Chiodos
May 21, 2014
House of Blues- Cleveland, OH
Mondays are generally thought as the beginning of a long stressful work week; so the Devils Dance Tour stopped in to give the city of Cleveland a pick me up. What better venue to cure the Monday blues than The House of Blues! This is an amazing venue and if you have one in your town then get their ASAP. When you combine the acoustics this venue provides with the intensity of post-hardcore music, the experience is absolutely mind numbing. Lead singer Craig Owens of Chiodos mentioned that they put a lot of consideration in whom to choose to tour with and the lineup for this tour could not have been more genuine. Our Last Night, 68, Hands like Houses, and Emarosa all delivered the same message that they were here to grant a raw live performance to all those in attendance. The energy these bands were sharing with the crowd as this night went on was immense and after all the moshing and screaming, the audience and I were left sweating and winded. Though as the curtain fell upon the stage as Emarosa finished their set, a wave of excitement ripped through the crowd and the chants of “Chiodos! Chiodos!” deafened my ears. Time seemed too slow to crawl as the anticipation built for the headliner of the night to take the stage and then the lights dimmed while the curtain rose to reveal what would be the start of an awe inspiring performance.
I could feel the energy that had been implanted into the crowd begin to radiate into the members of Chiodos, new and old, that took their spots on stage. Craig Owens was the last to position him self mid stage and then Chiodos manifested this energy with an explosive opening of a 15-song set with Ole Fishlips Is Dead Now from their new fourth studio album Devil. Owens swiftly showed his appreciation for the feedback of the crowd by leaning into the fans to sing and scream intimately with them. After performing their third song There’s No Penguins in Alaska, Owens stood upon the hands of his ecstatic fans and thanked the audience while flexing his sleeved guns. Upon returning to the stage he yelled to us to turn it up just a bit for this next song. The crowd then turnt up into overdrive when realizing the song was Thermacare, which is the original version of The Only Thing You Talk About from his former band D.R.U.G.S. Owens didn’t want to steal all the attention though and let the limelight shine onto Bradley Bell to perform the classical keyboard solo known as U.G. Introduction. The end of his solo blended well the audio recording of a comedic inspirational rant of former NBA player Allen Iverson talking about practice, man. Owens then stared down at crowd on the floor and commanded us to pogo as they unleashed the frenzy of another new song titled Were Talking About Practice.
The best aspect of this performance put on by Chiodos was the way they balanced out their intense energy with softer melancholy moments in the remainder of their set list. The crowd settled down and put their arms around each other for songs like Under Your Halo and Intensity in Ten Cities, but the intimate connection would easily disintegrate into a mosh of screaming battered bodies with simply hearing a guitar riff of other songs. They continued to play a mixture of songs from Alls Well That Ends Well; Bone Palace Ballet, and Devil. After a wall of death for Behvis Bullock, Owens stared down at us and announced he wanted us to remember one message from this night, and that was Chiodos is back! 
My appreciation for this band immensely grew at the conclusion of this show and vibe of the audience expressed this as well. They had all the bands of the tour get together on stage at the end of the night to take a picture with their adoring fans of Cleveland for a memento to keep. Chiodos have evolved into a band that strives to deliver a clear honest message by working hard to create organic music and their live performances prove this. They left us with beautiful memories and a great story to tell. Go buy their new album Devil, blast the s**t out of it, and immediately buy tickets if they perform in a city near you.
Review by: Chad Johnston
Chiodos
Emarosa
