Kittie, Shuvel, Step Kings & Unida

I arrived at The Brick Works just in time to see the opening band, Unida, stepping off stage. Their unusually brief set was apparently a result of either equipment failure or bad attitudes, although neither story could be completely confirmed or disproved.

Shows in Chico very rarely begin on time. This is mostly because people never show up when a show is supposed to start — or maybe people show up late because the shows never start on time. Taking that into account along with the fact that the show was scheduled to start at 7:00, I was more than a little surprised to find The Brick Works nearly packed to capacity only half an hour after the show began. Equally impressive was the range of age groups present. The downstairs was a sea of youthful concertgoers. Excitement, heat and perspiration (some exceptionally more than others) was pouring out of everyone. Making your way around the sides was difficult, leaving getting to the front of the stage a near impossibility. Upstairs it was much easier to move around with people mostly carefully guarding their seats around the balcony to ensure a good view. The crowd upstairs was comprised of aging rockers with long feathered hair and casual clothes reliving the rock fantasies of their youth and other onlookers who were just glad to not be in the mess of bodies downstairs.

Step Kings took the stage second. The problem with a majority of music on rock radio station is that everything sounds like either Korn, Deftones, Rage Against the Machine, or some combination of the three. Based on this undeniable truth, Step Kings should be all over the radio. The bass player barked short choppy vocals adding more tempo to the music's already heavy beat. The guitar player added more subtle backing vocals and threw in a variety of guitar tricks. The most interesting part of the band was the forth member. For a few songs he played hand drums, for one song he played a slide trombone, and for one song he just beat on the floor with a lead pipe. The rest of the band downed out what he was doing, but he was really entertaining to watch.

The third band, Shuvel, suffered from a lot of the same generic radio sound but this time much more focused on Rage Against the Machine, though dual singers did add a dimension to the bands' sound. From beginning to end, they played a very passionate set. During one of the last songs one of the singers climbed to the top of a stack of speaks, bringing him to about the same height as people on the second floor. After singing a slower verse he hurled off the speakers back down to waiting arms of the crowd. The one thing that did get old was the nonstop tough-guy attitudes. Taking ever opportunity to defiantly display their middle finger to the audience, and the constant battle cry like shrieks thrown into the vocals while not necessarily a bad thing were definitely way overdone. Of course the crowd ate it up anyway.

Finally there was Kittie. The latest mutation of young riot girls spewing lyrics (that would make Maryln Manson blush) to hardcore metal noise. The thing that really strikes me as interesting about Kittie is that they aren't the usual 20/30 something rockers singing about the angst of their youth; instead it's youth singing about their angst to an audience that looks more like they do. I had heard recordings of Kittie playing live before. Those past performances left me with the impression that tonight's performance was going to leave a lot to be desired. I was surprised. Maybe it was just a good show for them, or more likely the small amount touring they have done has already strengthened how they play together live. The singers' vocals range from deep and gravelly to all out shouting. The music is hard grinding power cords with a very constant repetitive rhythm — not really original, but definitely gets the job done. The one thing I don't like, which is even more apparent live, is that most of their songs sound the same. Between songs they made sure to shout obscenities at the crowd and during one of the last songs the singer even jumped out into the crowd to roll around on top of the audience for a while.

While most of the bands that played aren't something that I normally listen to, all of them put on one hell of a show which appeared to be enjoyed by all.

-Scribles
-photos by Lloyd Herrera

Bookmark:

Comments down for maintenance.