Total Chaos Concert Review, Including A Brand New Local Band!

Hey guys, sorry for the delay on this, I've been horribly behind on school work. That being said, I am back from Sunday night's Total Chaos concert at The Oddfellows Hall! How did it measure up? You'll find out in this extended review, featuring reviews of all SIX bands that played, with four brand new videos from Sunday as well! So here's what you need to know from this concert!

First off, it was great being back at The Oddfellows Hall, it's been way too long for a non-battle of the bands, over a year in my case! I want to again stress a pet peeve of mine that re-emerged at the show, and that's the start time. Despite an advertised start time of 7:00 PM, it took over a half hour after that to get going, and I imagine people who were there at 6:00 PM wouldn't have been pleased. The Oddfellows Hall was just as it always was, but the concert atmosphere was enhanced by some good quality audio and lights from Nathan Bouliane's Bonology Lights & Sounds! Every band had a smoke machine and intense strobe lights that, though not conducive to camera quality, really added to each set!

Now, when we first heard about this show, there was only five announced bands, and no one I knew had heard any different. But when the first band took the stage, I knew it wasn't Shit Liver, the advertised first band. The four band members didn't look familiar at all, they looked around high school age, and I frankly didn't know what to expect. When they started, however, they sounded alright! Their name (as best as I could tell) was Changing Waves, and aside from that, I can't tell you anything else. No known internet pages, no idea who's in the band, no nothing, so if you guys have any information on these guys, PLEASE let me know at robertfigures@hotmail.com! They reminded me a bit of early As It Stands with their melodic hardcore style! For kids their age, they didn't sound too bad, and seemed to have a firm grasp of their original material! The singer has a nice scream going for him, but his stage presence needs work, as he spent almost the whole set singing towards the sound guys on the right, and didn't really engage the crowd beyond moshing with some fans late in the set. The guitarist had some nice solos too, I should add! Changing Waves have promise, and hopefully they'll play some more live concerts down the road, and launch a page of some sort!

After they wrapped up, Shit Liver hit the stage for their own debut performance, and let me say this out front: Their sound is very polarizing. From the reactions I heard, fans either loved them or they hated them. I remember getting some flack for plugging them on the SMS before, so I expected there to be some widely differing opinions on their set. In case you forgot, Shit Liver are the grimecore trio made up of 3/4 of the old local punk band O.B.C.D., but aside from a cover of that band, their sound was much dirtier and rawer, taking influences (and covers) from bands like Dystopia and The Capitalist Casualties, along with originals. Guitarist Josh Penno handled most of the vocals, which were mostly low death growls that, though often hard to make out, suited the music! They're honestly hard to describe, but I will say that Josh, bassist Mike "Ralph Brakk" Kyle, and drummer Matt Baic play this style well! I completely accept that many of you guys won't like them or find them any good, but you have to take it for what it is. Shit Liver aren't supposed to be a refined polished band, their sound is crusty and raw and grimy, and it succeeds on that level! Plus, they had a good segment of fans moshing too! I appreciate their sound and their style, but if you don't like what you hear, then I absolutely understand what you get out of them.

Third on the bill were one of my favourite local bands of the non-metal vein, RedD Monkey! And they're just as good as the last time I saw them, if a bit more random. They started AND ended their sets with "cello rap" songs, which felt a bit off for concert bookends, but they were oddly entertaining! But it was their standard punk-with-a-cello set in the middle, and very fun to listen to! Pete Mozarowski continued to be the most noticeable presence with hie cello playing, while his brother Steve shown good punk aggression and swagger himself! Once again, Kevin Overton was absent, I believe Joe Bumbacco from The Fury was back on drums for this show, and he was good as well! Solid set from RedD Monkey, who continue to impress my non-metal tastebuds, even on their extremely fast cover of Motorhead's "Ace Of Spades"! I should also add that because of a person's unfortunate "vomitory incident" on the floor, the majority of the crowd stayed far away from the stage for RedD Monkey's set, even after it was throuroughly cleaned up, so the fan atmosphere wasn't as fun as on the past few bands.

