Taste Of Chaos review

Taste Of Chaos
UIC Pavilion, Chicago
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006

The annual Taste Of Chaos tour has been called “the winter Warped.” And with last year’s event headlined by The Used and joined by tourmates like My Chemical Romance, plus the fact Chaos was put together by the powers behind Warped, it was a tag that made sense. But if the 2005 run of Chaos was akin to the annual punk vehicle, Chaos ’06 was as much Ozzfest as it was Warped.

Not that emo and punk didn’t hold court at this year’s affair, held last Tuesday at the UIC Pavilion. A Myspace-sponsored stage made sure of that. But between acts like As I Lay Dying and Atreyu, metalcore, hardcore . . . whatever you want to call it this month definitely made it’s presence known and felt.

And then they screamed s’more, in case you didn’t get it the first time. Between headliners, smaller acts hit the aforementioned Myspace stage, which was really just an extension to the left of the main-stage. Full of bands who were probably checking Myspace on their Sidekicks before going on, the stage showcased younger talent who were no doubt influenced by the night’s larger groups like Deftones and Thrice. Unfortunately, most blended together and came off more like tributes to the aforementioned bands. Coupled with a lack of any sort of proper identification other than the bands ID’ing themselves from the stage (which UIC’s PA system took care of scrambling), too many of the Myspace bands were indistinguishable. Not that there weren’t any standouts. One, Greeley Estates, came across relatively softer than some of the more aggro groups, with some melody and semblance of songwriting flashing through their brief set. But it ultimately came off as reaching for Hawthorne Heights, which seems like it should’ve been too obvious given the group’s remarkably similarly name.

Similarly coincidental on the Myspace stage were the Street Drum Corps, an outfit of performance artists wearing florescent body paint banging on drums and large gallons. And while the group was undeniably talented, it did seem to beg the question, “Why do we need a second Blue Man Group?” The main difference it seemed, to paraphrase Tobias Funke, is “they talk.”

The night’s main-stage acts fared more memorably, though not necessarily flawless themselves. Scream-pop outfit Story Of The Year impressed early and often with their stage presence and theatrics, including back flips and across-stage guitar tosses. Unfortunately, that was all the band had going for them. Trotting out both machismo and sensitive personas that both came across stilted even for a Taste Of Chaos band, SOTY seemed out of place, over aggressive, and grasping at straws to get any reaction out of a relatively indifferent crowd.

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Category: Live Reviews, Weekly