2009.10.06
Skillet, Hawk Nelson, Decyfer Down and The Letter Black at Salem Civic Center
Read my thoughts on Skillet's set at roanoke.com.
Now for a few notes on the openers:
The night's first band, The Letter Black, was pretty cliche-ridden. Fortunately, it only played about 15 minutes of nu-metal meets pop-punk.
Decyfer Down, led by singer TJ Harris, laid down a half-hour of ponderous, serious, revelation metal. Harris showed a flashy pop-metal tenor, nailing high notes as he shook his long hair around. The crowd went wild for the hard-hitting addiction lament "Fading" and the acoustic guitar-driven "Best I Can."
Aside from Skillet, Ontario band Hawk Nelson was the best-known band on the bill. To me, the band's pop-punk is dated and annoying, but the kids in the crowd seemed to love it. And it does write some catchy, sing-song hooks. "The Show," "Bring 'Em Out" and the title cut of new CD "Live, Live, Loud!" went over great with the audience. And of course, the Hawksters played their VH1 hit, "The One Thing I Have Left."
But for the life of me, I can't imagine singing along to lyrics like this, from "Letter to the President":
>Same-sex marriage in a state where they don't care
>Murder is wrong but the jail time's not fair
>Not to mention date rape, felony, and car theft
>Break it down and tell me what we've got left
