Projekt Revolution: A Rundown

This past Sunday, I went to the Projekt Revolution Tour at the Meadows in Hartford, CT with my friend Jay. Here is a rundown of the festival.

(The Meadows has a new name now, but I don't remember it, so I'm just going to call it the Meadows.)

Pre-Game

Sadly, I did not pre-game for this show. We showed up around 4:00 and went right in. I was coming off a 9-day drinking binge, so I felt no desire to tailgate. In hindsight, I probably should've manned up and shotgunned a few Busch Lights in the parking lot, but hindsight is 20/20, right?

The Strip Search

The people at the entrance were very thorough in their investigation. It wasn't a strip search per se, but I definitely received some pretty heavy petting from the woman at the gate. I had to take every single item out of my pockets, had to take my hat off, etc etc. The point is, if you're looking to sneak any... umm, items, into Projekt Revolution, you better hide them well.

The Merchandise

We hit up the t-shirt booth as soon as we walked in. Honestly, I wasn't a big fan of anything. The only thing that really appealed was one of the Placebo shirts. The $30 price tag seemed a little high, so I decided I would watch Placebo first and see if I was inspired to buy it. I wasn't.

The Booze

Beers were $10, but they were 24 ounces, so I guess that's an alright deal. As I've mentioned, I didn't drink, so I can't vouch for the quality.

The Crowd

I have never seen so many tools and douchebags at one show. Fact. Is this a generational thing, or was that just the type of crowd that Projekt Revolution draws? I know normal people like Linkin Park, and the mean age at this festival was around 18, so it could just represent how kids are these days. There was tons of shirtless moshing, lots of people punching each other, and tons of kids yelling retarded things. I saw one guy abuse his girlfriend. He grabbed her by the hair and shook her head while screaming at her (it was too far away and happened too quick to do anything). There was even someone there from the "Free Hugs" campaign, though sadly it was a 6'2" dude in a half-shirt. Yes, it was an interesting crowd.

(Of course, this is only on the lawn. Once I went to the seated pavilion, everyone was normal. Stupid poor people. Juust kidding... sort of.)

A lot of people at Projekt Revolution were just there for My Chemical Romance. It was pretty easy to spot the MCR fans. First off, they were all girls, and they were all 13 years old. Generally they wore black t-shirts with some kind of stocking pulled over their arms. They also liked to throw in other prototypical outcast symbolism, such as the black eyeliner look, the "black X's over the eyes" look, and of course, the teardrop tattoo (an outcast classic, also popular amongst Borders employees). For every three MCR fans, there was a middle-aged guy in khakis and a blue golf shirt standing about ten feet away. This man was not allowed to speak to or make eye contact with the MCR fans; however, he was required to drive them to and from the show. They referred to this mysterious khaki-clad man as "dad."

The Extracurriculars

Between sets, Verizon took over the monitors and gave fans a number to text, then put their messages on the screens. Most of the message were shoutouts or teenagers professing their love for Gerard Way, and it unfortunately devolved into a battle of Yankees fans vs. Red Sox fans. But every once in awhile there was a really funny one up there. This was a great way to keep people entertained between sets. Even though the set changes at Projekt Revolution were quick, the time between bands can get boring real fast. So this was good. I was going to try sending inappropriate text messages to the number, but I figured there were screeners, and I wasn't about to pay $4.99 to text "Britney Spears Has AIDS" unless I was positive it was getting on the big screen.

The Bands

Madina Lake

Didn't see them.

The Bled

Didn't see them.

Styles of Beyond

Didn't see them.

Saosin

Didn't see them. Saw one girl wearing their shirt, though.

Mindless Self Indulgence

Didn't see them. Saw a bunch of kids wearing their shirts, though.

Julien-K

Made it in for the start of these guys' set. Like all the bands at Projekt Rev, they were very talented. Musically they weren't really my thing, but they were still pretty decent. This band must come from the Scott Weiland School of Performance, because they hated shirts. I think only one guy in the band was wearing a fully buttoned shirt during their set. Chester Bennington came out to assist on vocals during Julien-K's final song, which gave everyone a taste of things to come.

Placebo

I love Placebo and I had very high expectations for this set. Don't get me wrong, they were impressive, but I guess I expected to be completely blown away and that just wasn't the case. They played a solid setlist, opening with an awesome version of "Pure Morning" and then playing classics like "Every You Every Me" and "Special K." They played every song a little too fast, and only a couple of their songs sounded like they do on the CD. All in all, a solid performance, but nothing to justify a later time slot.

HIM

At the time, I thought these guys would easily be the comedic highlight of the day (I underestimated My Chemical Romance and Gerard Way). HIM is made up of 4 guys. The bassist and drummer looked like they came from a Harley convention. The guitarist was a white guy with long blond dreadlocks who looked like a cross between the guitarist from Days of the New and everyone who ever followed Phish around the country. The singer looked a little like Gavin Rossdale. He was dressed in jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, a blazer, and a beret-esque hat. He obviously didn't notice it was 90 degrees outside.

The singer's stage presence reminded me of the singer of Interpol. I don't think he moved for the entire show. He just stood in front of the mic stand, smoking a cigarette. Sometimes he sang, sometimes he just kind of spoke the lyrics. If this guy wasn't in a successful band, I'm pretty sure he'd be reading poetry at a coffeehouse right now, or possibly taping a Volkswagen commercial.

As far as the music goes, HIM's set started off a little slow -- this is metaphorically speaking; they were definitely the cock-rock representatives of the tour -- but picked up during the last few songs. They did a pretty good/hilarious cover of Chris Isaac's "Wicked Games."

