P.O.D. / BLINDSIDE / HAZEN ST. / LACUNA COIL
ROSELAND BALLROOM, NYC
5/25/04
by Zebulun Kreiter

LINKS:
payableondeath.com

blindside-silence.com

hazenst.com

lacunacoil.it

For a band that is known for their strong spirituality and their song about school shootings, it was a surprise how diverse the different bands that opened for P.O.D. were. The opening band Lacuna Coil, which hails from Italy, features six members including two lead vocalists.

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While two vocalists in a band may remind some of Linkin Park, Lacuna Coil’s sound is closer to Evanescence than the California rap/rock band. With a female and male vocalist, their combined vocal range is incredible. With a dark and heavy feel, mixed with electronica, Lacuna Coil creates their own version of gothic rock that is both heavy and catchy. In broken English, the band addressed the crowd, which was very enthusiastic for the band despite the fact that many fans had not arrived yet.

The next band, Hazen Street, was playing their first “hometown” show. Though the band consists of people from all around the country, the two frontmen Toby and Freddy are both from the Lower East Side. Their names sound familiar because this supergroup consists of Toby from H2O, Freddy from Madball, David from Box Car Racer, Hoya from Rag Men, and Mackie who has played with the Cro-Mags, Bad Brains, and Shelter, and a second guitarist who is a recent replacement. Though original member Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory and Shai Hulud fame had to leave the band due to contractual obligations, his part in the music can still be heard. As the band walked onto the dark stage, a hip-hop track mentioning the Lower East Side was played, and set the tone for their performance.

Hazen Street’s music is a hybrid of hardcore, punk, pop, and hip-hop, which evokes the memory of every band each member is from. Elements from H2O, Madball, and New Found Glory, can all be heard in Hazen Street’s upbeat sound. Though not nearly as hardcore as the two vocalists’ previous projects, the influence and attitude is still apparent. The two vocalists make their show more exciting, trading lines, and conversing with the audience. Freddy, dressed in a football Jersey, and Toby wearing a sideways baseball cap, definitely added to the hip-hop vibe of their performance. Because of their New York roots and catchy riffs, Hazen Street’s performance was very enjoyable even though not a single person in the crowd could sing along. Their set consisted of songs from their debut album, which will be released on July 20th.

Besides head bobbing and finger pointing, there was very little crowd movement before Blindside took the stage. However, this changed quickly. Their song “Pitiful” off of their Elektra debut Silence led the crowd to open up and start moshing. The songs that Blindside played were split about half and half between Silence and their recent release About a Burning Fire. While the songs off of Silence produced strong crowd reactions, their new single “All of Us” and “Shekina” were also crowd favorites. Although Blindside brought a sufficient amount of energy to the stage, the bass was turned up too high, and the singer, Christian failed to hit all of his notes. Even though it is hard to dance around the stage and sing notes in two different octaves at once, it was disappointing when Blindside sounded out of key many times throughout the set. Before the final chorus of the title track off of their new album, Christian looked towards the ceiling and praised God to the crowd’s delight. Aside from this act, there was very little mention of God or religion during the night even though both Blindside and P.O.D. are known for being devout Christians.

I have to admit it. I’m not a huge P.O.D. fan, however, when they came onstage and played “Boom” as their opening song I was impressed. The bright disco lights that they brought with them added to their set, and the vocalist Sonny’s flying dreadlocks added to the visual appeal of the performance. However, I was quickly bored with their set. It may stem from the fact that I only own one P.O.D. album, but they sounded monotone. With only one guitarist (who is a recent replacement), their music is limited, and every song contains one main riff consisting of mostly power chords and three note arpeggios. Though they used a flanger and chorus effect on a couple of songs, most songs sounded very alike even though they played music off of three different albums. P.O.D. was onstage for about an hour before they said goodnight and left the stage. However, this was not the end of it. They came out for a three-song encore, but sadly many people had already left.
One of the best aspects of the show was also the most disappointing. Since each band comes from a different part of the world, and different music scene, many of the fans were only there to see one act. Therefore, after each opener was through with their set, a small trickle of fans exited, uninterested in the remaining bands. While this had an effect on the size of the crowd, the differences between each band made it one of the more enjoyable shows that I’ve been to this year.