Sounds of the Underground Tour 2007 Review

Sounds of the Underground

2007 Tour

Review

July - August 2007
U.S. / Canada Tour

…with of the summer music metal US and Canadian epidemic better known as the Sounds of the Underground which has infected the hearts and minds for three consecutive years…and running! This year’s lineup was: GWAR, Shadows Fall, Chimaira, Every Time I Die, Job for a Cowboy, Necro (Through July 25th but we’ll get back to this!), Amon Amarth, Darkest Hour, The Acacia Strain, Heavy Heavy Low Low, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Goatwhore, This Is Hell, 2 Cents, The Devil Wears Prada. On selected dates: Testament - July 14^th; Lamb of God - August 11^th; Suicidal Tendencies - August 3^rd, 4^th, & 5^th; Behemoth - August 11^th; Mushroomhead - July 21^st, 22^nd, July 23^rd, & July 24^th; Hatebreed - August 11^th; and All That Remains - July 14^th. Having said all of that, it was a more than decent lineup! It was certainly better than last year’s as well and better than this year’s Ozzfest regardless of its free status and heavier than fuck lineup since 1994; Sounds of the Underground was a much better option! Bottom line is you could score a 10 according to highest number on the Mohs scale of hardness by having the hardest lineup ever and you will never be able to please ‘em all! Not unless you’re gonna take your ass to Europe, you only have two summer festival options so in essence, quit yer bitchin’! It’s either this or Ozzfest jerkoffs in regards to a tour that actually TOURS!

Necro, well this self-proclaimed MC of “death rap” dropped off the tour just days after he performed here in Chicago! In the bathroom, we overheard a chick saying, “Why the fuck is he out there? I did not pay my money to see some rap bullshit!” Sounds is all about diversity as it is supposed to bridge genres together but that bridge cannot join sides if the pathway is purposely sabotaged by the performer itself…more on this later. Well for the time being, that is our collective 2¢ (no puns intended). We anxiously await next year’s installment, as the heads of the fest figured out that regurgitated lineups from other festivals is never a good idea!

Before we forget, click here to find out who won that copy of this year’s contest. Unfortunately, we got a late start to the festival with hangovers in tow; it was a late night considering we celebrated the site’s 3^rd Anniversary the night before. However, this is how the show progressed.

Lineup: John Henry – vocals; Mike Schleibaum – guitar; Kris Norris – guitar; Paul Burnette – bass; Ryan Parrish – drums

What a sweet way to walk into the venue, with the rich dulcet tones of Darkest Hour ringing through your ears…OMFG! We thought as we ran to the front of the venue so we could get a good spot and Erika Kristen could snap some shots of the band. “Sound the Surrender” was the first song we witnessed to commence another historic moment in the SOTU history. Vocalist John Henry made The Call (the mosh call that is) and immediately thereafter, a pit broke out! Good work John! The guitar solo by Kris Norris was rousing as the stage lights bathed him in opulent color. At the end of song the Henry addressed the crowd, “We always have a good time here in Chicago! We wanna thank you guys for coming out today. We have one called Deliver Us and this is “Deliver Us!” Talk about hot? The band rocked the hell outta this song; unfortunately, Henry’s vocals were drowned out. Again, Norris nailed his solo; Mike Schelibaum’s guitar was pretty damn special too! You could even hear bassist Paul Burnette; it was almost as if they turned Henry’s mic down. Alas, they found the volume for JH on the next song “Convalescence” (FourteenG’s personal favorite) but not until he himself had to ask them to jack the volume up!

“We only have one song left, so we may as well make it count! We wanna see the biggest circle pit of the night! Victory Records is here! This is for our friends here in Chicago! This is “Sadist Nation”!” Following that speech, the venue erupted. Well let us tell you, it may have not been the biggest but it sure as hell was sizable and Henry as well as the rest of the band was more than pleased! The crowd was more than into the finest thing to come out of Washington, DC, Darkest Hour! The band was more than psyched to be there, all in all it really worked out! See what Kris Norris & Paul Burnette had to say about tonight’s crowd as well as their freshly released CD, click here to read more.