Taking Back Sunday

These guys don't fuck around. They came out strong, playing the hits "Cute Without the E" and "Liar" as two of the first three songs. "MakeDamnSure" was the closer, and it was outstanding. I've always liked this band, but their live show is definitely a step up from their CDs.

My Chemical Romance

Let's get this out of the way: My Chemical Romance's set was hands down the gayest performance I've seen in my life. And I've seen the Indigo Girls (yeah... don't ask). At one point, Gerard Way asked all "the boys" to take their shirts off and wave them in the air like a helicopter. He repeated this request about 4 times. "C'mon boys, this is your last chance to take your shirts off." Even Petey Pablo would've found this embarrassing. Gerard also asked fans to pass up boas. I guess this has been a Projekt Revolution/MCR tradition, because a ton of boas got thrown up to the stage. He put them on for a performance of the song "Mama." Let me tell you, when you are wearing a bunch of multi-colored boas and singing lyrics that were originally sung by Liza Minelli... well, you're losing some serious man-points. He spent the rest of the time prancing around the stage while 14-year old girls with stockings on their arms screamed at the top of their lungs.

Now...

Once you strip away all the boas, the prancing, the 14-year old fanatics, the male stripping and the rest of the effeminicity, you're left with a great show. The band played a bunch of songs off their latest album, The Black Parade, plus a couple of the older hits such as "Helena" and "I'm Not OK" (I always hated that song, but it was surprisingly decent live). They stuck to their loudest, fastest, and most upbeat songs, like "Dead!," "How I Disappear" and "House of Wolves." There was only one real ballad, "Cancer," which they saved for the closing song. Gerard Way also sang a short a cappella version of Rihanna's "Umbrella," with the crowd providing the "eh eh eh" part. It was hilarious and the crowd loved it (see video below).

I was at this concert with a group of about 8 people. Of them, I was the only one who knew much about My Chemical Romance. The rest of the group had heard the singles and, like 95% of the country, assumed they were some group of emo freaks that could only appeal to 12-year olds in black eyeliner. Afterwards, everyone was impressed. When Projekt Revolution was announced, all the die-hard MCR fans out there were probably wondering why their favorite band was going out on tour with a band like Linkin Park. This is why. I guarantee they won over a LOT of new fans at this show, and they're probably doing the same at every stop along the tour. A lot of front men posture and say generic things like "nobody rocks harder than [fill in the city]!!!," but you can tell that Gerard Way is extremely genuine, which is probably why so many kids connect with the band. The songs were great. And if that's not enough, there was tons of fire. All in all, they put on a great set.

The guy standing next to me summed it up best:

"I just enjoyed My Chemical Romance, and I realized I'm gay."

[PS - I know "effeminicty" isn't a word, but it's fitting.]

Linkin Park

It's true, a lot of kids showed up solely for My Chemical Romance, but make no mistake, this was a Linkin Park crowd. I snuck up to the good seats for this one, and I'm glad I did. The band starts off playing behind a giant white cloth. All of a sudden, the cloth splits into a few pieces, goes flying across the stage, and they burst into "One Step Closer." Really cool intro.

LP played all their older hits and threw in a few rare tracks like "From The Inside" and a stripped-down version of "Pushing Me Away." They played most of the new album, Minutes to Midnight, including an incredible version of "The Little Things Give You Away" (possibly the highlight of the show). They played an extended version of "Bleed It Out" that I swear was 10 minutes long. I actually thought they had started another song, only to realize a minute and a half later that it was the same song. They closed with an OK version of "Faint."

Going into the show, I had questions about whether Chester Bennington's voice would hold up live. Obviously he's ridiculous on the albums, but I didn't know whether that was all him, or if it was some studio magic. By the second song -- "Lying From You," my favorite LP song -- all questions had been answered. He screams so loud and for so long, it almost doesn't seem humanly possible. And unlike many screamers, he stays in key. I can't imagine what happens when he and his wife get into an argument. His yelling must pick her up and blow her against the wall, like Blur's "Song 2" video. Oddly enough, when Bennington isn't singing, he's really calm. Mike Shinoda does most of the talking between songs, and the guy is hilarious. The funniest moment of the set happened when Shinoda went into a speech about the backstage area of the Meadows. Apparently there are a bunch of pictures of artists that have performed at the venue, but Linkin Park's picture was absent despite the fact that they had visited the Meadows before. They were joking about how they didn't make the cut, but "Celine Fuckin' Dion" was up there. Then they asked the crowd to help make the remainder of the show so good that the Meadows would have no choice but to put up a Linkin Park picture. Yeah, it was a little gimmicky, but it worked. The result was a great version of "In The End" (a song I never even liked all that much) and a picture of Shinoda and Bennington with the crowd behind them, thousands of arms in the air.

Oh yeah, I can't remember what song it was during, but sometime during the show, Bennington did a Scott Stapp "Arms Wide Open" pose and held it for like 2 minutes. There's nothing funnier than a good Scott Stapp pose. Nothing.

Summary

In conclusion, Projekt Revolution was a great show. I couldn't imagine any of the summer's other tours topping this. Every band was solid, which was actually a little sad because there was no one to make fun of afterwards. There was a good amount of musical diversity, so it didn't sound like you were hearing the same band over and over. However, there wasn't too much diversity; you didn't have to struggle through some reggaeton-folk-jazz group to get to your favorite band.

Sunday was the final day of a long vacation for me, and I couldn't think of a better way to have capped things off than by going to Projekt Revolution. Alright, I could think of better things, but they involve Jessica Alba and they're completely unreasonable.

There are only a few Projekt Revolution dates left. If you're in these cities and you like fun, I suggest checking it out.