This concert had originally been scheduled for January 28th, as you can see by the ticket, but their equipment was stolen a couple days before the show so they had to postpone it until March 28th. I was rather pissed at the time, but I'm actually glad it was postponed, because System of a Down and (hed)pe were supposed to be touring together during March, so instead of SoaD leaving the FF tour, (hed)pe joined the FF tour. Wow....4 of the 5 in the family of great LA metal bands all in one show (Static-X being the other).

The doors were supposed to open at 7....we were a little late so we got there at about 5 till 7....but the bastards ended up not opening the doors till 7:30. And as soon as we got in there, the music started. The opening band was a local band called Cold Hand of Christ. Not much to say about them...they kind of sounded like a mix between Fear Factory and Vision of Disorder, which was very badass. The crowd wasn't into them too much....hell, most of the crowd was either at the t-shirt stand or the bar, but hell, I thought they were pretty good.

The next band was Spineshank. I really had no idea who these guys were or what they sounded like, I just knew they were friends of Fear Factory. They ended up being quite good. The crowd was quite dead after CHoC, but these guys got 'em moving. Although I wasn't real impressed at the time....but a couple weeks later I got their album and it's very very good. Sounds like a cross between FF and the Deftones. Prime shit here.

Next up was (hed)pe. I was really excited to see these guys live....their album is fucking awesome, so I couldn't wait to hear 'em live. And they definitely lived up to the hype. And MCUD (the lead singer) got a great pit going..."you pussy motherfuckers who are afraid to rip this shit up, move to the back and let these people down here in front rip this place apart!"...or something along those lines, I don't remember exactly. Definitely go see these guys if you get a chance, or go get their cd...they're a wonderful mix of funk, punk, metal, and rap (no, they sound nothing like Korn or Limp)...they like to call themselves "g-punk".

System of a Down was up next....I was so fucking psyched to see these guys. They're just so goddamned unique and original sounding, I couldn't wait. As soon as they came on stage, the place went fucking psycho...you'd think they were the ones headlining. The venue was so damn small, as soon as they started playing, the whole place was one big mosh pit...you couldn't get away from it...if you didn't move with it, you'd get trampled. And it was like that their whole set, too. The most memorable moment was when MCUD from (hed)pe came out to sing "War?" with Serj....Definitely the moment of the night. One thing I've noticed about SoaD live though is that Serj's vocals are never loud enough...he either needs to sing louder or they should turn up his mic. Oh well, it didn't really take away from the show at all because the crowd was singing every word too.

And lastly, Fear Factory. There's nothing like seeing them live....it's just so damn...powerful is the only word to describe it. You can't help but get swept in by the music and the crowd. But by this time I was soaked in sweat and tired as fuck, and I think everyone else was too. I think SoaD tired everyone out...and not to take anything away from FF, they stole the show. I only wish FF would have played longer...they only played for about an hour. But then again, it had already been a 5 and a half hour show. Let's see you stand for 5 and a half hours straight, jumping around and moshing for a good part of that, and see how tired you are. The bad thing about it is, it was about 90 degrees in there, I'm now soaked, and then we got outside where it's 35 degrees...and I can't walk very fast to get to the car because my feet hurt so bad heh....oh well, it was worth it....this has to be one of the best shows I've ever been to. Rating: 10