Darkest Hour Setlist: With A Thousand Words To Say But One; Sound the Surrender; Convalescence; Deliver Us; The Sadist Nation.

Lineup: Johan Hegg – vocals; Olavi Mikkonen – guitar; Johan Söderberg – guitar; Ted Lundström – bass; Fredrik Andersson – drums

After an amazing warm up from Darkest Hour, the crowd was ready for more as this was painfully evident due to the response the fans gave when the techs dropped the Amon Amarth backdrop from the ceiling. It was interesting to see how the crowd divided as you had the “Taking Back Sunday” crowd and the “Slayer” crowd. This further broke down into old and young amongst the subdivisions…but either way you looked at it the general response was pretty overwhelming. Getting back to the emo, girly pant wearers, they had no idea what they were in store for but, the Mexican standoff did not last long. Resisting a band like Sweden’s Amon Amarth is futile especially once this larger than life band hit the stage. In which they did in grand fashion all simultaneously headbanging and windmilling. You could feel the surge of energy running up and down your spine…well it is probably adrenaline in other circles. Haha! The fully clothed clad in black (including their wife beaters) Amon Amarth opened with “Valhall Awaits” off their latest and greatest 2006 release, With Oden on Our Side. It was good to see a lot of the crowd was already familiar with the band. One kid in our line of vision was flipping out; ironically, he was wearing a “Taking Back Sunday” tee thus the basis of the earlier character analysis!

The massive vocalist Johan Hegg in his best Swedish/Viking accent addressed the crowd, “Good evening Chicago, thank you very much; this is “Runes to My Memory”!” the crowd roared. Hegg and the rest of the band was feelin’ the crowd and the crowd was feelin’ them! Bassist Ted Lundström gave a memorable show as he broke out of the pack headbanging and singing during each song. Guitarist Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg tore it up along with Fredrik Andersson banging away on the drums and cymbals as if his life were in danger. After the song ended Johan spoke to the anxious crowd again, “Thank you very much Chicago! Chicago, how are you doing tonight? Sounds like you’re ready for some more metal!” The crowd roared, “You ready for some more metal? Here’s Death in Fire”!” Talk about a frenzy…phew! Hegg worked his fans by really getting them involved during this fan favorite. During the chorus he screamed, “I want you to raise the fucking roof! Death in…” he then pointed his mic towards the audience in which “Fire” resonated throughout the air. This pleased Hegg much, he repeated the exercise at least three more times. It was awesome!

When Mikkonen and Söderberg introed “Cry of the Black Birds”, the venue erupted. “Thank you very much Chicago! This is “Cry of the Black Birds”!” Even though it was sped up a bit, the band still kicked ass!! “Thank you for being with us Chicago! We have one more for you…” Hegg then went on to wish someone a Happy Birthday and to conclude their monster set, they closed with another fan favorite, “Ready for Pursuit of the Vikings”?” Det stämmer! The crowd’s reaction was the same absolute mayhem ensued! You could tell the fans that had their reserves about the band enjoyed their entire set. Speaking of being ready, one can safely say judging from what we witnessed tonight, the band is more than ready to take the States by storm in November on their first headliner (supporting acts to be announced)! Not to mention Hegg said in our interview how ready they were to come back due to Sounds & previous Bodom tours. Click here to access the interview. We are sure the fans will sing along with the men of Amon Amarth next go round, “Raise a stone for all to see. Runes carved to my memory!” What an damn awesome set; tack så mycket Amon Amarth!!

Amon Amarth Setlist: Valhall Awaits; Runes to My Memory; Death In Fire; Cry of the Black Birds; Persuit of the Vikings.

