Puddle of Mudd/Neurosonic/Tyler Read

Majestic Theater, Madison, WI

2/14/08

I circled this show on the calendar as a way of catching Tyler Read again, as I’d seen them play once last year, and their brilliant “Only Rock and Roll Can Save Us,” ended up as one of my favorite CDs from last year. To be honest, the headliners, Puddle of Mudd, had always struck me as pretty generic, fitting right in with the Nickelbacks of the world, sounding like a lot of what was coming out of the radio on any given day. So it was a pleasant surprise to realize, by the end of their set, that a) that I knew so many of their songs, and b) that I’d had a pretty darned good time. PoM vocalist Wes Scantlin was in a great mood, finally feeling good after a couple of weeks of being under the weather, and between that, and the way he had the kids (and a good few adults, too) in the crowd eating out of his hand, it made for an entertaining concert.

I’d never been to the Majestic Theater before it closed, so I couldn’t tell you what they did in terms of renovations prior to re-opening. As it now stands, though, it’s a nice enough venue, less than a block away from the Wisconsin state capitol building, right around the corner from the Great Dane Pub, a favorite Madison watering hole. Inside, the dominant color is red, and the way the place is set up, with the overhanging balcony stretching to within about 30 feet of the stage, it gives off an impression of steepness. The balcony itself, which is set up in dinner theater style, with little tables every few seats for drinks, furthers that impression of steepness, seemingly cramming in a decent number of seats into a relatively small space. The standing room in front of the stage is relatively small, as illustrated by the side balconies with space for only about 12 or 13 people along the 4-5 tables. Conversely, the venue features a very deep stage, which had equipment for all three bands set up, ready to move into place, promising relatively fast changeovers between acts.
 

TYLER READ

When Tyler Read hit the stage, there were maybe 300 people in the 600 capacity theater, with more trickling in all night. They came out to a clip from Pulp Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson delivering his reading of Ezekiel, and launched right into the opening cut from their CD, “Killers.” I’d grabbed a spot a few feet back from the left side of the stage, and ended up in front of guitarist/keyboardist Brent Skinner as a result. Singer Josh Johnson, center stage, started out the set in a plaid shirt, sporting some sort of Native American-looking charm around his neck. Across the way, the Chrisses, bassist Chris Rimmer and guitarist Chris McPeters were holding court stage right, McPeters rocking a headband, black t-shirt and a fingerless glove on his right hand.

As I admitted up front, I went to the show to see Tyler Read, so I might be a bit biased in declaring them the best band that night. What’s not debatable is that they were definitely the most energetic band that night. I caught up to some of the band members later in the night, over by the merch tables, and both Josh Johnson and McPeters mentioned picking an uptempo setlist to appeal to the Puddle of Mudd crowd. They followed up on “Killers,” with “All You Need is Love, But…,” and “Intentions,” rocking out on stage, having fun up there, headbanging away to their tunes. Josh Johson had a little problem with the microphone at one point of “Intentions,” with the head of the device coming apart from the cord/connector and falling to the floor. He only missed a few words while frantically grabbing the mike and plugging it back in, what with his brother, drummer Jordan Johnson filling in the missing vocal. The band offered up a little nod to the old school in the form of a few bars of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” at the end of “Intentions.” Tyler Read then broke out some new material, a little snippet of an in-progress song tentatively entitled “Tighten Your Bible Belt,” and a full length blues-infused rocker called, “White Light, Black Gospel.” For the 15-20 people out there in the open space in front of the stage who were singing along to Tyler Read (a decent number for a relatively new band!), it was a nice preview of what the band had up their sleeves. I’m certainly looking forward to what they come up with next.

Just prior to their last song, Josh Johnson took a little good-natured swipe at the next band, saying that, “Neurosonic’s singer is putting on his make-up.” They then proceeded to just rip through “Only Rock and Roll Can Save Us” to close out their set. Although the set was far too short, it certainly backed up that first live impression I had of the band a year ago, that of a young, up and coming outfit headed for better things. Tyler Read are currently shopping for a new label after the collapse of their old label, Immortal Records, last November. I can think of a few mid-major labels that could do themselves a huge favor by snapping up this band.
 

NEUROSONIC

Contrary to Tyler Read’s Biblical opening, Neurosonic came on to a bass heavy,techno/dance intro tape which was literally shaking the floor, radiating up mylegs. The band sports a goth-y look, wearing all black, three out of 4 guys featuring soul patches, with only lead vocalist/guitarist Jason Darr being totally clean shaven. I wasn’t previously familiar with this band, so therap-infused modern rock of their first song, basically the bastard child of the nu-metal fad, was a surprise. Fortunately it wasn’t their usual medium, which seems to be a theatrical industrial hard rock style. They put out some relatively catchy noise, not something I’d usually be listening to (more on that later),but I didn’t hear anything I really hated, either. For me, the people in the band were the highlight of the show, especially lead guitarist Troy Healy. Healy paced extensively through the Neurosonic set, often traveling in circlesaround his side of  the stage, pausing occasionally to spit off into the wings. He, like Tyler Read guitarist Chris McPeters, also wore a fingerless glove onthe right hand, except Healy’s featured a red star on the back. The silver nail polish adorning his fingers somehow fit right in with the red cross that dominated his otherwise black jacket, and the silver ring through his left eyebrow.

