Here is my take on the SnoCore show.
PUYA – missed this band. I was too busy standing in a ridiculously long line waiting outside the Palladium only to be treated like scum by security and then have to throw out my tiny little wallet chain because it was ‘a potential weapon’. Later in the evening, I had gathered upwards of about 25 opinions that all spoke the same message, “I HATE the Palladium!”
MR. BUNGLE – Hmmm. What do you say when a big group of guys walks on stage in various costumes that frighteningly resemble the Village People in ‘Y.M.C.A.’ and then proceed to open their set with “What The World Needs Now (Is Love Sweet Love)“? Needless to say, we were all a bit confused. But then again, we are dealing with Mike Patton here. The Mr. Bungle set was strange, furious, and full of homosexual references and oddities. One has to wonder just what message it is that this band is trying to spread. Mike Patton’s voice was loud, clear, and as awesome as always – especially on ‘Sweet Charity‘ – but it was hard to give that talent proper attention. Maybe his gloves and sailor hat were just too much of a distraction.
INCUBUS – This is when things got good. Actually, this is when things got great. Seeing Incubus live is simply breathtaking in that they give the audience 1000% and they are completely sincere and totally positive at all times. There is nothing derogatory that could be said about this performance other than that it was far too short. Maybe it was because I was having so much fun that the time completely flew, but I do remember not standing still for very long.
Incubus rolled out a few songs from their releases prior to ‘Make Yourself‘ (Epic) – including a great choice for the opener, ‘New Skin‘, but I have to say that the stand out material had to be the new stuff this time around. You could literally feel the electricity when they were performing ‘The Warmth‘, ‘Pardon Me‘, ‘When It Comes‘, ‘Privilege‘ and ‘Make Yourself‘. At least those were the ones I remember singing and dancing my ass off to the most. Every member gave it their all with their signature style and groove, and the result is just perfection. Special mention has GOT to go out to Brandon Boyd and his bongos, okay? Enough said.
SYSTEM OF A DOWN – The crowd at the Palladium was a ‘System Crowd’ – hands down. The largest percentile of the audience was there to see System of a Down. This was their night to shine, and shine they did. The band took the stage in full regalia. Serj was wearing a gorgeous robe and a new haircut. Daron and Shavo were painted in freaky tribal designs with neon pink and red streaks all over their bare chests and faces. It was quite the spectacle, as System always is, and this show was no exception to the rule that System will never fail to rock your socks off.
I remember one track they performed that completely took me over, Serj just never mentioned the name of it, so now I’m going to have to go digging. The S.O.A.D. “classics” ‘Spiders‘ and ‘Sugar‘ were both as killer as they always are, and ‘Suitepee‘, ‘Know‘, ‘Soil‘ and tons of other cool songs they did were all performed with the frenetic pace and complexity that System has become famous and admired for. They even did ‘Snowblind‘ by Black Sabbath. They were brilliant.
On the way out, I bought one of those crappy, scalper long sleeves for 5 bucks and smiled all the way home.
Lesa Pence
