The Acacia Strain lead singer Vince Bennett
Unearth
with Gwen Stacy, The Acacia Strain, Whitechapel & Protest the Hero
Revolution Live in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
October 24, 2008
Article & Photos by Michelle Feingold
The art of wind-milling, twostepping, pin-wheeling and bro-stomping is an expressive dance only completed by the tribes of hardcore metal. If one would like to witness this exotic behavior, then it would be best to attend an Unearth show.
On Oct. 24, a brutal metal show was brought on by Gwen Stacy, Whitechapel, The Acacia Strain, Protest the Hero, and headliners Unearth at Revolution Live in Ft. Lauderdale. Surprisingly enough, the show began extremely early and ended the same as well. Considering most of the audience attending the tour had to wake up the next day at 7 a.m. for school, it would be advised by the management to set up a show that ends before bed time!
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Normally one can expect the opening band to be absolutely boring – but Gwen Stacy was far from that mold. The band provided a practice round for the chaotic hardcore dancers flooding the bottom level, which set the crowd up for a brutal beat down by Whitechapel.
Unearth guitarists Buzz McGrath and Ken Susi
Three guitarists, a lack of harmonizing, and a vocalist who completely lacks the knowledge of the word “enunciate” make up Whitechapel. In reality, though, you don’t have to know one single chord or one single word to enjoy the living hell out of Whitechapel live. If you’re at a hardcore show and you’re going to be doing some hardcore moves, expect the most brutal beating of your life. In a normal crowd, one would be shocked to see people jumping off of the second level onto an unsuspecting crowd below, but in this case, no one said a word. Is this normal at a Whitechapel show? Yep.
Although the brutality died down a bit with the start of The Acacia Strain, the stage sure didn’t. The Acacia Strain portrayed the spitting image of the New England Hardcore scene with the mix of their attitude and stage presence.
The only thing that had to be feared during the presence of these musicians was their camel-like spitting abilities. Despite the fact that they only had one guitarist, The Acacia Strain managed to keep their music just as heavy as their predecessors Whitechapel. They’re proof that you don’t need three guitarists to kick ass on stage.
Gwen Stacy
Musically, Protest the Hero deserves the technicality award for this tour. Considering their lack of movement, the musicians of Protest the Hero remained attached to their stations via plug-in to insure a clean sound for their audience. Providing a 45-minute show, the audience begged for an encore from a group that weren’t even the headliners. Mission accomplished.
Unearth proved themselves to be the most entertaining of all. Guitarist Ken Susi was practically a one-man show, flying across the stage with his neon orange glow-in-the-dark guitar taking mortal abuse. Singer Trevor Phipps demanded on numerous occasions for circle pits, and as the crowd obeyed, the floor of Revolution Live evolved into a human powered hurricane. The eye of the storm covered the back half of the pit while the front half of the crowd filled itself with a sea of crowd surfers, probably in attempts to escaping the manmade disaster.
Regardless of one short set after another, the tour gave five bands a chance to show us their stuff and gave every teenager (and maybe even some adults) a long needed release. Revolution Live reeked of brutal energy, and many left with a number of injuries — mostly intended.
Let us know what you think at outloud@outloud.com..