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Sounds of the Underground 2007

By Emmaleigh West

After hearing the bands that filled this year’s Sounds of the Underground line-up I was quick to volunteer to cover the show. I love the all day festival tours that promise a full day of utter brutality, and this was a line-up that was sure to deliver exactly that. The event was to be held at the Expo Center, but a last minute venue switch shoved the massive tour into Portland’s significantly smaller Roseland Theater. Not exactly the ideal location for an 11-hour event with twelve big-name national acts, but nobody seemed to complain when the walls were shuddering against the barrage of metal madness that pummeled them from the stage.

Despite the venue swap, metal hungry minions swarmed into the theater and between the road construction on the surrounding city blocks, downtown’s typical lack of convenient and affordable parking, and the no re-entry policy that kept anyone from being able to feed the meters, most of the crowd was sufficiently primed for a day of aggression and mayhem. Luckily, twelve of the sickest bands touring this summer were more than happy to oblige and set after set delivered exactly what the crowd was begging for. Although we were late to arrive, choosing not to be stuck inside the venue for the full 11 hours or fight the downtown traffic catastrophe, we stepped inside just in time to catch Job For A Cowboy as they claimed the stage for their gut-ripping set. These boys bring it to ya heavy and serve up a vicious dish of fuck yeah! The crowd was beyond impressed with the set and walked away with another thick coat of sweat to prove it.

Set change, quick smoke, cold drink and back upstairs for Shadows Fall. I will never understand how these boys can tour for weeks straight and still bring that unrelenting energy and power to the stage night after night. I was only about ten feet from those massive floor speakers and at times it was hard to hear lead singer Brian Fair over the voice of the crowd. It was obvious that this was one of the “must see” bands of the night and the boys weren’t about to let anyone down. Next to hit the stage was Every Time I Die. Still sweating from their recent tour in Australia, the guys destroyed the room with their unique brand of hardcore and spawned the most notable pit of the evening so far. ETID puts on one hell of a show; the interaction between the band and the crowd is fun to be a part of, and it’s easy to tell that these boys are having a great time with you!

Without a doubt, Chimaira threw down the most brutal set of the night and left everyone in the building begging for more. There’s a reason these boys were on the last cover of Crave, and they didn’t let us down. All I would hear for the rest of the night was some variation of “Dude that was sick, best band of the night by far man!” And I couldn’t agree more. Those screaming vocals, stuttering guitar riffs, and machine gun drums threw the crowd into a metal frenzy that had bodies colliding and fists in the air. I would have to agree; this was the heaviest, most satisfying part of the night. After that mayhem, the only proper way to finish the night was to bring GWAR out to do what they do best; devour any remaining hope and love that may have survived the evening. They claimed the stage and the souls of those who stood before them, and made quick work of assaulting ear drums and drenching the crowd in blood and whatever the green stuff is supposed to be. I was surrounded by fans in homemade white T-shirts proclaiming “GWAR 2007” that were happy to soak up the proof of their close encounter. I was lucky enough to find a dry spot behind the crowd and managed to miss the flying bodily fluids that were shot from the stage by those monsters of rock from outer space.

Despite the venue change, the parking, the traffic, the size of the venue and the knife wielding bum that we met on the way back to the car, Portland’s SOTU stop was a bad ass show. This is one of my favorite tours, and I always look forward to it when it comes through, but this year was by far the best I’ve seen yet. Oh, and just so you know, I didn’t escape GWAR’s mess completely. The two friends that rode with me to the show brought plenty of it back to the car for me to enjoy on the way home.

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