"Plea For Peace Tour 2004" at the Trocadero
It was nice to go to a show that was thrown in an attempt to register people to vote, that lacked the redundant elements of punk rock.
When we arrived there was a note on the door announcing that there would not be a performance given by Denali. Now I didn't listen to Denali too much before going, but I still wanted to hear them live; they were a good band. Unfortunately they broke up, days before the tour kicked off. Their replacement was a band I hadn't heard of before, called Decahedron.
The band featured some pretty quick rhythms and rapid guitar riffs. They had many monosyllabic screams and yells that I couldn't quite place. The lead singer was far from vague about what he intended his message to be. The lyrics inveighed modern society and the various issues at hand today due to corruption and deceit. Decahedron balances, uniquely, itself between the typical noise of hardcore and the more serious tones of any type of political rock. They also mix in some strange DJing and effects on not only their guitars but also their voices. They played these seemingly punk rock anthems with a bit more sophistication and instead of simple chords repeated over and over, they added effects, solos and some sick riffs. In some instances there was a predominant sound of grunge in the way they voiced their opinions. They sang in a monotone as if they were a recalcitrant slave to some type juggernaut that they took to protesting. It was like they had no feeling anymore because of how robotic society had made them.
There was anger in the songs they played and yet there was something more than emotion. These guys seemed intending to be more than just a band. It was like they felt they were part of a movement against whatever had taken over the world.
Taken from their website: "Decahedron - a musical probing of culture, society, media, and the state of the world."

As Joey later expressed, in only a couple days the next band would've been taken off the tour and in their place Planes Mistaken for Stars would've played. But things in life don't always work out so we had to sit through the grotesque antics of Darkest Hour. Now with a name like "Darkest Hour", the original thought would be "Oh shit, this fucking gothic band better not be too bad", and that is exactly what I was thinking.
They didn't live up to my wishes, they were horrible. Every single song sounded the same; there was no point of variation. I think I liked one song that sounded different from the other one, but unfortunately, they played the other one over and over and over and over and gave it different names every time. It might've been better if the lead guitarist had kept his mouth shut, but instead he kept on expressing his expansive knowledge of darkness. To me they sounded like noise, with a lead screamer that I couldn't understand one thing he was saying. To me it was an attempt at Heavy Metal and Thrash mixed with hardcore. But nope according to the lead guitarist, "If you didn't know, this is what Death Metal sounds like!". There is no way they were anything like Death Metal, they were too pussyish to be even hardcore. Ah well though, I'm sure Metallica fans would've enjoyed them...the band made enough noise to be approved by this type of fan.
I don't know, heavy music can either be really good or it can sound like crap. Unfortunately for Darkest Hour, they were way too uncoordinated as a band to sound like anything more than just noise. I'm sure each member of the band had talent for their instrument but they drastically needed to focus a bit more on rhythm than to go off on their own individual "death metal" tangents. Maybe the levels were a bit off. I really couldn't understand anything the singer/screamer said. The drummer was a crazy mofo though. He had no control over his tongue. He broke his glasses because he was wiggling his tongue around his face so much. He was a weird one.
Some more classic quotes by the lead guitarist: "In the great words of Ozzy!!! Bang YOUR HEADS!!!", "I eat bats!", and "I'm really dark!" (note: the last two quotes were products of my imagination, he wasn't that much of an idiot, he just had a limited appreciation of good stuff).

Thanks to Mike Park, this tour came together. He organized this tour to raise money for his website's cause of bringing peace to the world through the power of music. His patriotic message was also present in his music. Most of the songs were playful or satirical. He was definitely a funny asian. More directly the themes centered around prejudice and abuse that were always presented to him for his race and heritage as he grew up. Although they were political and opposed to how society works and thinks, the lyrics also showed how much of an American he is.
It was kind of cool. Instead of the big band acts that I am used to, this was a single performing artist with an acoustic guitar. He definitely was influenced by folk music; it was obvious by listening to the way he played, but as I said, his themes were a bit more modern. I liked his music, but I can't really see it being as moving if it were played outside of a live setting.

And finally the great band Cursive took the stage. Tim Kasher looked a hell of a lot happier than the last time I had seen him. Maybe he'd been drinking. I'm glad he's in a better mood, at least for show if not for real. Anyway, this time I was in the front to see them. One thing that impressed me was how Tim Kasher stood of to the side as if, either in modesty or full comprehension of what he was doing, he was trying not to appear as the front man, but rather part of a group and without the rest of the band there would be nothing. In the past, I hadn't been able to see as closely how shy the members of the band are. I mean Greta Collins (the celloist) kept her head facing her feet the whole time. A couple times she faced the crowd and smiled when someone had screamed, "Greta I love you!", but that was it. Cursive's music is so good. It really puts you under a trance.
This time they played tracks off of their EPs and splits more than the big cds. It was nice for them to move away from the overplayed (atleast on my stereo) greatness of the Ugly Organ or Domestica. I only half recognized some of the songs they played, but most of them I knew and had always wished I could hear them live. They stayed away from playing songs like the Recluse or the other big stuff. It was cool. I felt like these are songs that most people don't hear played live and thus I felt priviledged to be able to be there for it.
They also played some new songs that they had recently written. They're full length CD doesn't come out till something like August, but I had already heard their newest single. Surprisingly they played completely different songs than the ones that are featured on the single. Then, coinciding with Tim Kasher's seemingly good mood, he had a great sense of humor, because the next song they played was a cover of "Milkshake", (you know, that song where it goes "My milkshake is better than yours...", etc). Well, Tim Kasher sang it while the rest of the band filled in. It was a pretty funny version with key dialogue expressing that if anyone would like to come back stage and give him a milk shake he would be obliged to accept. It was funny too see this side of Tim Kasher. The show ended with the band expressing that anyone who allows Bush to stay in office is an idiot and we must work to overthrow him democratically, and stuff like that.