Lineup: Ravi Bhadriraju – guitar; Jonny Davy – vocals; Jon "The Charn" Rice – drums; Riggs – bass; Bobby Thompson – guitar

Don’t tell us MySpace coupled with having a song in constant rotation on Music Choice is not an excellent promotional tool for bands in the 21^st Century! Having said that, it was amazing to see the crowd all into Arizona’s Job For a Cowboy! And we do mean all into the band, as in singing all of their lyrics to every song we witnessed! This band rocked the foundation; from the first song “Entombment of a Machine”, this crowd was pumped! It’s cool that bassist Riggs (who used to be in the black metal band Abigail Williams) found himself another gig. Unfortunately, we missed the vast majority of their set due to interviewing Amon Amarth & Darkest Hour. However the part we did catch, this band smoked!! As it stands, JFAC will be on Radio Rebellion Tour in the fall with Behemoth & Gojira...now if that’s not a bill from hell! Fuck yeah; see ya there! In the meantime, check out the excellent pix Erika Kristen captured!

Job For a Cowboy Setlist: Entombment of a Machine; Knee Deep; Reduced to Mere Filth; Altered from Catechization; Embedded.

Actually, it was a good thing we missed the vast majority of this set due to the fact of what little we saw was too much for even our eyes to bear! Not sure what part we walked back in on (other than close to the end), Necro was angrily berating the “shit talkers” as the crowd was heckling him. Necro started on the “How many mother fuckers in here are into Sepultura?” spiel and many from the crowd shouted back, “Fuck you!”… A frustrated Necro took out all of his aggravation out on some unsuspecting kid that was in the front row. The rapper called the poor kid a “cunt.” Such a creative comeback from the wordsmith of death rap and all…can you detect the sarcasm? Someone from the audience shouted in response “loser!” To pour salt in the wounds, the crowd started to chant “Shadows Fall, Shadows Fall…” Wow!

So now, in his own words, “I decided to leave the tour collectively with my manager and booking agent (both tour organizers) because we felt the tour’s demographic was not receiving hip hop well. I was facing hostile, disrespectful crowds and was returning the same energy back ten-fold by being more aggressive than them. It was making a lot of people in the tour crew nervous and there was concern someone might get hurt (NOT ME). It was also being suggested that maybe I tone down my live show and not antagonize the already antagonistic crowd. I couldn’t roll with that as it’s not my style. I was holding back enough as it is but there is a line. All the bands on the tour loved us and everyone behind the scenes knew we displayed major heart and never once got phased by the hostility. We finished every show with middle fingers up and a big ‘Fuck You’ to the crowd.

I will make one thing clear for the haters: we NEVER got booed OFF the stage. Not once.” We have first hand accounts to dispute this claim; the show that our very own writer Thorne attended in North Carolina, he said that he was heckled off the stage ten minutes into his set! Necro’s tirade continues….“Yes a ton of emo kids booed us at every show, but we had a twenty-five minute set every night and we stayed on stage for every minute of it, and we represented. Every show had at least 100 to 200 NECRO fans in the pit tearing it up, and our meet and greets were incredible!” We never saw ONE pit in Chicago! “It’s just a shame these little kids are so close-minded. The majority of the hate was coming from mop top emo sixteen-year olds who have no clue who the originators of metal are, and didn’t respect my rest in peace chant to metal legends (Dime, Cliff, Chuck, Piggy, SOB).” No, if there was any disrespect to be had, the fans threw it back at Necro, not towards any of the GREATS! There’s a major difference!!! “As far as the tour organizers and I are concerned, you are my people so it’s all love and I’m thankful for the opportunity to prove I can murder it in the worst of situations. This actually did a lot for me and is just one move in many my team will make to blow NECRO up.” Hats off to you for even getting up there when you knew it would be a rough ride but sometimes you need to check your testosterone at the door; how in the hell do you expect to win fans over if you’re attacking them? In retrospect, it does not shock or surprise us that he dropped off the tour, but you cannot fight fire with fire and if you were a seasoned performer, you should have stuck it out or could have made the situation better without attacking the entire audience, some of which were feelin’ your performance. <<<< SCENE: So much for our yearly tirade! Jumping off soapbox>>>>

Lineup: Skinny – drums; Stitch – samples; Shmotz – keyboards; Pig Benis – bass; Jeffery Nothing – vocals; Gravy – guitar; Waylon – vocals

It was almost as if the last performer (Necro & his shenanigans) was never on stage, the crowd started screaming, “Mushroomhead Mushroomhead Mushroomhead…” before the band took the stage. Obviously, their fans were out in droves! Soon after changeover, the lights went down and an eerie fog rolled in over blue and green backlights…silence befell the crowd. We definitely were looking forward to seeing the band since Our Chicago staffers could not recall seeing them before. The first one to hit the stage was Stitch. He kicked the energy up a notch getting the fans riled up by pacing back and forth then mounting the water filled “drum” can. It was a scene out of Blue Man Group as his performance was definitely wacky but entertaining. The “new” (in our eyes) vocalist, Waylon was very commanding. The other vocalist, Jeffery Nothing, butcher’s garb and all was disturbing which appeared to have the lower region of his face torn away. Asides from looks, his vocal parts were good too. Well speaking of costumes, they are supposed to be the originators of the macabre costumes over Slipknot. Okay, either way you looked at it; it’s not the most pleasant thing to feast your eyes on! But something to feast the eyes upon was audience participation! Waylon had the crowd throwing horns and jumping in unison to the first song. Before the second song began, Waylon addressed the hyped audience, “What the fuck is up Chicago?” the place went nuts! Then The Butcher, oh, I mean Jeffery, started singing; his vocals are rather David Draiman-esque but what sweet sounds he makes.

Skipping ahead, Waylon spewed many “f” bombs and other assorted vulgarities…none of which could be discerned due to the poor auditory quality…talk about a record, we stopped listening to filth! Haha All we could gather was the band was frustrated they were getting very little to no airplay via radio stations to support their brand new album Savior Sorrow; this is hella surprising because they sound very mainstream. Speaking of disappointed, we were not pleased that they never played, “Sun Doesn’t Rise At All.” Then a little later in the set Waylon commanded the crowd to “Make some noise”…well we would have if we recognized any of the tunes, having said that you can imagine there is no setlist. By this time, the band’s momentum went down in the dumps. A good chunk of the floor vacated the premises making their way to the back of the venue to forage for food, water, or whatever else. <<<Yawn>>> Oh wait the set is over…

Lineup: Mark Hunter – vocals; Matt DeVries – guitars; Rob Arnold – guitars; ~~Jim LaMarca~~ – bass; Chris Spicuzza – electronics, backing vocals; Andy Herrick – drums

It was rumored that Cleveland’s Chimaira would miss another show due to a death in bassists’ Jim LaMarca’s family. So we were hella shocked to see the band floating around and about. Come to find out the vacated position of bass was a rotational spot filled by the “human form” of GWAR’s Beefcake the Mighty, Todd Evans, and Every Time I Die’s Andy Williams… It was a family affair indeed. As fog from hell rolled through and the intro to “Nothing Remains” piped through the PA, the crowd went nuts. The band hit the stage with Todd Evans for this selection. In complete support for the effort, Evans wore a shirt with LaMarca’s name emblazoned on the back of it that read “Jim Fucking LaMarca”. How cool is that? Unbelievable! The musicianship was tight for this to have been an impromptu occurrence. Of course, the excellent guitar work of Rob Arnold and Matt Devries will always remain unscathed. Speaking of awesome, so were Mark Hunter’s vocals!