The second half of the concert kicked off with Frightlight in their first ever show at an all ages venue! It was cool seeing a band featuring J.D. Pearce (a.k.a. Johnny Pints) and Rick "Styles" White back at The Oddfellows Hall. I fondly remember seeing Fitswitch at all ages shows back in the mid-2000s, so it was like a flashback of sorts! Musically, Frightlight were right on form, though J.D.'s voice seemed a bit strained compared to the last few times I saw them. I also liked seeing the evolution of their stage getups at this show, adding to their horror feel, though where was Jeff De Rose's facepaint? Luckily, some people crossed the dreaded "puke line" to mosh close to the band for their set, punctuated by all the originals on "It's A...Live!", Fitswitch and Misfits covers, and more! Rick was on top form on guitar, and Eddie Fright/Mike Gingras' bass work stood out clear as day! I have to say though, as a comparison to the rest of the lineup, they were the most complimentary of Total Chaos as an opening band, just by similar styles. I'm all for metal, but when the opening bands are of a different genre and style than the headliner, it doesn't always clash well in my opinion. But the quality was good, so I didn't mind!

Your last local openers were Bring The Fallen, but before I discuss their set, I have two notes. First, Total Chaos didn't even show up until a little before Bring The Fallen started, which a lot of people there were relieved by. That being said, the delay resulted in no Total Chaos merchandise for sale prior to their set, but at least RedD Monkey and Frightlight were covered on that end of things! My second note concerns the photos I took for the last chunk of the show. My camera's battery was draining fast near the end of Frightlight's set, so my later photos are all without flash and are of low quality. You'd be surprised that flash photography is more of a battery drain than just leaving it idle while turned on. So my apologies to Bring The Fallen and Total Chaos for the photo quality, and I will make up for it next time around!

Now, to Bring The Fallen, and in a word, they were brutal! That is a complete compliment, but it left me a bit banged up in the process, and I wasn't even moshing! It was great to see the band back and in full, after bassist Nolan Rainville's spring absence and lead guitarist Andrew Chiarello's exit and return to the band, and luckily they were on top form! Josh Stephney's death growls were devastating in the best possible way, and he commanded the action as fans moshed like they hadn't moshed before! It got so hectic that one of Josh's microphones got busted during a more intense section of their cover of Slayer's "Black Magic", but luckily they had a spare on hand! Andrew Chiarello's guitar solos were wicked and very proficient, and the whole band were playing their hearts out last night! They broke out their hit originals like "Defiling Despondence" and "Stand Before", all the while encouraging a huge fury in the pits that rarely relented! It's also notable that Josh gave away two Bring The Fallen t-shirts, the only ones in existence, which looked cool, and hopefully they go on sale one day! Awesome set, and it seemed like it went by way too quickly, but in this case, it's a good sign. They ruled, and I hope they're playing live again soon!

And finally, your main band was California street punk legends Total Chaos, in their second local stop in their long history! I have to be honest, I haven't been to a ton of concerts where the headliner was a punk band from out of town, but then ones I have been to were good! I still remember the Propagandhi show from Halloween 2006 fondly, so it was nice to see some punk for a change on my schedule! I have to admit, I'm not terribly familiar with Total Chaos, but I liked what I heard! They had loads of punk attitude to go around, and the crowd moshed like mad in response! Rob Chaos' vocals sounded slightly harsher than I remembered from their studio tracks, but he looked to enjoy playing for the fans, as did the rest of the band! There was even some metal flashes, like in their initial jamming before their set, but they retained the punk feel throughout! I really enjoyed Shawn Smash's riffing especially, it complimented the music very well, and there was no relief or rest with their songs at all! Fun way to close the night, and sort of refreshing to see a straight up punk band for a change compared to the metal and hard rock I usually get! I just wish I wasn't so banged up from being near the pits!

Overall, this was a fun and diverse night of music, that delivered sizeable amounts of punk aggression, metal brutality, some new blood in the local scene, and a cello! I haven't seen a package like this at an all ages show in quite some time, and I hope it's not the last! We need more Oddfellows Hall shows, and last night was proof! I got plenty of photos on Sunday (apologies again for the later photos), so check them out at this location or at the SMS' Facebook page! And yes, I got videos of the four metal bands last night, so check them out below: Changing Waves' original "Divine Intervention", Shit Liver's cover of Antischism's "Greedy Bastards", Frightlight's cover of Fitswitch's "Rust Angel", and Bring The Fallen's original "Nostalgia"!









That's all for today, but stay tuned for some more local metal news later tonight! Thanks everyone, and sorry again for the delay!