2005-03-22 - 20:58

Opiate for the Masses

Last Wednesday, The Taste of Chaos tour swung through Des Moines. Underoath was amazing, Bleed the Dream was fantastic, Killswitch Engage and My Chemical Romance were everything I expected them to be–and I expected them to be pretty damn good, and despite some sound problems The Used were good as well. Since last Wednesday, I’ve been plagued by an upper respiratory infection and have bothered to emerge from the haze of cough suppressants, antibiotics and ephedrine only to post the daily music and tech news and to go to work. (Thanks to the antibiotics, I’m not contagious. Lucky for me.) I’ve nearly lost my voice almost three times now. This morning I woke up and realized that somewhere on my desk was a write up on Opiate for the Masses. I figured, nearly a week is long enough, I should probably do something about that.

Opiate for the Masses is an experimental metal band from Arizona. This quartet plays fast, mostly guitar driven rock meshed with various samples ala Pop Will Eat Itself, that on first listen I found to be generic, which was a little disappointing. Its just that, after a cursory pass, when the CD stopped spinning, I couldn’t think of anything distinctive or noteworthy about it. It wasn’t that it was bad, that would have given me something to write about. It just fell into that category of, “I wouldn’t turn this off. But, I wouldn’t turn it on either.” They’re in good company, I consider The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and Ingram Hill to all be in this category. At Taste of Chaos, their performance was sandwiched between Killswitch Engage and My Chemical Romance. “That’s just unfortunate, ” I thought when I heard that. I was wrong. Much like Ingram Hill, these gents are best represented live.

At Taste of Chaos they had two stages set up, the main stage and the myspace.com/acoustic stage. The acoustic stage allowed everyone a moment to breath between the lights and insanity of the main stage. The acoustic stage was very laid back, no flashing, ridiculous light show, just the musicians. It was great. Opiate for the Masses and Bleed the Dream rocked the house without the bells and whistles, and in my mind the only performance that topped theirs was Underoath. ( Not to knock MCR, Killswitch or The Used. They all gave quality performances.) Guitarist Jim Kaufman sat on one side of the stage and bassist Ryan Head sat on the other. As always, the drum kit, manned by Seven Antonopolous dominated the back of the stage. Singer Ron Underwood exploded out of the side of the stage wearing what looked like a Russian Army hat and a coat. Underwood captivated the audience. He was also wearing the ugliest pair of pants I have ever seen.

Denuded of all the samples and such on the CD, their musicianship really shined through. These gentlemen can in fact play. The energy they exuded was amazing. Head made eye contact with the crowd and winked at audience members and Underwood strutted around the stage in a way that was reminiscent of Kurt from The Velvet Goldmine, except he kept those unfortunate trousers on. I know that what you’re supposed to focus on at a show is the music, but the pants were honestly eight shades of hideous. Hideous along the lines of 1970's drapery. They were tight and low waisted and just unfortunate. They need to be retired. No, seriously.

At one point during the show Underwood bounded off the stage and stood on the barrier, singing, Drown to the crowd. Someone offered him a stick of gum, which he accepted. Being sandwiched between Killswitch Engage and My Chemical Romance, you’d have to be pretty decent to have anyone’s attention. Opiate for the Masses were better than pretty decent, they rocked.

Opiate for the Masses entertaining live show actually made me want to listen to the CD again. As it turns out, what had originally appeared to be generic is actually a complex mesh of the technological and the organic. This is smart rock, intelligent and well put together. Sure ‘nuf.

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Artificial Sound for the Artificial World: Bleed the Dream Asleep

Still more noir than you are.