Papa Roach, Taproot & Spiritfall

Papa Roach rocks. After reading their interview in last week’s Synthesis, I knew Papa Roach was going to come up to Chico and represent like the bad-asses they are. And represent they did.

First up, Spiritfall got into the semi-emo-metal thing and started the show off right. Their singer has a funny delay pedal vibe going on his amp so it sounds like he’s singing in an arena even when he’s not. Maybe he’s practicing for that day. At any rate, Spiritfall up-jumped-the-rhythm-to-the-bang-bang-boogie and warmed up the mosh pitters for the as yet still ambiguous Taproot to do their thing.

Did I mention that The Brick was packed? Because it was. It was packed with all sorts of people who had come to see Papa Roach do their major label debut album CD release show. Did I mention they had a new album? They do, and it’s called Infest.

Taproot and Papa Roach are two bands that go well together in a live show. Taproot started their show by giving mad props and big ups to both the openers and the headliners, which was very gracious of them. Their sound is a bit like the new metal agro rock, but has some interesting industrial deep bass under the live instruments. For certain songs I noticed the drummer had to wear earphones so he could sync up with taped stuff. The heavy thump bass background was a new thing. I couldn’t say it was good exactly, but different. The band had a good stage presence though, and were very animated. The bassist had a cool, special guitar strap for his instrument that went over both shoulders — sort of like a saxophone strap, but bigger — and it made him look like he was ready for war. I wondered why he needed a special guitar strap and the only reason I could come up with is that his bass must be heavy and maybe he has back problems. But then again, maybe it was because when he played, he got so animated he needed a special strap so the bass wouldn’t fly off. Anyhow, they worked the crowd into a frenzy of anticipation for the big headliners, P-Roach.

What can I say about these guys? They rule live. They are so good, Oasis ain’t got nothing on them. Forget Jesus, these guys are going to be bigger than the Almighty himself, and the crowd that had gathered knew it. They flailed with reckless abandon as the mighty quartet took the stage and ripped through a bunch of their new songs. My favorite parts were when Coby the singer would talk between songs and insult the wusses in the upper balcony, saying that if they came to the show to stand around and not fuck shit up, they should just leave, and then he would flip them off. Damn right! If you come to a P-Roach show and you don’t get into the pit like you’re a man and you got a pair, then you should just stay home. They also played my favorite song, "Last Resort," and it was awesome. The only disappointing thing was that they didn’t do an encore at the end, but apart from that, Papa Roach put on a great show. They were in the house, that’s for sure.

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