Healy also had a habit of changing guitars on almost every song, starting with a red instrument on the first song, switching to a blue guitar on the second one. I’m not sure if he used a different one for their third song, but by the time the band got to “Fearless”, he was rocking a black guitar. The rotation started over on the fifth song, when Healy went back to the red guitar, around the same time as a stocky, slightly older guy, with slightly receding hair and a knee length leather jacket showed up at my left elbow, and started really getting into the music. He wasn’t being obnoxious about it, just obviously enjoying the music, and just as obviously, very familiar with the band and showing his appreciation. Around the same time, Darr got his revenge for Josh Johnson’s make-up crack, with a mock salute to “Tara Read.” He corrected himself a second later, and then went on to explain that he calls them Tara Read because “Jordan’s got fake boobs that don’t look too good. Doesn’t stop up from trying to have our way with them, though.” His vocals were expressive, going from low key growling to full throated screams seamlessly, whether he was leading the crowd in a “Fuck you too” chant (third song), or belting out the lyrics to “Until I Die,” which seems to have been built on a riff borrowed from “The Offspring.” A little good-natured three-man moshpit started up during this song, Neurosonic’s current radio single, and you could see the venue’s security guys track the action with their eyes. The band introduced their last song, “So Many People,” with a line about the song having no cease and desist order on it, which made no sense until I looked it up afterwards. Apparently, it’s about Ashlee Simpson, and it pissed off her boyfriend, a member of the band Fall Out Boy. Seems like manufactured hype, if you ask me, but if you asked the crowd, they were loving it. Neurosonic’s biggest radio song to date even had the old people in the side balcony bopping along. After finishing up, Healy laid down his red guitar (back for a third time!), and Darr announced that the band would be hanging out at the merch tables the rest of the night.

Between sets, I kept looking back there for a chance to just say hello, and thanks for playing, but the line to meet those guys stretched all the way back out into the lobby of the venue. Instead I wandered over to Tyler Read’s merch table and chatted with Chris McPeters for a good while. I mentioned to him how I thought they sounded a bit like the metal band Coheed and Cambria, and while he didn’t really see it, he mentioned that it wasn’t the first time the comparison had been brought up. He also mentioned enjoying watching C&C play on the dates the two bands played last year’s Warped tour together. When I told him that I was sad to not have heard their song “Michael Jackson” played this time, he basically said they tailored their set to the Puddle of Mudd crowd. I still think they could have pulled it off, but then again, they were the opener, with a 30 minute slot, and a couple of weeks into the tour, a good idea of what the crowds wanted to hear.
 

PUDDLE OF MUDD

As expected, due to the fact that a lot of Puddle of Mudd’s equipment was already set up on the deep stage, the changeover from Neurosonic to the headliners didn’t take all that long. Puddle of Mudd took the stage to some weird tribal music, with both Scantlin and guitarist Christian Stone sporting hippie headgear at first, perhaps as a tribute to Madison’s uber-liberal heritage. They started out the set with one of their big hits, “Control”, from the Come Clean album. Scantlin whipped off his hat to reveal his golden locks, and that got the girls squealing. I thought it was weird to see so many couples dancing along to the song, and was left wondering whether that was a symptom of the Valentine Day’s show, or whether Puddle of Mudd shows just happened to feature couples getting down to the, “I love the way you smack my ass” lyrics of that song? Either way, there was one pair just to my left, having a blast. Later on in the evening, he hoisted the woman up on his shoulders for a better view, as a couple of others guys in the crowd did for their ladies. Only thing, the girl to my left was the biggest of the women up on shoulders, and this guy was dancing himself. I had to move away a bit after he stepped on my foot and almost dropped his girlfriend on my head.

The mix for Puddle of Mudd was the best of the night, a little heavy on the bass, but very well mixed, and just right for the venue. Doug Ardito, the somewhat Seth Green-looking bassist looked like he, too, was enjoying himself up on stage, but he never really spoke into his microphone save for his backing vocals, so his feelings weren’t as readily apparent as Scantlin, who was almost euphoric up on stage. By theend of the 4th song, he’d managed to mention how good he felt twice, and indulged in banter with not only lead guitarist Christian Stone, but road crew member Zach as well.

While the now near capacity crowd had been into the set right from the beginning, it really got into it when the band broke into “Psycho,” which happened to be the #1 song on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Chart that week. The tongue in cheek ode to movie monsters (check out the video on Youtube sometime) got the crowd moving, and the title track, and the first single from their most recent album, “Famous,” kept it going. A little bit of a mosh pit broke out, calmed by the security guys wading into the middle of the crowd and giving the kids the evil eye. Security was cool, though, they didn’t eject any of the crowd. Not that it was really anything rowdy. I got hit in the head by a girl’s elbow, and when she tried to apologize, I waved it off saying that this crowd was way tame compared to the metal shows I usually go to. Tyler Read’s guitarist would have agreed: during the break he told me how the Chevelle crowd (who they’d previously toured with) was full of angry young dudes, ready to start up a pit at the drop of a hat.

