Emotion and energy. 

Those are the words to describe the music played tonight.

Everytime I Die was the first band to take the stage.  They opened the show at about 6:30 to a crowd that was extremely excited.  As soon as EID starting playing, people started moving.  They are a hardcore band in every sense of the word.  They played with great energy for their whole set.  A pit formed during the first song, which was impressive since they were just the opening band.  Their music was powerful and expressive, but sounded somewhat cluttered at times.  I did like how it had many different parts to it though.  There are a lot of breaks and builds, and plenty of power.  Overall I thought they rocked hard and were a great opening band.  I would be sure to make it for them again.

After about a half hour set by Everytime I Die, Murder by Death took the stage.  I hadnt heard them before the show, so I wasnt quite sure what to expect.  Then I saw a woman setting up an electric Cello, and a boy bringing out a keyboard.  That pretty much opened the doors for about any kind of music possible, so I was very interested to see how they would play.  The band consists of Drums, Guitars, Vocals, Bass, Keyboard, and a Cello.  They are the most unique band I have heard in a long time.  It is extremely difficult to describe them.  It is heavily instrumental music, filled with emotional highs and lows.  They played off each other extremely well and had terrific style to their sound.  They had an incredible live performance and I would not even hesitate to go to another show that had them on the bill.  They played a song called Zombies as their second to last song, when Geoff (singer for Thursday) slid onto the side of the stage and sang it with them.  It was absolute greatness.  The last song MBD played was a 15 minute instrumental that the crowd went nuts over.  It was filled with climaxes, mood swings, ups, downs, and everything in between.  I was blown away by how incredible this band is.  You can hear an mp3 off their just released album at their website.  (www.murderbydeath.com)

The Third band to take the stage was This Day Forward.  They were a hardcore band with an extremely tight sound.  They rocked the crowd, and got a decent sized pit going.  Their music was fast paced, almost punk sounding, but with a definite hard metal edge to it.  They were extremely well rehearsed and were great to hear live.  Their recorded albums are very representational of what you will hear when you see them perform.  Tight, emotional, and hard rocking, This Day Forward has a very good sound.

Finally the main event.  Thursday rocked my socks off.  They opened the show with their new 7 release Drowning, which you can hear on their website.  The crowd was immediately into it.  As the first notes were played a push towards the stage was made and I found myself in the middle of the pit.  For me it was just the place to be at a Thursday concert.  Everybody in the building was screaming the words with all their heart.  A crowd of people screaming, pushing, letting their emotions run wild.  Dont let me drown!  In a sea of bodies it seemed like everybody was one with the band.  Thursday guided the crowd through most of their album Full Collapse, along with several new songs from the forthcoming album War All The Time due out in September.  Geoff sang with all his energy and passion for over an hour.  He had to, in order to keep with the crowd.  Everybody there seemed to be in love with the band and the feelings their music expresses.  I heard 3 or 4 new songs tonight, and was impressed with all of them.  The new album will be one to buy (NOT COPY) for sure.  They have a lot to live up to following the release of Full Collapse, but from what I heard tonight, Thursday fans will not be disappointed.  After an encore, the lights came on and the show was over.  The club was left full of sweat and smiles.  The show was incredible.  If you get the chance, see all of these bands, especially Thursday and Murder By Death.