[ATTENDED: October 24, 2019] Palisades
I had taken C. to a couple of live shows before and he had been to see Ice Nine Kills with his friends. But this was my first time taking him to see a club concert.
This was going to be a long night too. Four bands! With the opening band going on at 7 and Starset ending around 11 (and it was a school night!).
Palisades was the biggest of the three supporting bands. They had also toured with Starset on Starset’s last leg of the tour. There were definitely a lot of fans there for them. A few of them in front of us left after their set.
They opened with “War” a suitably heavy song.
The band seemed like they were veterans (and they’ve been playing for 8 years, so I guess they are).
I didn’t realize this before the show, but apparently singer Lou Miceli sat out this tour because of medical issues concerning his voice. And so, on lead vocals was Brandon Elgar who is listed as a co-lead vocalist. I never would have guessed that Brandon wasn’t the main singer. He was an enjoyable front man and was good at getting the audience hyped up. Although there were times when I didn’t like his vocals (see below) and I wonder if maybe that’s why I didn’t love Palisades all that much.
Most of their songs were pretty heavy, but there were a few songs that were a bit more radio friendly, perhaps. I really didn’t care for “Cold Heart (Warm Blood)” because of the way he sang the verses–it sounded really boy band pop, which I found unsettling. Although I did appreciate the way the song took off and his voice got really powerful during the chorus.
Matthew Marshall plays rhythm guitar. I guess no one was playing bass during this tour? He also had some very occasional growly vocals which added a low end dimension to their songs.
I could barely see him. Actually I could barely see anyone–I guess the floor kind of slopes down and we were at the bottom for Palisades.
We were in front of lead guitarist Xavier Adames who also did backing vocals. He had some cool solo moments.
I was a little bored of their set about half way through. Turns out that C. didn’t really like them that much either. He said he’d seen a band like them when he saw Ice Nine Kills and thought they were just okay.
And I guess that’s how I felt too. A good band, nothing special. I wanted to like them more because they are from Iselin, New Jersey, but they clearly have a big enough fanbase that they don’t need me.
They played the third cover song of the night–“One Step Closer” from Linkin Park. It was this cover that made me feel really old because in my mind Linkin Park is that young band who introduced turntables to metal (more or less) a few years ago. Turns out Hybrid Theory actually came out nineteen years ago. And that means that it’s totally reasonable for them to talk about playing an old song that everyone knows. Yikes.
I didn’t take too many videos of them as I didn’t love them (I should have gone to buy the Hyde CD while I wasn’t engaged). But I did take a clip of “Fall”
Even though I didn’t love them, I did enjoy drummer Aaron Rosa who seemed to be having the best time up there. He was always smiling and singing along and was quite a cheerful fellow.
So yes they were fine–not bad, just not mind blowing. Perhaps it’s hard to follow up an act like Hyde.
SETLIST (from an other night on the tour, I assume it was the same or similar)
- War
- Shed My Skin
- Cold Heart (Warm Blood)
- Through Hell
- Fade
- Fall
- Ways to Disappear
- One Step Closer (Linkin Park cover)
- Let Down
- Erase the Pain
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