Transgression Tour Review

Transgression Tour 2005 Fear Factory It Dies Today Strapping Young Lad Darkane 10/30/05 HOB Reviewer: Karma E. Omowale Photo: Erika Kristen Watt

What started as a promising day, Erika Kristen and I contracted an unfortunate case of comedyoferroritis. As a direct result, no photos were taken of tonight’s show as well as all acts were missed for the exception of Fear Factory’s set, which was unbelievable. The bands slated on tonight’s bill were (starting with openers) Sweden’s Darkane, Fear Factory’s bassist Byron Stroud’s other mammoth band, Strapping Young Lad and It Dies Today. With the luck of a rabbit’s foot, or some other luck-promoting talisman; perhaps we will be able to catch these bands out again to bring you more images and words sometime in the near future. However, not all is lost, we do have photos of aforementioned bands, just click the corresponding links (all but Darkane that is however, there is an interview with photos taken of the band at that time). In addition, we do have a brief synopsis on what we missed through the eyes of our correspondent, John Grotans. In the meantime, here’s Darkane’s setlist of songs performed this evening: Godforsaken Universe, Emanation of Fear, Convicted, Secondary Effects, and Innocence Gone.

John Grotans encapsulated the show starting with Darkane’s performance. “I only caught the last 4 songs, and I will say the guitar work by Christopher Malmström and Klas Ideberg resonated through the HOB very well. Only one song really stood out to me, “Secondary Effects”. What cracked me up was when Chris & Klas did the reverse head mop during riffs. Classic metal at it's best. What is interesting while Darkane was performing, at least 12 people [I spoke to] did not know the name of the band performing. After a brief 10-minute intermission, Strapping Young Lad came on stage with the obligatory F.U., buy our t-shirts from Devin Townsend spiel. He would go on to be the most charismatic front man of these four groups for the evening. Gene Hoglan on drums was particularly impressive during 'Shine'. Next up was It Dies Today, and quite honestly, I can't remember much about them. It seemed a below average performance to me, void of emotion and almost if they were just going thru the motions to collect at the end of the night. The evening closed out with Fear Factory.”

Lineup: Burton C. Bell - vocals; Christian Olde-Wolbers - guitar; Byron Stroud - bass; Raymond Herrera - drums/percussion

By the time, we got upstairs Fear Factory was in the process of dazzling the hell out of the Sunday night Chicago audience of what would be a 90-minute extravaganza. The packed like sardines crowd was filled to the brim with frenzy on the floor and in the rafters. As far as the eye could see, all sang along to “Self Bias Resistor”, including yours truly. People were bouncing up and down as if they had ants in their pants. The place was jumpin’! You would have sworn vocalist Burton C. Bell was E. F. Hutton or something; of course, this reference is intended for the slightly older metalheads. Whenever he spoke, silence befell. When the band ripped into “Zero Signal” the crowd went ballistic, which is hard to believe considering I thought people were about to jumping out of their seats in the upper tier from the last number. The floor erupted with body surfers, fists, and horns.

The band did an excellent job pulling material from all six releases, the band led off with “540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit” from their brand spanking new CD released on August 23^rd entitled, Transgression after an 18-month layover from Archetype and reaching back with “Martyr” off the debut release, Soul of a New Machine. I would have loved to see the crowd’s reaction to the latest material as well as me being able to listen to the songs live first hand since I am not 100% sold on the CD. Delving a little further into the extended absence in studio releases for the band, they have been doing a vast amount of touring during that time, last year (around the same time), the band co-headlined Lamb of God, and then there was Megadeth’s Gigantour during the latter part of the summer.

Click here for latest interview with Burton

                            or

here for photos of the band during their

co-headlining tour with Lamb of God

        Click here for Darkane Interview

Transgression Tour 2005 Tour Dates

Fear Factory with support: It Dies Today /Soilwork, Strapping Young Lad & Darkane

28 Oct - Granada, Lawrence KS

29 Oct – Pop’s, Sauget IL

30 Oct - House Of Blues, Chicago IL

31 Oct - Quest Club, Minneapolis MN

01 Nov - The Rave/Eagles Club, Milwaukee WI

02 Nov - Intersection, Grand Rapids MI

04 Nov - House Of Blues, Cleveland OH

05 Nov - Harpo’s, Detroit MI

06 Nov - The Opera House, Toronto ON

08 Nov - Irving Plaza, New York NY

09 Nov - The Palladium, Worcester MA

11 Nov - Starland Ballroom, Sayreville NJ

12 Nov - Electric Factory, Philadelphia PA

13 Nov - Recher Theatre, Towson MD

14 Nov - The NorVa, Norfolk VA

15 Nov - The Masquerade, Atlanta GA

16 Nov - House Of Blues, Orlando FL

18 Nov - Meridian, Houston TX

21 Nov - Cain's Ballroom, Tulsa OK

22 Nov - Sunshine Theatre, Albuquerque NM

23 Nov - Ogden Theatre, Denver CO

25 Nov - House of Blues, Las Vegas NV

26 Nov - The Venue of Scottsdale, Scottsdale AZ

27 Nov - House of Blues, San Diego CA

28 Nov - House Of Blues, Anaheim CA

30 Nov - House Of Blues, Hollywood CA

01 Dec - The Pound, San Francisco CA

02 Dec - The Boardwalk, Orangevale CA

03 Dec - Roseland Theater, Portland OR

04 Dec - El Corazon (formerly Graceland), Seattle WA

05 Dec - Croatian Cultural Center, Vancouver BC

All photos Copyright © 2005. Pictures may not be used without the written consent/permission of FourteenG