11-10 Sincerity Fest, Pittsburgh @Springdale Fire Hall

Sincerity Fest is something that has been going on in the Pittsburgh area yearly for some time now. I always try to go if I can. This year was by far the best lineup I've ever seen for the fest. Some real bangers were on the lineup and I was stoked for the entire day.

However, we didn't make it there by noon. Sucks but we still made decent time getting there.

Breach - Missed them.
No Reason To Live - Missed them. I'd have liked to see them too.
Pray For Teeth - Missed them. I've seen them a handfull of times. Good band, but I'm not upset.
Adventures - Missed them. I really really like this band.
Steel City Firm - Missed them. They seem really heavy when I stream it and I'd like to see them live.

Liotta - This is the first band we saw. I was expecting them to be a hardcore band. But they're a semicrappy pop punk band in the style of Title Fight but a bit softer. I enjoyed them, I was ready for music. No violence. Not many real good songs. I don't think I'll go to any shows wanting to see them specifically. Some people there seemed to really enjoy the set.

Another Mistake - Good heavy band. I thought the singer was especially entertaining. I'm not sure if their lyrics are any good, but the beat was. The first mosh I was present for happened here. I'd go see this band again.

Pity Sex - More crappy poppunk. I didn't think this band was that good at all. Pretty similar to Liotta, but somehow not as good. Maybe I need to check out their recordings.

Wrong Answer - Very good band. They brought the tough hardcore and people got their mosh on. It was especially good. The last song was a true banger. In my opinion they were the third best band of the day.

Homewrecker - So they were supposed to play earlier in the day, and I was completely there in time just to see them. They were late. Then later. Then later. So we bounced for a little bit and inadvertently missed them. Sucks balls. I was more excited to see them than any other band other than Steel Nation.

We The Gathered - Missed them. I saw them on the Earth Crisis show and thought they weren't very good.

Complete Failure - Missed them. I've seen them a bunch of times and they're super heavy but not exactly a great live show. Not mad that I missed them.

Full Of Hell - Sweet band. By my recollection the fourth best of the day. They're not a beatdown band by any means. They're a breed of new hardcore like Heartless and Dead in the Dirt. Kinda spazzy, heavy, a lot faster. Good band.

Unit 731 - They brought the beatdown like they always bring the beatdown. The mosh was in high gear. A member of their band looked just like Chauder Man, which was funny. I enjoyed the set, I usually don't so much.

Hollow Earth - All I've ever heard about this band is that they're good. I agree. I suspect that their lyrics are political, which makes me like them even more. They were heavy, but not so catchy.

Steel Nation - Ripped it the fuck up. I very much enjoyed the set. They played a new song that sounded killer. They played most of their set from Forever Wounded. The mosh was on. Everything was kick ass across the board. The band of the night by far.

Trial - Excellent set. I was slightly disappointed because I was only half real into what the singer talked about during his rants. But I enjoy the rants none the less. Played a ton of good songs from the full length. Great band. I'm going to listen more to the entire full length.

Code Orange Kids - Missed them. I left before they played. It was a long day and I only moderately like the band. Not upset.

Hi's - Steel Nation, Trial, Wrong Answer, Full of Hell, GREAT veggie burgers and chili.
Low's - Not a whole lot at all. I guess the lack of a drinking venue is something but it would probably change the dynamic of the fest.

11-3 Epica, Alestorm, Insomnium, System Divide, Pittsburgh @Altar Bar

Pre-show last night I hadn't heard any of the other bands other than Alestorm. Expected it to be a debauchery of nu-metalcore nu-metal or some other bullshit. I was pretty much right.

Right off the bat Epica left me with a bad taste in my mouth because they kicked all the local openers off the bill. A few bands like Second Empire and Deathlehem were supposed to play, but at Epica's request the only bands that played were the touring bands they brought with them. That's just some rockstar shit, all I'm saying.

