In what can only be described as an EPIC metal show, Lamb of God, Suicidal Tendencies, Children of Bodom, Municipal Waste and God Forbid brought the house down at the San Jose State University Event Center. The crowd was fantastic, the sound was killer and no one we know was arrested.

If you’ve never been to the San Jose Event Center for a concert then you’re in for a treat. There basically are no bad seats in the house and even though it’s a big arena, it doesn’t feel like there are any “cheap seats”. The sound people there did a killer job with the mixing. The crowd was totally into it. I retract my previous statement about San Jose metal heads being somewhat lame. You hooligans (and “hooligals”) are an unruly bunch and know how to rock the f*** out when it comes down to it. I’m pretty sure that your energy helped make the show as awesome as it was.

SJSU, how tranquil

Here’s how the show broke down:

God Forbid
We didn’t get to see their set, but from what we’ve heard they put on a good show.

Municipal Waste
We had a chance to watch Municipal Waste for a few songs and these guys were pretty cool. They’re a thrash band that sounds more like an homage to the punk-influenced metal that was more defining of early metal bands. I just listened to their album, “Hazardous Mutator” for the first time a few weeks ago, and if you’re a fan of the “old-school” (guilty as charged), you’ll dig this album. The crowd seemed to dig these guys as well. Great thrash, great energy.

Children of Bodom
It’s been 5 years since I saw these guys open for Iced Earth, at which point I proclaimed that I would never see Bodom again because the keyboards were so damned annoying. Well, here we are 5 years later and I mostly enjoyed their performance. The keyboards were toned-down a lot more in the mix and watching the keyboard/guitar dual solos was, dare I say, very power metal-esque (rad). They seem to be one of the few bands that survived that whole “finnish metal invasion” that happened in the early 2000’s (Finntroll anyone?). They definitely are more well-rounded now, exemplified by chants of “BODOM! BODOM! BODOM!” wherever they go. Good performance, good guitar and keyboard solos, good limitation of Finnish melodies.

During COB’s set (the crowd actually was quite into it).

Suicidal Tendencies
Awww shiiiit homes, break out the Bud Light and Mickey’s it’s gonna get PSYCHO up in here! The O.G. thrash/ganstas/punks from Southern California can still draw a huge crowd (easily noted by blue bandanas and lack of sleeves), not to mention loyal. They played right before LOG and rocked *most* of the favorites, taking the ending of every song to rock-star open E-chord proportion. Rap metal might be dead, but I think they’res always a place in people’s hearts for bands like Suicidal, Anthrax, Faith No More, etc., because these bands didn’t come across as total doosh-bags and just wanted to try something different. Mixing hip-hop style vocals with metal used to be cool, now it just means “cover your fu**ing ears!”, thanks to modern Rap-metal bands. Anyways, go see Suicidal Tendencies if you haven’t already, they’re classic. Good performance, good crowd interaction, great use of 1990’s era blue bandanas. Plus their drummer looks like a black Gene Hoglan.

Lamb of God
This was my third time seeing Lamb of God and, between everyone here, we’ve probably seen them 10 times. The first time was at Ozzfest and the second time was at Sounds of the Underground, this show was far superior to both of those. LOG has put out a few more albums since those days, so they’re able to pull out all the favorites and still have a lengthy show – which is awesome because it seems like every LOG fan has a different album that’s their favorite.

Lamb of God performing “Redneck” in San Jose (sorry for the audio – kick drums and digital video cameras don’t mix).

They opened with a few tracks off of Wrath and didn’t look back, ending the show with a “Wall-of-Black-Label” pit. Ruin, Redneck, Walk with Me in Hell, Laid to Rest and Contractor were in the set list as well. No disappointments here.

Free Willie!

The stage setup was quite impressive this go around.

Randy, tell Willie to stop stealing your food for God’s sake.

Lamb of God: Brought it.
Suicidal Tendencies: Brought the noise.
Children of Bodom: Brought it from Finland.
Municipal Waste: Brought the old school.
God Forbid: Brought it, but we missed it.