Funny thing about Coheed. I went to NYC Comic Con on Saturday and Claudio was there doing a signing. I literally walked right up to him, looked at him, said to myself "Is that the guy from Coheed?" and said "nah" and walked away.
(Picture is from the band's twitter)
No, it was him and he was doing free signings and I was just completely clueless
What a missed opportunity on my part although TBH, I'm not quite a big Coheed fan, but still!
Back to concerts... last Friday was Alice in Chains, Breaking Benjamin, and Bush at my local amphitheater. This ended up being a lot more fun than I expected although going in I was already pretty excited since it's a 3 band line up that I enjoy. The last show for me at this venue for the year as it closed down for the "summer" this weekend. I always get emotional when this place shuts down, it's often my favorite place to be in the summer time and living so close to it, I've seen more shows here than likely any other venue. It wasn't a sell out, but all the seats were sold and the lawn was packed. Very good turn out and the weather was perfect.
Bush opened (OK a band called Plush opened at 5:30pm but I had just gotten home so we missed their set). Bush did 4 songs from their newest album which were mostly decent songs. The hits were good as usual. I just love the energy Gavin has on stage. He's so active with moving around and interacting with the crowd. During one song (and he always does this) he walked through the seats and right up into the the lawn. Actually came right near me and then immediately turned the other way as all the yoing people near me rushed towards him (inlcuding one lady who knocked over my lawn chair that was holding a full drink I just purchased, once again, no apology from the lady spilling an entire drink of mine). The ended their set with their hit song Comedown, but with special extra guitarist Jerry Cantrell! This was AWESOME. I'd say it was THE highlight, but the pay back later in the set 1 upped this.
Breaking Benjamin were next. I know Ben has let his guitarists do more and more lead singing over the years, but after the first song, Ben went back near the drums and it looked like he was being helped by a tech as they did two full songs without him on vocals. It kind of sucked IMO. I've seen them a few times and I forgot about this, but it seems Ben also doesn't like having a light directly on him so it's very odd to watch from the back and see the entire stage well and all the band members except the lead singer who's just in darkness. I hate shit like that. If you are going to be the front man, be it. Their setlist was pretty straight forward, nothing special from the song choices. Overall though, they were fun. The crowd was really into them. The young people all near me started going wild and forming a mosh pit. One person even tried to crowd surf. If you knew the lawn of this venue, you'd laugh like I was at this idea. They hardly moved before being dropped. There was also extensive pyro used during their set which I'm a huge fan of.
And finally was headliner (although it may have been coheadlining, I think both BB and AiC had 75 minute sets) Alice in Chains. First off, they were a bit too loud. After two other rock bands, it was noticeable that they turned themselves up higher than the others and that's not a good thing. If me of all people is complaining they were too loud, then it's a sign they definitely needed to lower it a bit. After the first song you kind of get used to it, so it wasn't a huge deal, but something I wish bands would consider when performing that not everyone thinks it's a good idea to play at 11. This was my second time seeing them, I thought this was a bunch better show than the first time mostly because I could see a lot better. Setlist was fairly basic with the hits and only one song from the latest album. What made the night was during Man in a Box, Gavin from Bush came out to sing as well. He brought back that energy from the opening set. This was sick. At the end of their set they got all the bands and crew out for a picture. It was the second to last night of the tour but as Jerry said, getting everyone together the next night as unlikely so they wanted to do it that night.
(from AiC twitter)
Alice In Chains, Breaking Benjamin, Bush LIVE @ PNC Bank Arts Center NJ