I Just Read About That…

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 14, 2026] Jinjer / Entheos / Crystal Lake

Back in 2022, I saw Jinjer after blowing off all three opening bands.  I never do this kind of thing, but I had no interest in the openers.  I left my house pretty late and arrived just before they went on and it was great.

I thought about doing the same thing tonight, but with a twist.  I had tickets to see Vundabar across town.  I thought I could see Wunderbar and when their show was over, I could head over and catch most, if not all of Jinjer. I wasn’t going to buy a ticket for Jinjer, because that would be took reckless.  But then Ticketmaster offered a crazy cheap deal on tickets for this show (and other shows).  I also had a $20 gift from Live Nation, so I used the two together and bought a ticket for this show for $7.  That way if I didn’t make it, no big deal.

Something happened at home that had me running very late and feeling kind of beat.  So I wound up not even going to the Vundabar show.  I didn’t feel so bad about missing this one, as it seems like the Vundabar show ended at roughly the same time as Jinjer, so it wouldn’t have been worth trying to get across town anyhow.

Entheos are a progressive death metal band from Santa Cruz, California.  The band features ex-members of Animosity, Animals as Leaders, and The Faceless.  Musically they are interesting and compelling with lots of prog component.  And, despite being a death metal band, they’re not all that heavy.  But the death metal component (and the part I don’t care for) is the growly singer.  However, I’ve noticed a lot of interesting vocal sounds from the singer and it turns out that all of the vocals, including the melodica parts are done by Chaney Crabb.  She’s pretty impressive with her range (not as good as Jinjer’s but pretty close).  I would have enjoyed seeing them after all, I think.  I’ll keep aneye out for them in future.

Crystal Lake are a Japanese melodic metalcore band that incorporates heavy prog elements and even nu-metal.  It’s fascinating hearing a Japanese singer screaming in English.  Although I see now that they have had an American singer for the last few years.  Indeed, lots of line up changes for this band.  They have some cool melodic elements that I like.

But this would probably have been a really long loud night had I gone to the whole thing.