The next song, which I didn’t recognize, got a huge singalong response, and I started looking around the crowd. I think my favorite audience member had to be the guy up at the front of the right side balcony. He was maybe my age, or slightly, mid 30s at worst, wearing a black t-shirt and khakis, and you could tell he was one of those fans who had every song, every drum lick, every rhythmic nuance of Puddle of Mudd’s catalogue memorized. It was nice to see him singing along, belting it out from up above, and then turn around and watch a teenager (the show was 18 and up) doing the same thing from beside me.

It was around this time that the crowd surfing began, with one of the waif who were previous up on a guy’s shoulders being the first to go for a ride. I was a little wary, as the last time I’d been in a crowd with crowd surfers, a Megadeth fan landed on my head and gave me a concussion. I needn’t have worried…as mentioned earlier, this was a far tamer crowd, with far more forgiving security types. The kids got up to the stage, stood up on stage, mugged for the audience, and went right back to rocking out to Puddle of Mudd, with minimal hassling from security. The third guy to reach the stage, instead of just stepping off, he tried to do a stage dive. A second later, there was a big thump from the vicinity of the floor. I laughed.

As they launched into “Drift and Die,” I noticed something about the lighting for Puddle of Mudd. Basically, the spotlight was focused on Wes Scantlin for the entirety of the show. Granted, the dude has cheekbones to kill for, and flowing blond hair, but it was pretty ridiculous the extent to which Stone and Ardito played the show from the shadows, and Scantlin got all the spotlight, save for the spillover onto drummer Ryan Yerdon, who was right behind the lead singer. I know he’s the frontman and all, but, it was pretty funny seeing that. It helped that he seemed like a nice enough guy, with his repeated declaration of how good he was feeling, and what a great crowd we were.

After “Spin You Around,” there was an odd moment of inertia, with more banter between Wes and the roadie Zach, who was a bit slow in getting a guitar out to the front man. The show just kind of ground to a halt for a minute while the Zach appreciation society made it presence known. The moment stretched out when Wes went into a random discourse about the F-word, and dropping f-bombs. For whatever reason, he let the crowd know that he had, “…the Bible in the bus, and it doesn’t say anything about the f-bomb being a bad word.” They played one more song before it was time for the encore. The crowd surfers had started up again, and this time, they were joined by crowd divers, guys who were just getting up on stage and jumping in. The first guy was successful, went for a bit of a ride, then went right back on stage and tried again. This time, he took a few people down with him as he jumped in off the stage. Another guy, wearing a bright yellow t-shirt, and sporting a few extra pounds took a dive from the opposite (right) side of the stage, and didn’t have very much more luck. I just saw a mini-black hole open up in the crowd in the vicinity of where he went down, and Scantlin broke up the whole crowd by declaring, “No more gigantic fucking guys jumping on people’s heads!”

Anticipating a little break before the encore, I filtered back to have a word with the guys in Neurosonic. Weirdly, Puddle of Mudd never actually left the stage, kind of bantering around for another couple of minutes. I did get to say hello to three of the Neurosonic members, each of whom, independent of each other, tried to get me to buy their CD. I turned down the offers, because frankly, their music wasn’t something I’d really be listening to at any point. I told them as much; now I’m wondering if it came across as rude. One of the guys, who I won’t reveal, suddenly became very interested in whoever was next in the line after I refused his offer to buy the CD. The other two were cool enough, with guitarist Healy giving me the quick low-down on the controversy about the song “So Many People.”

By this time, the not-encore had begun up on stage, with Puddle of Mudd breaking into “Blurry” to get the last segment of the night going. The singular spotlight on Scantlin was even more obvious from further back, but hey, the crowd didn’t seen to give a rip, so I let it go. When they came to the end of “Blurry,” Scantlin started playing the riff for “She Hates Me,” and the crowd roared. Wes just jutted his chin out, stared straight ahead, and then just quit playing….barely managing to keep a straight face as the kids groaned. He let Christian Stone take over the riff as they actually started playing, and you should have heard the crowd then. The kids had been waiting for this song, and its cathartic, “She fucking hates me,” chorus all night, and Scantlin did the right thing by letting the crowd take the first verse. They could have sung the whole song, no problem, what with the savagery they were exhibiting for the climactic track. I had goosebumps as I walked out towards the door after the song ended.
 
On the way out, I caught up to Tyler Read singer Josh Johnson for a minute, and asked him about shopping for a new label. He paused, shrugged, didn’t really answer, either a sign of resignation, or the acceptance of the realities of the business by a young man mature beyond his years, I’m not really sure. He clued me in as to the identity of the new song they played, and I thanked him once again and wandered out. I’m definitely looking forward to see Tyler Read play again. The pleasant surprise of the evening was the fact that I walked out thinking that I’d go catch Puddle of Mudd play again. The headliners put on a pretty fun show, and that’s the biggest thing I look for when I go to a concert, to be entertained. They certainly delivered on that score.