Mushroomhead....alot of you probably don't even know who they are. They're like the major local band around here, they've even turned down major label record deals. They've got a industrial/hardcore/rap-metal/black metal all thrown together type of sound. And with 9 members they can really throw some shit around, especially onstage. This concert is kinda unique cause it was at Blossom Music Center, a 22,000 seat outdoor venue where usually really huge national acts play, and to see this place full of 15,000 or so local metal fans was really amazing. The sense of togetherness, that we're all here to support a bunch of OUR bands was overwhelming, you know. Anyway, on to the actual show.

Our seats were about 100 feet away from the stage, a little to the left....there was a pit area down in front, unfortunately you had to have gotten tickets that close to be able to go in it....and damn did the pit get crazy too. Anyway, the first band up was called Uncle No. Not much to say about them...no unique sound, just the typical small-time metal band sound. No one at all got into them except for like 4 guys down in front trying to start a pit with just themselves. Although the lead singer did drop his pants and give us all a show when they were done playing...joy.

Second band was called Spawn, whose logo looked a little too much like the comic book if you ask me....they better change that before they hit it big. Oh wait, they'll probably never hit it big since they kinda sucked. They had the whole 80's biker metal band look down....and they sounded like the same kinda band mixed with a little bit of a Pantera sound thrown in. And the crowd was actually quite into them, don't ask me why.

Next was a band called Skudd. And boy oh boy did they suck some serious ass. They were a typical new metal hardcore/rapmetal band, which isn't bad if it's done right. The actual music wasn't half bad, but they couldn't have picked a worse lead singer. He couldn't rap, his voice was fucking awful...it was unnerving listening to him try to scream, he sounded like a mix between Billy Corgan and an 11 year old boy....and you couldn't understand a damn word he was saying cause he was damn near deep-throating the mic. And not to mention his hair looked like he glued wedding mints all over his head....what a sight. But anyway, they sucked, end of story.

Now is where the concert started getting good, cause the top metal bands in the area were scheduled for the rest of the night....the earlier ones were just bands that won a shitty little battle of the bands a couple weeks before. NDE was the next band up. I had never heard these guys before, but I had heard they were damn good...and they sure were. Even though I never really like bands that have a similar sound, I really like these guys even though they sounded a whole helluva lot like Pantera....the lead singer even looked exactly like Phil Anselmo. The crowd was really into them....I saw quite a few bloodied people come out of there when they were done with their half-hour set.

Next up is a really badass band called Runt. They sounded a little like Ultraspank, old Incubus, RATM and Pantera all thrown together with a sound of their own thrown in. This was actually the first band that got me out of my seat, they kicked so much ass....I even had to buy their cd after the show. Not much else to say except they rocked.

And lastly, the band everyone came to see, Mushroomhead. The anticipation leading up to the band coming on stage was just fucking intense...you could feel it flowing through the place...this is the show of the year, with the band of the area about to come on...you could feel the intensity. And when they did come on, that place just went fucking insane. It would've been alot better if there weren't any seats, cause it's kinda hard to mosh when you're seperated from everybody else heh. I was still losing it though, it probably looked like I was trying to rip out the railing that was in front of us I was going so psycho. They played most of the songs off their new cd, several from their last one, and the really good ones from their first one....overall about an hour and a half. I just can't put into words how amazing the whole thing was, so I'm just going to stop now. Rating: 9