Chevelle

Yesterday, Dave SG and I went on a road trip down to Santa Cruz to see Chevelle, an aggressivemetalesque band that we both think kicks serious ass. Dave took me to a Chevelle show maybe three years back, and I was totally blown away. Since then Chevelle has not come anywhere near SF. When Dave was over last friday for dinner, we randomly went to the Chevelle homepage to find that they were playing at the Catalyst, and we immediately bought tickets and committed.

Therefore we had a nice long drive to talk about our lives during a gorgeous sunset, which ended with rockstar parking outside the venue. We were both wiped, which is not the appropriate state of mind going into an aggressive rock show. The place was not even half full.

There's a few of pro's and con's to the Catalyst. There are tiny pens which are the only place you can drink in. On the other hand, there's a pizza place attached to the venue. Bonus. Probably has 600 person capacity.

The audience was pretty amped for the band. They came out and launched into some great songs. They are a three piece, which totally revolves around the amazing singer/guitar player. His voice is unbelievable, and he's got the guitar chops to back it up. He's joined by a totally punishing drum player, with an xxl large kit. His dynamic range is limited to loud and louder, but he's always on point, all over his set. The bass player was new, and was a whole bunch of meh. They are about to release a new album, so we heard a bunch of new songs which is always very exciting. I prefer to hear music for the first time live, which sets me apart from almost everyone I know.

They were great. We were tired. Fortunately, they play an 1:20 set, which was perfect.

One of things I thought was interesting was their stage presence vs. their song content. A lot of darkness in the lyrics, and metal in their composition. This was counter balanced by constant thanking the audience, saying how much fun they were having, how happy they were to be in Santa Cruz. It was a really friendly accessible presence over their fairly angry music. I was easily able to avoid the mosh pit which brought me much joy.

The most random moment of the evening happened as we left the venue. A dude was handing out his CD of spoken word over strange music. These were nice cardboard discs, not cheap, certainly at least $1.50 a disc. It was definetly the wrong crowd to hand that out to.

Today I was wrecked to the point of humor. Things are just piling up for at work, and I was able to laugh at it. It's a little unsettling.

ROOOOOOCCK!!!!