I really feel that this year was a big step down from the 2006 tour. The caliber of the bands this year doesn’t even touch previous years. The main draw this year wasn’t even the headliner, as 30 Seconds to Mars is by far a better draw than the Used.

Anyways, back to the show. After picking up my photo pass and tickets I made my way to the floor and due to the lack of competence of security I missed the first two bands, Burden of a Day and Evaline. To get to the floor there were six doors and only one was being used causing about 1000 kids to be pissed and miss the early bands. So for me the show started with Aiden whom I don’t really care for on cd but they put on quite the show. They always sound good and work the crowd well. At one point vocalist wIL brought a girl who had been crowd surfing on stage and sang to her.

The main reason I was there was for the next band, Chiodos. Starting off their set with a track from their upcoming release for Equal Vision they tore through tracks like Baby You Wouldn’t Last One Minute on the Creek and The Words Best Friend Become Redefined. Before their last song, vocalist Craig Owens stated “It’s not about how many fucking guitar spins you can do or how the band looks, it should be about the fucking music” and I couldn’t agree more.

Since the departure of Anthony Green I haven’t cared about Saosin. I saw them at Warped Tour a few years ago and was completely bored. After taking 5 years to come out with a full length I was still bored with them. Seeing them at Taste of Chaos did little to change my view of this band. The only upside to their performance was playing Seven Years in which Cove did a pretty good job performing. Other than that this performance was a waste of my time.

When did Buddy from Senses Fail start sounded like Alex Varkatsaz from Atreyu? That isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but it was just odd. Also what was odd was the fact that they played absolutely nothing from The Depth of Dreams. Everything was from Let it Enfold You and Still Searching. Despite the poor song selection they still put on a decent show and at one point Buddy lost his shoe crowd surfing and almost got hit with it getting thrown on stage.

I honestly felt like a really bad 90’s boy band was going to play with the way the crowd reacted when 30 Seconds to Mars opened their set. I have never seen so many screaming, crying girls in my life. Jared Leto owned the crowd. There really was no need for him to sing as the crowd was louder than he was for every single song. They played a good selection of songs from both of their releases and make each song seem epic. Leto at one point climbed up into the seated area and walked around the entire arena singing with the crowd. He is one of the best front men out there and 30STM put on one of the best shows you will ever see.

Has anyone ever noticed that Bert McCracken looks like Kurt Cobain? Well he does. I had hoped that the Used would become the band they once were and be good again. Well way to go for wishful thinking. After playing two new songs (which were unoriginal and boring) and two songs from their last release (which was unoriginal and boring) they finally played something from their self titled album, The Taste of Ink. At this point of their performance which was uninspiring I turned my back to the stage and walked away. They have completely lost it. They are going to be another band forgotten and that’s sad. They had potential. Well that’s life, and that was a bad performance.

The night wasn’t a complete loss. Chiodos and 30 Seconds to Mars were the bright spots of the night where Saosin and the Used were the duds. Hopefully next year they can bounce back with a stronger line up and a better set of security so people don’t miss out on some good music that they paid to see.