Taste of Chaos 2008 General Overview

*Waiting outside in the rain and cold*

Taste of Chaos came to Seattle on Tues. April 15. It was an awesome day... for the most part.

The day, for me, started at 6am. I had a lack of sleep that night b/c I was thinking of an excuse to get out of work. While I laid half asleep, I had a dream that I had called out already and everything was awesome. Of course, I woke up a few seconds later, looked at my cell, and realized it wasn't true. -____- After gathering up some courage and figuring this was the best time to call *seeing as how I sound sick when I'm half asleep anyways XD* I finally called and got a hold of my store manager. Took me completely off guard because he's usually not the one to answer the phone. After giving my excuse, which sounded kind of nervous b/c of who I was talking to, he gave the ok and I was ready for school.

Afterwards was when the day really started. At 11:30, I was already on my way to pick up Arlden and Shouta *a friend of Arlden's* By 12pm, we were on our way to Seattle. On the way there, I was going about 70-80 mph. Not too smart. I was flagged by a cop and he started to follow. Luckily, I had a trick in mind. *TAKE NOTES HERE!* I had observed a cop pulling someone over after following them for about a quarter or so of a mile. Keeping that in mind, I slowed down to 60 and turned on my cruise control. The cop followed me for a good 10 minutes before he gave up and moved to another lane and ahead. The lesson learned: Cruise control is your best friend XDDD

We got to the city at about 1:00, but spent about half an hour in traffic by the theater where the concert was held. Then, we spent another 15 minutes trying to find a parking space. By the time we were done, it was almost 2. We hurried and got a spot in line and soon afterwards, another one of my classmates showed up right behind us. We waited for a little bit, but it started to rain. :/ Then it got colder. Then it rained some more. Needless to say, the wait sucked. Luckily we were given bags of paper and a sample JRock CD. Plus, free Rockstars, which were ok. * I spilled most of mine trying to find a way to take a picture of the can and showing a poster to one of my friends XD* When it finally got to about 4, the line just broke loose and everyone rushed the door. It left me wondering: "What the hell was the purpose of the line?!" So, after migrating forward, they started to let people in. *Word of reminder: The "Jump the Line" wrist band doesn't do sh*t. Don't bother with it. :/* We all got in at the same time and made our way to the stage area.

We moved to the stage and it was only partially filled. We got fairly close, maybe about 2 rows from the bars. It was good. Here's the list of who played (courtesy of Shuu):

Oregon band with Tragedy in the name
D'espairsRay
Idiot Pilot
MUCC
The Underneath
Blessthefall
Atreyu
Avenged Sevenfold

Bullet for my Valentine didn't play b/c of the bassist's departure. I wanted to hear what they sounded like, but it didn't bother me b/c I didn't know them.

The Oregon band was the first to play. They played ok. The crowd wasn't too enthused, but it was catchy. Their music almost sounded familiar... Easily stated, I wasn't too into it. I was too busy looking at the D'espairsray banner slowly coming down in the background... XD

When D'espairsray took the stage, the crowd went crazy. Apparently, a lot of people at the concert were well aware of who they were, which made it awesome. What made it even awesomer was the fact that ZERO (ba) acknowledged me, not just once, but three times during the bands set! It made them that much cooler to me and made me want to start listening to them again.

Next was IdiotPilot. I can't really say if they were good b/c I was too busy trying to prevent myself from being crushed by the bastards in the crowd. Two of them were wearing Star Trek shirts plus, they were playing the techno effects off of an Apple Mac Book. .... NEXT please.

During IdiotPilot's set, MUCC was setting up there instruments. It helped take my mind off the awkward techno and the people elbowing me in the back. After they finished, MUCC took the stage. I went crazy. Screaming, yelling their names, waving and jumping. XD I wasn't too keen on the song names, but I did recognize Fuzz and Libra. Listening to it live was much better than listening to it on CD. During the songs, however, some chick threatened to elbow me if I didn't keep away from her *which I was confused about b/c she was 2 people away from me* and some guy tried to get me to mosh by kicking me several times. I looked over at him, then just turned back around and continued to listen. I figured "I've waited to see these guys live for a while now; I want to be able to enjoy every minute of it" The crowd, surprisingly enough, liked MUCC over D'espairsray. Or at least it seemed like it. They seemed to be more into it and seemed to know the words to their songs. It was an awesome set.

After they finished, I bailed to go buy some gear and get signatures from D'esray and MUCC. Shouta, who had been close by most of the time *this was our first US concert*, decided to follow b/c he was tired of getting shoved around. We stood in line and talked about the bands and what we thought of the concert so far. We agreed for the most part, so it was good. After buying the stuff, we headed over to the Ernie Ball booth to get D'esray to sign my towel. We shook hands and that was about it. It kind of seemed rushed, so it wasn't that enjoyable. :/

After that, we headed straight for the Rockstar booth to get signatures from MUCC. While we were in line, Arlden came out of the concert fairly pissed off. He was mad the he was all sweaty and had lost his hat. My response was : "Well.... what did you expect from a rock concert?" He was pretty much mad for the remainder of the concert. After finally reaching the booth, I had a small conversation with each of the band members. All were really polite, except for maybe Miya (gt), who looked like he didn't want to be there anymore. When I made it to Yuuke, I wasn't sure what to say *yeah... he's my fav. band member* so, I just asked if I could take his picture. He agreed and I said "thanks" a crap load of times. XD Tatsurou (vo) wanted to practice his English with me, but I wanted to practice my Japanese. It was a very awkward convo. XD

*Yukke*

*Tatsurou*

*Awesomeness that now resides on my wall XD*

After that whole ordeal, we headed back inside, just in time to catch the beginning of Atreyu. Their intro was the speech that Willy Wonka *the original* made when the group was going through the chocolate river tunnel. I was reminded of how much that movie had scarred me. o_o They played a good amount of songs, all really good. I had only heard a few of them before, but I was still really new to them, so I don't have any song names. :/ On the last song *Lip Gloss and Black, I think*, they got help singing the last part of the song from all the vocalists of the bands before them. It was purely awesome.

Finally, Avenged Sevenfold started *after a 15 min wait* They played: (Courtesy of Shuu again XD)

Critical Acclaim
Second Heartbeat
Afterlife
Beast And The Harlot
Scream
Seize The Day
Pantera (Cover w/ crowd member)
Bat Country
Almost Easy
NOFX cover
Gunslinger
Unholy Confessions

En:
A Little Piece Of Heaven

Words can't begin to describe how awesome their set was. This was the first time I had seen them live, so it was definitely a great experience. The crowd was insane. At times, it seemed more like a riot was going to happen than a mosh pit. XD

All in all, this concert was pretty good. We got home around 12:30am and I went to sleep at about 2am. *I couldn't get my ears to stop ringing XD* Today, my arm, neck, and jaw hurts. Plus, I have a major headache ><

Will I go to Taste of Chaos again? Well, I was partially deaf/ blind, dehydrated, starved, out of breath, and had an irregular heartbeat for the rest of the evening and day....

...yes. *Only if good bands are playing* XDDD

Anyways, that's my report. If anyone wants better pics, just ask.

I'll leave it at that. My head is seriously starting to hurt again. ><

Later.