Bayside preview

Bayside
Metro, Chicago
Thursday, October 9, 2008

Having weathered the death of drummer John Holohan on last year’s The Walking Wounded, Queens-based Bayside made a conscious decision to start over with drummer Chris Guglielmo for the new Shudder.

Doing away with the endearing yet transparent attempts to be more than another Victory/emo band, Shudder powers forth in its clarity (and it doesn’t hurt that as lyricists they’re not as whiny anymore). Pop-culture-tied song titles (“What And What Not,” “Have Fun Storming The Castle”) show they haven’t lost their sense of humor, either, and mostly the album is happy to race alongside its biggest influences: Smoking Popes and Alkaline Trio. The title of “The Ghost Of St. Valentine” already sounds like something Matt Skiba would pen, and it’s appropriately accompanied by an angry but anthemic guitar melody and a chorus that begins “I’d rather face the gallows.” “Demons” is a sparkling example of all four members crafting individual parts that Voltron together and then disband to further the tracks’ pursuits. It’s instances like those that make you wonder how come they’re not past trite packages like “No One Understands.”

The Matches, Valencia, and The Status open.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly