Prior to doing research before this gig Gemini Syndrome as a band name rang no bells, and now my sincere hope is that they will conquer the world one song at a time.
That wording is only slightly exaggerated.
Lux, as an album, has completely put me under its spell, and their live show only served to cement this new obsession. A descendant of alternative metal bands like Deftones and 10 Years (there's a lot of Jesse Hasek in Aaron Townsend's voice) with a polished radio rock sheen on them, Gemini Syndrome manage to overcome the loss of some of their more ethereal effects on CD with a heavier guitar sound while not losing any of Townsend's vocal nuance. As mentioned before, huge things are hopefully in store for this band, and a tour of this profile is certainly a step in the right direction.
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When Miss May I came through with Killswitch Engage just three months ago, their set was perfectly acceptable, but lacking a certain spirit. Either the previous performance was an off night or the louder, packed room brought out more effort or more enthusiasm from them because that problem was corrected this time around. The songs still aren't particularly great, but that's easy enough to move past when the delivery is this potent. The singer still seemed to struggle when talking to the crowd, if you started a drinking game where you took a shot every time he pointed to the banner and announced the band's name you would've been dead by the end of a seven song set, but this was at least a step up from where they were last time. Who knows? Maybe if they come through for a third time they'll be impressive enough to warrant purchasing an album.
Escape the Fate is never going to get that chance though. One listen through Ungrateful upon release and one set from them and it is abundantly clear that they're terrible. It's a merciful gift that the research process was that short. At least live the music is heavy, as opposed to the CD where it sounds closer to the emo stylings of Fall Out Boy in all aspects, but it was heavy to the point of essentially become fuzzy white noise. The singer was the only part that was actually audible, and he was too hung up on inviting girls in the front few rows to drink with him after to really impress. He did say at one point that he'd arrived in the city a mere thirty minutes before the set due to a late flight, which would be reason enough for a poor performance, but it seems doubtful that he was also running late to the recording of every single song on Ungrateful so there's no inclination to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. If this seems like an overly harsh tirade, you're catching on fast. These guys suck, and yet based on the reaction from the crowd they've got enough reasons to keep doing what they're doing that they'll probably never learn.
In my years as a concertgoer, I don't know if I've ever seen a crowd as excited for a band as this sold out crowd was for Five Finger Death Punch. It does seem hard to beat fifteen thousand people screaming for Kiss, but when a room of over a thousand is singing in unison it is effective enough to warrant consideration on that level. It wasn't just for one song either. It was for every song, even the barely weeks old single for an album that doesn't come out until late November. This is a rabid fanbase, and at least at the start of the set I was probably the only one in the room who was firmly in the opposite camp. Five Finger is at least heavier than Avenged Sevenfold, which is a quality and distinction which becomes very important when those are the two bands serving as the widest representation of metal in the popular culture, but the overt to the point of being obnoxious military symbolism and lyrical content and the extreme level of tough guy posturing is about as far opposite as you can get from my value system. After seeing them live, I can't say either of those objections have really changed, but one has to give props to the band for being able to put on a hell of a show. They were actually too good at it, for a room that size the amount of light that their rig put off was almost blinding, but that's really not their fault. The show clearly should have been in a bigger room, but they made the best of it by throwing waters down to people that were visibly having issues with the heat and compaction in the front row and the singer actually went as far as to come down into the crowd (I was unable to see security from as far back as I was, but I can only assume they were even less happy than when Danny from Asking Alexandria leapt over the barricade) at one point to help get a person some breathing room. Actually, for a man who has been the focus of some negative gossip around this area based on past fan experiences, Ivan Moody was really, really...nice! Apparently at some point he promised a drumstick to a girl in the front row, and when she disappeared before the end of the show he made a point of finding a friend of hers and insisting he give it to her. He was nice enough to his fans that he really didn't need to demonstrate his sweet side by pulling up a stool and singing three acoustic songs, but he did much to my amusement. There's a hypocrisy in decrying the tough guy posturing and then laughing at the band when they attempt to slow it down a bit, but the overpowering presence of the former quality makes it really, really hard to accept the latter. Also, the weird electronic assisted drum solo that saw Jeremy Spencer disappearing and then coming back to his throne in a weird Tron-esque outfit topped by a devil mask was...distracting. Again, as with Escape the Fate, the crowd was screaming loud enough to render my complaints moot. Guess I'll just be over here, back in the corner.
It was not a night without headaches, but it was certainly an interesting and worthwhile experience. A Five Finger Death Punch fan was not born, but a degree of appreciation was. One would say that was hopefully enough, but clearly FFDP has enough fans to leave them with the self confidence required to ignore me.
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