For those of you who don't know, 216 is a local metal band that consists of 4 people, all of whom are also members of Mushroomhead, and of course, Mushroomhead has a very large and dedicated fan base in the Cleveland area, so alot of those people also follow some of their other bands, like...216, 10,000 Cadillacs, Unified Culture, Crossfader, etc. And this was the first chance I had to see any of those bands, and since 216 is my favorite out of the bunch anyways, I wasn't going to miss it.

The first band was Cold Hand of Christ, they're probably my favorite local band behind only Mushroomhead. This would be my 3rd, maybe 4th time seeing them, so it was nothing new, but they did kick ass like always. I fucking love Jim's voice, it sounds alot like the lead singer of Vision of Disorder (forget his name) with a little bit of Phil Anselmo thrown in. I suggest you go check out their website, www.coldhandofchrist.com and give them a listen.

Now, the next band I had never even heard of, which doesn't happen often, all I knew is they were called Schnauzer. I had a feeling they were going to be rather unusual when the roadies started setting up the stage....putting caution tape all across it, bringing all kinds of shit like huge stuffed animals, mattresses, orange barrels, etc. They ended up being fucking funny as hell, quite entertaining. All they would do is insult everybody there, throw all that shit in the pit and let people rip it up, although security took away the orange barrel. The only thing I can think of to describe them is absolue fucking chaos. They reminded me alot of Anal Cunt, their songs were all really short and ridiculously funny. And all the comments they made were so god damned stupid it was funny...for example, I don't think I've ever heard a band get the crowd started chanting "Frozen fucking peas". Although they sucked musically, they were incredibley entertaining.

Next up was Runt, another band I've seen several times by now. If you haven't read my comments on them before, they've got a really heavy hardcore sound...a little like Pantera, except more intense and faster. Their pit, like always, was rowdy as fuck. It was pretty fucking hilarious, the stage at this place is really low, and the crowd can go right up against it, there's no barrier....so during one of their songs, he had a bunch of people come up on the stage, which security (which consisted of two guys I could probably take at the same time) didn't like at all, so they were out there trying to push about 20 people off this small ass stage. But anyway, like always Runt was intense as hell and the crowd was really into them.

NDE was the next band. Now, NDE usually kicks serious ass, and the crowd always loves them, they always get rowdy as fuck. As for me, not that I don't like them or anything, I always thought all their songs sounded too much alike, although they are still a damn good band. But this time, I don't know if everyone was tired from Schnauzer and Runt or what, but no one was into NDE at all, it was pathetic...it seemed the only reaction they were getting was a sympathy reaction. I still don't understand why no one was into it. Maybe everyone had had enough and just wanted to see 216 already, who knows.

Finally, 216 was up. One thing I love about all the Mushroomhead Inc. bands is how each one has it's own different sound, even though there's not much difference when it comes to the members of each band. 216, they've got the hardcore, really heavy and intense sound going. They sound somewhat like Hatebreed...but a little heavier....maybe a little Pantera thrown in with that Hatebreed. It was cool as fuck to finally get to see some of the members of MRH without their masks and paint on. It was kinda weird, cause JMann, the lead singer, is almost a godly figure when it comes to Mushroomhead, but now without all his MRH gear, he just seemed like a regular guy you'd come across on the street. But anyway, when they came out, they started with "Ten Fingers", which if it isn't my favorite song of theirs, it's second...behind the song they played next, "Step Up", so just with the first two songs they had me going.....I should've gone in the pit at that point, but I'm a pussy, and I had a good view from where I was at, so I said fuck it. Probably the funniest thing I've seen in a long time happened next. JMann goes "This next song goes out to Carson Daly and the people at TRL for playing such ground-breaking music every day" And they broke into a fucking Backstreet Boys song....played that for about a minute, then started playing Britney Spears...then moved on to Ricky Martin. Just imagine a big white guy growling "Backstreet's back, alright!" It was fucking hilarious I tell you. But that was about the only significant thing to happen. They played I think every song off of their CD, plus one or two off of their upcoming CD. Even though I'm getting sick of Runt and NDE, the other 3 bands were really good, so I'm giving this one a 9.