All in all turnout seemed really good. I'm thinking there were around 200 people there. Maybe 250. So I'm sure the promoter cleaned up on that one. Let's assume everyone paid $25 for the presale price and no one got the $27 at the door, or the $60 VIP whatever the fuck that is. 25 x 200 = 5000. That's a lot of cheese and if this metal tour cost more than that to bring through, that's fucked up.

System Divide - Boy did this band suck. They were on some tough metalcore shit brought to you by some bald guy, then some chic would sing some shit. For one I didn't like the way the chic was wiggling around on stage. She wasn't banging the head right. So they're fucking up right there. Then the songs are all confused, are they tough? Are they wimpy? They had no identity. Some 105.9 the X faux-underground bullshit metal. That's what I call it. We only stayed to watch two songs of theirs because of how bad it was. It looked like some people liked it. I think I disliked this band about as much as I've ever disliked a band before.

I have a serious accusation against System Divide that gets it's own paragraph here due to the nature of the allegation. I think both singers for System Divide were singing over a track, or completely lip-syncing. Let me explain the allegation farther. During the second song, which is the last song I saw of theirs, the dude singer was growling some shit and I guess he did something bad with the mic and it squealed at him in the middle of him singing. He took the mic away from his face and looked to the right, presumably at his sound guy, all pissed off. When the mic was away from his face, his lips weren't moving to the music (they were like what the fuck), there was no mic there to catch the vibrations if he had been, but the vocals to that song were still going. The mishap was only noticeable for two seconds, but it made me start to pay very close attention. That's when I noticed that there was something wrong with the chic's singing too. So, to clarify the allegation, here is what I think happened last night: System Divide played over a track. 75% of the sound we heard was a cd, 25% was the actual band. I know the microphones and shit were on because of the squeal, but I also know for a fact there was a track playing because I heard the singer singing when there was no singing being sung. Make sense? /rant

Insomnium - This band brought more of a respectable sound to the stage. Where the first band was some radio metal shit, this band was a little too heavy and too metal for the average Pittsburgh metal fan. I don't know which subgenre of metal I'd classify them as. But they weren't any one traditional style, but a mixture of things. It was nice that there was no nice singing involved and all the guys were fat metalheads. We watched 2 songs. While they were much better than the first band, still not worth my time.

Alestorm - I was all amped up for this and Alestorm didn't let me down. A few funny things happened right off the bat. This band is from Perth, Scotland. I'm pretty sure they announced right off the bat that they are Alestorm from Sacramento California. I'm not sure what that was about, but it was an interesting start. Second immediate observation of humor, their guitarist is a midget. It's true. We were hoping there would be a midget being funny, and they one upped us by having a midget in the band. And the lead singer is barely taller than the midget himself. The keytar was in effect. The singer was wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates shirt, which was the obvious choice that evening. The midget was wearing a Deathlehem shirt, that's one of the local bands that got kicked off. It makes me happy to think that they're not getting along well with Epica because of their rock star persona. Anyway I think the set only consisted of 9 songs. The Sunk'n Norwegian, Shipwrecked, Leviathan, Rum, Death Throes of the Terrorsquid, Nancy's Harbor Cafe, Captain Morgans Revenge, Keelhauled, and Pirate Song. It was great. I'd go see Alestorm again for $25.

Epica - This band sucks. One looooooong song in, we left. The chic singer sure can sing real nice, but that doesn't do shit for anyone when the songs suck. Some rock star metal fucks. Glad I had the foresight to leave before that set got real embarrassing.

All in all the evening was enjoyable for many of the same reasons it was not enjoyable, the fans. Radio metal fans are idiots. This guy who was up in front of me, a little short fuck with a ponytail was looking all pissed off whenever someone would bump him during Alestorm. That fucker was turned around facing me more than he was the stage. So of course any time I had the opportunity to push someone into him I gave him an extra hard shove. Fuck that idiot and fuck everyone else there who probably like shim. But we did have a grand time goofing on everyone and everything.

Hi's - Alestorm, idiots, inebriation
Low's - All the other bands, idiots, the price