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Have you ever worried that an artist would simply fall through the stage if they jumped off a speaker just one more time? I sure did. On Saturday afternoon on July 15th, I was standing in the crowd hoping the production crew of Vans Warped Tour screwed every last bolt into that stage for New Years Day’s set. The performance was nearly ground-breaking… literally.
As the band ran onstage, the first thing I noticed was the heavy white, black and purple goth makeup each of the band’s guitarists layered on their faces. Perhaps, they were inspired by the band KISS (after all, their guitarist Nikki Misery was wearing a KISS tank top), but they definitely carried a heavier weight and that the pop-metal that their predecessor’s rocked.
When lead singer Ashley Costello announced the song “Kill or Be Killed”, I can honestly say that it felt like a threat more than just a song name. The announcement made my blood rush, would it make yours? This was a song that was close to ground-breaking. The intensity of their electric guitars was pulsing, and as the guitarists jump violently around on stage like possessed, hardcore kangaroos, slamming their feet into the stage that I worried would fall apart, the music got louder and more intense with every riff. And their energy was infectious, causing the crowd to jump in synch with them.
The crowd interactions were intimate. Front row center, a younger girl had the same hairstyle as Costello. Split down the middle, one side red, the other black. I saw her in the crowd and had to look twice. Costello’s doppleganger? Everyone in the crowd knew the words. I mean everyone. The show had the intimacy of what larger artist’s attempt to do through an “acoustic” show. Does a show have to be acoustic to be intimate? Not in New Years Day’s case.
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