I felt like my head was a little sore when I woke up this morning from a little too much headbanging last night, after a great show featuring Aeous, Fifth Hour and American Head Charge at Hipps Pub in Eau Claire, WI. It was a fun night of Minnesota music in Wisconsin!
I made the three hour drive to the venue yesterday afternoon, arriving about a half-hour after the doors had opened and just in time to visit with other friends who'd just arrived. I was glad to catch up with an old friend that I hadn't been to a concert with since the acoustic Sevendust show in Madison, WI almost a year ago.
Shortly after 8 p.m. the first act, Twin Cities rockers Aeous took the stage. I hadn't seen this band since they opened for American Fangs, Monster Truck and Sevendust at the Myth in Maplewood, MN a couple of years ago, but it felt like they kept improving and refining their sound. I was impressed by their set, and made a point to buy a copy of their new album The Light You've Always Had after the show.
The next act was Minneapolis band Fifth Hour, who I'd just seen at the Fine Line Music Cafe in downtown Minneapolis with friends a few weeks ago. I had a nice chat with a friend who's in the band before the show, and it was great to hear choice cuts from their latest album The Line Between Love and Hate live in concert again.
The crowd had been building during both opening acts, and with just a couple of metal chains seperating the audience from the stage, I wondered how the reaction to American Head Charge's performance would be. I hadn't seen them live in over a year, but they kicked off their set with the usual energy and enthusiasm that I remembered.
Despite a couple of technical problems (singer Cameron Heacock asked for a new microphone early in the set, there were recurring front monitor problems throughout the night and guitarist Karma Cheema stormed off the stage during a song after his guitar cab had been dropped and damaged, only to return for the next song after some jury-rigging), the band put on a very cohesive performance. About halfway through their set, Heacock asked for the barrier to be removed, which brought those of us fans in the front up to face level with the band.
I made my way out of the front row after the show with a couple of American Head Charge guitar picks in my pocket, and got to thank guitarists Chad Hanks and Ted Hallows for a great show. Everyone was still buzzing as I wandered the merch tables and caught up with my friends before heading home in the rain for the evening. It was a different venue layout than I was expecting, but it worked surprisingly well for the bands on stage. I'm already looking into going to another show with my Sevendust friend next Friday.
Well that's all for now, have a great week, everyone!
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