This is going to be a short ass review, because I only went there to see one band and one band only...and they weren't even the headlining band....of course I'm talking about In Flames.

This concert was at a really small venue, maybe 300 people max....which is a good thing...there's just something about seeing a concert in a really small venue...the closeness and personal feeling you get with the band and the rest of the fans kicks ass. Anyway, we got some nice seats in a bar like area off to the side of the main floor area about 20 feet from the stage.

The first band up was called Burn It Down...don't ask me who the hell they were..Buried Alive was supposed to be the opening act...and they probably would've been better than these guys cause they kinda sucked. Well, sucked is kinda harsh...more like they weren't good enough to get a good crowd reaction...but then again there was maybe 100 people there that early. It seemed the singer tried a little to hard to act like Chino from the Deftones...he even sounded quite a bit like 'em. I guess you could take the Deftones and throw in some heavier more metal-like music and you've almost got these guys. Nothing special though.

Next up was Skinlab. They kinda pissed me off a little....first off they seem pissed that they weren't getting much crowd reaction....well, no shit, you're the second act on a 4 act bill that's playing 300 person venues...and not to mention the headlining band (Earth Crisis) is a bunch of straightedgers, so then most of the fans there probably are too...and that's certainly something Skinlab isn't. Second, they kept talking shit about the major local band in the area, Mushroomhead. Yeah, that'll win you some fans, moron. And I had heard that these guys were actually pretty good, so my expectations were pretty high, but damn they weren't that good....I mean they were decent, but it was nothing new...it's all been done before.

The next band was In Flames...the band I, and it seems everyone else there, came to see. I've only been into them a couple months, but they've been one of my absolute favorite bands those couple months. If you've never heard them before, they're from Sweden so they've got that Norwegian black metal sound, mixed with a little 80's metal (i.e. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest)...it's something you really have to hear for yourself. By this time the place was pretty packed with 300 or so people...and alot of them crammed into the pit area, and In Flames really got that place fucking going nuts....even saw the first pits of the night. Unfortunately they only got to play for 45 minutes, which seemed like 15. That's always a sign of a good performance, you lose track of time. They played all the songs I wanted to hear, with the exception of Ordinary Story, but I'll live. Here's what they did play: Bullet Ride, Episode 666, Embody The Invisible, Gyroscope, Colony, Swim, Only For The Weak, Moonshield, and Clayman. Because of this show, they've become one of my top 4 or 5 favorite bands to see live. If only I could see them where they play for an hour and a half to two hours...god, I'd blow a load halfway through the show.

As for Earth Crisis, I didn't even want to stay for them. Partially because I didn't want that to ruin my mood after seeing In Flames if they really sucked, and partially because I was sick of sitting around in that shithole of a venue. If I had stayed for EC, I would probably have to give this concert an 8, and normally at a concert that only had one good band I'd give it an 8, but In Flames was so fucking amazing, I'll jack it up to a 9.