What I have in my heart, I'll take to my grave...

I got to witness the tenth anniversary Hatebreed concert last night at Toad's Place, and it was an amazing, spectacular experience. (Full disclosure: Jamey "Jasta" Shanahan, the lead shouter, who some would say IS Hatebreed, is my first cousin.) My partner in crime and I arrived early and went and had some fine pre-show dining at the Edumacated Burgher on Broadway. For some reason, I always seem to end up at the Burgher before Toads shows. Maybe it's the food, maybe it's the funky atmosphere(the Burgher is one of the last things left on Broadway unmolested by the evil corporate hands of Yale), but I just can't see going to Toads without the Burgher being involved somehow.

Anywho, we then repaired to the entrance of Toads, but on seeing bands still rolling equipment in despite it being nearly 9, we decided to go and sit in Koffee?, since it was about 20 degrees out. We sat and discussed the finer points of making films of comic books until they kicked us out, by which time it was almost showtime. We stood on the sidewalk in front of Toads a bit, taking amusement from the sight of some poor teenage girl coming out of the club with a rather large egg growing out of her forehead, the result of an apparent incident of some nature in the pit. She refused medical attention from the nice policeman standing outside, and instead got some ice and headed back inside, conceivably to get cracked again. When a flood of smokers came out at the end of 100 Demons' set, we headed inside, happy to be on the guest list(Thanks, Jamey and Uncle Jimmy~!)

Hatebreed hit the stage at about ten minutes to eleven, and immediately launched into "Empty Promises", the first song from their first full length(sort of, at 28 minutes) album, Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire. They followed it by playing the album in its entirety, start to finish, for the first time in eight years. After that, they played the whole Under The Knife EP. By this time, the crowd was insane. Several people got bounced, (though not as many as the December 2003(?) Webster concert, in which Thom and I watched the bouncers have a pitched battle with concertgoers in the alley outside the venue) and for a time, it looked as though the flimsy barricades between all ages and the drinkers might go down. By the time Hatebreed kicked into "I Will Be Heard", their final song, I was completely wrung out, and it felt like we'd been in Toads forever, even though it had barely been 75 minutes. In the end, Thom and I both got to hear the songs we wanted to, it was a phenomenal show, and I got to see it for free.