Okay, must have spoken too soon, not sure what the soundman had done but on the next song. “Resurrection,” Hunter’s vocals became buried beneath the avalanche of amazing musicianship. Not that the situation cleared up until the additional artist joined the band on stage for guest vocals; not sure who the guest he was though. To intro the next song, Hunter addressed the crowd: “Chicago our friend, how are you guys doing? I’m sure you heard the story there was a death in our bass player’s family; but we have Beefcake the Mighty in his in human form, Todd Evans in from GWAR!” the venue erupted. “Now we have Paul Romano from Shadows Fall now up. You know this song, “Power Trip”?” pure mayhem ensued. Hunter addressed the crowd again at the conclusion of the song, “Hey, hey, like I said we’re Chimaira and we released a record a few month ago. Hank Williams the III otherwise known as Andy Williams is up. Chicago, you ready for something heavy tonight? We present unto you, “Needle”!” All we can say is Andy being the hysterical showman he is, played his usual part (extreme entertainer) but he played the HELL out of the instrument; Williams seemingly was born to play the bass! This instrument BOOMED! As Williams stood on the riser, then walked about the stage making his imminent presence felt; he along with Hunter further commanded the crowd. Awe filled all of our collective countenances. The vocalist motions for a pit…the enthralled fans immediately complied.

By Andy’s third song “Pleasure in Pain” Mr. Williams looked rather comfortable and had settled in famously; the rest band tore it up and were at ease. Talk about making the most of available situations, Chimaira seems to have mastered this art form. Pumping the crowd up more, Hunter spoke to the energetic crowd, “Can you guys do me a favor? Make some noise for all bands today and Every Time I Die, Shadows Fall, and GWAR! And of course friends, that saved my life!! The last time we brought a fan up… well, we’ll never do that again! It sucked shit! So we got a good friend from Shadows Fall, this is “Pure Hatred”!” One of the guitarists from Shads joined the ever-growing fold on stage…which one? Does it matter, because this is the end of the band’s set! The band exited the stage ever so graciously! Hunter thanked the crowd for being there, “Thank you very much Chicago, see you soon!” smiles were fixed on every member of the band’s faces. Their was an amazing one by far!!

Chimaira Setlist: Nothing Remains; Resurrection; Power Trip; Needle; The Dehumanizing Process; Pleasure In Pain; Salvation; Pure Hatred.

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

Next, up we have Buffalo’s Every Time I Die. Now if we can recall, ETID graced the stage for the inaugural Sounds (2005); during which time they were on the verge of releasing their most celebrated work to date, Gutter Phenomenon. This year the band is on the heels of releasing another album to their ever-growing anthology, The Big Dirty, due to hit stores on the 4^th of September. From the sounds of the teasers they played this evening, (“Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery” and another selection), this album will easily blow the lid off their career. These chameleons of hardcore/rock have changed so much since their early days (Thank God) as their newer stuff has an even sleazier 70’s porn “boww chicka wow” groove thing going than the previous album. In essence, it’s so hard to hear vocalist Keith Buckley banging out the old tunes especially considering you know what they are capable of.

Well on to the show itself, unfortunately the crowd had thinned out by ridiculous proportions; many of the concertgoers were just plain tired! WTF!! There’s no rest for the wicked, last time we checked the tired ones who that stayed sat alongside the perimeter of the wall to take the set in. Even for the sitters, those that decided to stay were treated to some damn good music from ETID! The band started out with “Bored Stiff” in which Keith’s vocals were strong and even more improved from the last time we heard the band (The Truth Tour). Amazing! The screamy vox were handled by the unnamed bassist, which he did a tremendous part as well as playing. To intro the new song, the colorful frontman addressed the drained crowd, “Fucking Chicago, are you guys all right?” Unimpressed with the weak response, Buckley tried to kick it up a notch, “This song is off The Big Dirty, due out in September.” The band kicked it into high gear with “No Son of Mine”…damn! It was the injection of adrenaline the crowd needed; bodies started flying all over the place. Of course, this pleased the band much! During the next song another new one, we swear must have been watching Cattle Decapitation too much or something but Keith spat a loogie high in the air then caught it with his tongue. Either he got lucky or perhaps this is how he’s spending his off times during tour. Soon there after a fan somehow made it through the rigid security guards from hell and on stage…after the kid hit the crowd a herd of guards corralled him and was soon evicted from the venue to much the chagrin of the band and audience.

