Boy Hits Car, The Showdown, and Flyleaf - The Music Farm (Charleston, SC) 3/21/06
Posted 03/28/2006 12:49PM by jared as Show Review
A few weeks back I was checking the local venue websites and saw that the local rock station was bringing the band Flyleaf to my humble college town. This did not excite me in the least as I had only heard about Flyleaf from a friend whose musical tastes differ far from mine. He described them as a hardcore Avril Lavigne and said that the song style was very Breaking Benjamin. I took his words at face value and eventually heard their single “I’m So Sick” on said previously mentioned rock station. Unsurprisingly, I was none too impressed. A few days before the show I was checking the website again and saw that the opening bands had been listed as The Showdown and Boy Hits Car. I was completely nonplussed. First of all, I had been listening to Boy Hits Car for a very long time. After a complete lack of updates to their website for a two year span and hearing that they had been dropped from their label, I gave up. Turns out that immediately after I stopped checking up on them they recorded a new CD, quit their jobs, and have been touring for a good long while. Secondly, it seemed exceptionally strange that dueling guitar metal band The Showdown would be opening for the newest chick-fronted rock band to hit the airwaves. I decided to go to the show because I wouldn’t miss Boy Hits Car for the world and I enjoyed The Showdown’s debut “A Chorus of Obliteration” very much. I convinced myself to keep an open mind about Flyleaf and vowed only to leave if I felt the need to slit my wrists.
I get to the Music Farm a half hour early because they are usually very punctual and because I didn’t know how much of a buzz Flyleaf had created with the high school crowd. The Music Farm can probably holds under 1000 people and it can fill up quickly. Last time I went to see GWAR there I almost didn’t get in the door. Needless to say, I had far overestimated both the venue’s punctuality and Flyleaf’s buzz. The show started a half hour late and there were probably only 500 people there throughout the night. After an hour the lights finally went down and Boy Hits Car took the stage.
Boy Hits Car seemed to have the most enthusiastic fan following of the night. Most people who made their way to the front of the stage knew all the words to all of the songs. This includes the songs off of the new album that I unfortunately had not heard until the show. All the fan favorites had the crowd jumping and fist-pumping like crazy, uncommon for an opening band. CRegg was playing his 12-string and jumping around like a madman without his shoes on. His screams were even better live than recorded and his voice seemed to weather the screams and maintain a clarity that lasted throughout their set. There was one part during the breakdown of “I’m A Cloud” where the crowd erupted into a pit for a few minutes but other than that there was no serious pit action the rest of the night. Boy Hits Car had the most energy of any band to play that night and rivals some of my personal favorite live performances. After about 7 songs the band proclaimed that this was the most fun they had had on this tour thus far and they would love to play for an hour more, but that such was the plight of the first band of the night and promised to come back soon. All personal preference aside, the fact that this band is unsigned is one of the bigger travesty’s of the music industry in general. I enjoyed their performance so much that I considered driving 3 hours to my hometown where they were playing the next night just to see them again.
Grade: A
The Showdown was next on stage. I knew that they had been touring for a while and had just taken time off during the winter when, as lead singer David Bunton put it, “it is too cold to tour,” to record a new album. I was excited to hear some new material as well as some of my favorites from their current album. They came on stage and opened with an older tune and some choreographed directional head-banging. God bless choreographed directional head-banging! They had a very awkward stage presence due to the fact that all but one member of their band is either insanely tall or insanely ripped and they had very little room to work with on the stage. They played another older song and then went into the new stuff. The new stuff is nothing like the older stuff. Imagine Nashville Pussy with a little more modern metal infused. Their pace slowed down significantly from a thrashing pace to what was described by David as a “boot-stomping” pace, slowing the crowd down to almost a halt. Despite their best attempts, The Showdown could not get any form of a pit started and in the small opening that had formed for the hardcore dancers, people were skanking. This is depressing for a band such as The Showdown, who blew any chance they had of inspiring a mosh pit when they started playing their new stuff. The songs are very sleazy sounding and are not nearly as polished as their older stuff. Maybe this was a poor sampling off of the new album, or maybe they have returned to their Tennessee roots and have made an entire album staying true to them. I hope it is not the latter, or The Showdown will fall victim to the sophomore slump. They closed their five song set with my personal favorite song “A Monument Encased in Ash” which reenergized the crowd slightly but not nearly enough for them to cry for an encore.
Grade: C-
The last act of the night was Flyleaf. Unsurprisingly, this was the band that most people had come to see. The area in front of the stage thickened out and the stage equipment thinned as blue lights bathed the stage and ominous, ethereal chamber music was played. The band took the stage and as the lights came up the band literally exploded. Their bassist Pat Seals was jumping off of everything in sight and the strikingly short guitarist Sameer Bhattacharya was literally hopping from side to side five feet at a time after a short stint playing his guitar with a bow. They rely heavily on pedal work, and with two guitarists experimenting with different pedal combinations at a live gig, I was pleasantly surprised how many levels this radio-friendly band was willing to take this experimenting to. Lacey Mosley’s voice is very dynamic. She draws you in with her helpless little girl voice and then rips you to shreds with her occasional blood curling screams. Her onstage antics are a bit over theatrical. She will often sing with her face buried between her knees on the ground or lying on her back. She is most definitely captivating to watch and the fact that she is cute doesn’t hurt her either. I am unashamed to admit that I stayed for their whole set, including the encore. Flyleaf isn’t a band that I enjoy enough to listen to on a regular basis but depending on the opening bands I would definitely go see them again.
Grade: B
Overall, I enjoyed this show very much and it was worth skipping a class to go see.
One more word to The Showdown. If your lead singer comes out onstage with super faded light blue jeans wearing a black wife beater and a big brown belt with a huge confederate flag buckle and has tied a confederate flag bandana with an eagle printed on it to his microphone stand, don’t get pissed off when someone yells “Freebird.” Even you Tennessee boys are subject to a little southern ridicule.
Audience: B-
The audience was for the most part what I expected. A “Black t-shirt Jnco wearing 16 year old crowd” to “drunk local show junkie” mix of about 4:1. Most everybody was smoking cloves so I smelled more like a scented ashtray at the end of the night. Too much skanking in the mosh pit almost caused the most hilarious fight I might have ever seen between a really fat guy and a really fat girl. And I also have a word to the kid with the BANE hoodie (I have found there is at least one at any given show doing this,) stop roundhouse kicking the 80 pound girl at the end of the hardcore dance floor in the face. Learn to time your moves better and you won’t be dragged out of every show you ever attend.
--Daniel Smith
Comments
Boston, MA
Stereo Typing
Tweet at me, bro
Minneapolis, MN
Really nice dudes too. I talked to them for awhile after the show. They're all about just making music. Daniel said they quit their jobs to tour without label support, that's just how dedicated they are.
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Maylene, Alabama
its a rough transition for most bands when they have to change their style cause their vocalist cant physically do their old style without the thought of hurting his voice permantly
some bands pull it off, some dont
Charleston, SC