Written by Abel Carmona
May 25, 2008 at 06:00 PM
As I walked into the Verizon theater there was something different tonight, the rows of risers that sit at the back of the floor area were not there,  leaving just wide open space. The first thing that came to mine was “this isn’t good” taking in mind that Hatebreed was tonight’s headliner I expected the floor to become space full of nothing less than chaos, But we’ll get to that later.

To start the night off was a band I had seen once before Three Inches of Blood, and still feel the same way about them as I did then, they suck. The music’s not bad pretty hard driven guitar and drums but what kills it is the vocalist voice. He sings in the high pitched screeching tone that does nothing for me. After the ear twisting sound Three Inches of Blood, the stage was set for Type O Negative.

With the stage darkened and the always present green Type O symbols glowing in the dark. Pete Steele and the guys came out to a surprising ovation.  At first when Steele came out I didn’t recognize him at all, Now it had been a while since I have seen Type O but I remember Steele being this tall pretty built dude that just looked like someone not to be messed with. But when I finally realized that, that was indeed him I couldn’t believe it He looked so thin and frail.

After doing some reading up on Type O and Steele came to find out about his time spent in prison and rehab for drug abuse, and from looking at him the drugs took their toll on him. But even with Steele not looking his best Type O did an alright job up on stage. Hitting songs from all albums like “Bloody Kisses”, “Black #1” and a favorite of mine “My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend”. Songs sounded as I remembered them slow drawn out gloomy rock, that’s great when you’re down on your luck.

After the doom and gloom of Type O the stage was completely cleared with the exceptions of a few amps towards the back of the stage and a drum riser, just like the floor Hatebreed was giving wide open space onstage.  Going from the dark sound of Type O to the Kick your teeth in sound of Hatebreed was a big change; there were even some fans that made sure they cleared the floor area close to stage front.

As Jamey Jasta and Hatebreed came on stage there were no big lights, no effects and no big production. It was clear they were here to just straight out play and kick ass, as the first riffs of “A Call for Blood” the floor blew up and people were everywhere. Hatebreed rolled through song after song not taking many breaks and just giving it to the fans.  I have been going to the Verizon for a long while now and this was the craziest I have ever seen the place mosh pits that took up the entire stage front area and grew bigger and bigger with each song.

So needless to say I thought Hatebreed brought it down hard and killed tonight, I could have lived without the other two bands but as any concert goers knows sometimes you got to sit through the bad to get to the good, later boys and girls