progressive spacey hard rock jam metal

On Saturday night I went to the DCU Center in Grande Ol' Worcester, MA. The opening band was Bad Acid Trip, yep that's right. These guys were funny. I don't know what genre they'd fall into, death metal maybe? The dude singing had quite the vocal range from high pitched circusesque clown laughter to deep dark Satan summoning roars. It was loud as shit but they seemed to have a sense of humor about themselves and were selling 'fuck Bush' tee-shirts so they're okay in my book.

The Mars Volta was good. Not quite as good as when I saw them at Bonnaroo, but they definitely rocked out. For those of you who might not have heard of The Mars Volta, I would describe them as a progressive spacey experimental hard rock jam metal. Ha! I am amazed again and again by their drummer. Dude has skills. The music is so fluid and ranging, and his arms just pound the drums fast as a badass hummingbird. I was also really happy to see (and hear) the addition of a saxamaphone/flute player. It added a unexpected jazzy element that was off the hook.

Then came System of a Down, the evening's headliner. I've never really listened to System of a Down before. I don't usually get into that type of pop metal stuff. But, Zack loves them and so I knew they couldn't be that bad. Holy fucking shit was I blown out of the water. Their range of song style was all over the place mixing heavy beats with Latin or Indian inspired melodies. Their transitions were absolutely seamless. I was lost in the madness of the percussion, drawn to the raw emotion of the vocals, and I laughed at the guy twirling around with the guitar. They played straight for two hours and I danced my buttocks off. I have to say though that one of the major highlights of the show was the lights. I can say with positivity that System has the best light show I've seen since Phish (and that's saying a lot). The lights totally made the show for me.

All in all I'd have to say that my little jaunt to Worcester was well worth it. I would totally recommend System of a Down to anyone looking for a rock show with a little edge.