Of course, the beer swilling chugging event occurred this evening; no ETID show would be complete! However, this event was unlike others, the chugger this time was some chick who had accepted the proposal from her fiancé earlier that evening in which Keith called her out. The audience had her celebrate further by chugging some beer. Sure, something she will remember for quite some time! Once she was done, she threw her cup in the audience…how amusing! The band then broke into “Apocalypse Now and Then.” It’s so nice to see their brand-new material received as well as it was. To start the next selection Keith said, “I hope all of you out there have on your best jiz clothes, as you will see the earth’s best band, GWAR!” the venue erupted and the band continued with “The New Black”.

During the next song, two large pits broke out simultaneously. The singer noticed there was disturbance in one of the sea of bodies and decided to address them and attempt to diffuse the situation, “Are we moshing for the right reasons? Let’s turn this into the biggest pit of the night! You still have enough energy left, the night is still young! ” Whatever he did, you could feel the energy shift from the angry/asshole vibe to feel good moshers from hell! It was astounding. Keith “Roger Daltry” Buckley uses the mic as his own personal instrument, twirling it around to the beat of the music. It was pure entertainment. Probably better used that way as you could barely make out anything anyone said if they spoke into the damn thing. The band concluded their monstrous set with “Floater.” In between the crowd surfers, the newly engaged chugger (Congrats BTW) it all definitely enriched the night along with another fine performance from Every Time I Die. This new album is going to be killer!

Every Time I Die Setlist: Bored Stiff; Off Broadway; Kill The Music; No Son of Mine; Imitation Is The Most Sincere Form of Battery; Apocalypse Now and Then; The New Black; Ebolarama; Floater.

Lineup: Brian Fair – vocals; John Donais - lead guitar, vocals; Jason Bittner – drums; Matthew Bachand – guitars, vocals; Paul Romanko – bass

In a word, overdone!! This set was definitely over-rehearsed from front to end (for the exception of the backup vocals, which remain the same, bad). As for more of an accurate description of the night, frontman Brian Fair and gang gave the crowd what they wanted, an overdose of themselves. All you could see was Fair’s dreads snaking through the backlights; it was light a scene from the Aliens movie or something.

Bittner has to be one of metal’s most overrated drummers as you can best hear his “performance” in a live situation. All of the smoke & extreme fanfare detracts from the band overall. Perhaps it coincides with the band’s over inflated sense of self-exposing their “talents” for what it really is. During the third song of the night Fair addressed the pumped audience, “What’s happening Chicago?” Fair then went on to plug the new album, Threads of Life as well as the older 2005 DVD “The Art of Touring (Drunk & Shitty in Every City)” and announced it too were for sale at their merch booth. The band proceeded to play “Thoughts Without Words” guitarist Matt Bachand’s vocals were way off. It was quite crazy! At least on the next selection, “Redemption”, Bachand was able to redeem himself as this was actually the first song that sounded about something; the band “brought it” with this one. To prove he can still connect with his fans, Fair jumped out in the audience but got more than he bargained for, he lost his shoe. If not mistaken, the hungry jackals returned the missing item to the singer.

Of course, the setlist was riddled with new songs off the new album, Threads Of Life; it didn’t surprise us that they did not delve any farther back into their back catalogue. The only went as far as The Art Of Balance. It’s just so amazing to see just how many people are willing to throw themselves in front of moving objects for this band; it’s absolutely unfucking real! Prior to exiting the stage Fair said, “We’re Shadows Fall, GWAR’s up next. We’ll see you soon, peace!” Do they still use that phrase?

Shadows Fall Setlist: Failure of the Devout; Burning The Lives; Thoughts Without Words; Redemption; The Light That Blinds; Destroyer Of Senses; What Drives The Weak.

Lineup: Oderus Ungurus – Dave Brockie / vocals; Balsac the Jaws of Death – Mike Derks / guitars; Jizmak The Gusha – Brad Roberts / drums; Flattus Maximus – Cory Smoot / guitars; Beefcake The Mighty – Todd Evans / bass

Sounds of the Underground staple act, GWAR; in comparison they are the Ozzy Osbourne of Ozzfest! Last act of the night...fuck we made it! Security began to grab yellow ponchos, bound and determined not to look like a tie-dye experiment gone wrong at the conclusion of tonight’s event and the crowd began to get rowdy during changeover. They started to chant “We want GWAR…” and GWAR they got…well that is for those who stuck it out along with us. When the band took the stage, you could smell the plastic from their space costumes from where we stood. Good thing our hangovers subsided!

But listen, if you’ve been to one GWAR show, you’ve seen it all: exposed asses, gore, repulsion, sodomy (if you’re lucky to catch it), projectile blood, alien piss & cum…it’s a deviant’s utopia! Here’s a quick overview: the second song featured a severed head on a spike, a Samurai gunslinger, and Oderus’ dripping erect phallus; talk about hysterical! Then “Sadam A Go Go”, on to Act IV…gore performance art started to peak as the space alien leader and slaves dragged a dead decaying dog around the stage. Ungurus gutted the remains and once its decrepit body disintegrated, collectively they began to spray its remains, including the intestines onto the crowd. They ate it up, no puns intended. How fit to be tied considering we are entering the dog days of summer! Haha It was priceless to see the audience cover their mouths in astonishment…come on folks, what are you expecting here? Sometime later during this act, it must have excited Oderus much, he climaxed emitted a neon orange spew. Act V: “Chicago, Chicago, Chicago…our friend here has sucked so many cocks, they ran out of cocks to suck and lost!” then the stage stormed with rubber monsters doing all kinds of weird shit; it was great! Next act, Chicago was under attack, “Bring out Jim Belushi, this guy is Chicago!” What’s even more nuts is half the audience had no clue who the hell Jim Belushi was! The widespread look of confusion was highly amusing. Good Goddamn, are we that old? Haha

No matter what, this band rocks with their over the top acts. It’s obnoxious to ever compare this band to Lordi as we overhead some members in the audience saying this. Bite your tongue!! Unlike Lordi, GWAR can sing and play their instruments! This band reigns!! See you next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007 SOTU Lineup:
(follow corresponding links to access more coverage on the respective bands. i.e. Interviews or Reviews)

2007 Sounds of the Underground tour dates:

July 06 - Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom
July 07 - Corpus Christi, TX – Concrete St. Amphitheatre
July 08 - Houston, TX – Verizon Wireless Theatre
July 10 - Orlando, FL – UCF Arena
July 11 - Myrtle Beach, SC - House Of Blues
July 13 - Worcester, MA – Palladium
July 14 - Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom Outside
July 15 - Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
July 16 - Winston-Salem, NC – Millennium Center
July 18 - Toronto, ON – Koolhaus Complex
July 19 - Detroit, MI – State Theatre
July 20 - Milwaukee, WI – Eagles Ballroom
July 21 - Cleveland, OH – Time Warner Cable Amphitheater At Tower City
July 22 - Columbus, OH – Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
July 23 - Chicago, IL – Congress Theatre
July 24 - Minneapolis, MN – Myth
July 27 - Calgary, AB – Macewan Hall
July 28 - Edmonton, AB – Shaw Conference Center
July 30 - Portland, OR – Expo Hall
Aug. 01 - Salt Lake City, UT – Salt Air Pavilion
Aug. 03 - San Jose, CA – Events Center @ San Jose University
Aug. 04 - Irvine, CA – Irvine Meadows Side Stage
Aug. 05 - Mesa, AZ - Mesa Amphitheatre
Aug. 06 - Las Vegas, NV – House Of Blues
Aug. 08 - Denver, CO – Fillmore