy Kozowyk

Lineup: Keith Buckley - vocals; Michael Novak Jr. - drums; Andy Williams - guitar; Jordan Buckley - guitar; Chris Byrnes - bass