Although it was all fine and dandy that two bands accompanied the bill with CAVE IN, I would have gladly paid the nine bucks to just see the headliner, as their one hour of rock was just simply mesmerizing. The more I think about it, CAVE IN remind me of a heavy version of what one would see at a concert at Lincoln Center in NYC, or the Kennedy Center in DC. Their encompassing range of sounds, and deliciously thick, technical overall feeling does wonders in a mid-sized smokey club, but I just wonder what they guys could do acoustically speaking in a grand ballroom? I imagine that the adjective “”thunderous”" would be highly appropriate.

For many bands, it’s considered a bad sign if the crowd doesn’t “”dance”" to the music, but CAVE IN fans just watch with their mouths agape, utterly thrilled, and hypnotized by the commanding sounds. After taking the stage around 12:05am, these guys played for just about an hour, and I don’t think I’ve ever seem them sound so tight. JR’s methodical, but devasting drumming just rocked the heck out of the room – and after watching him closely, you can see how much of a backbone, his creative drumming skills are in giving CAVE IN’s songs, that “”edge”" of defiance. I’m still rather incompetent with CAVE IN song titles, but those that I do remember them playing included, “”Jupiter,”" “”In the Stream of Commerce,”" “”Big Riff,”" and a track from the “”Creative Eclipses”" EP, whose name escapse me right now. Rumor has it that CAVE IN plays “”Until Your Heart Stops”" during soundcheck, but I arrived too late to find out the truth behind that. Like many people who at first griped about CAVE IN shifting away from their early metalcore sounds, I’m really beginning to appreciate the direction they’ve gone in, especially in the way that highlights the honest, incredible musical talent this band harvests. I’ve the two new songs from the EP they were selling at the show, and they are great – a bit more melodic than stuff from “”Jupiter,”" but the sound quality (courtesy of Brenden O’Brien) is huge!

THE ICARUS LINE dragged the crowd through about 45 minutes of inane, hardly distinguishable rock and roll, that while intense, and highly melodramtic, failed to get me interested. With long songs and nothing all that catchy or endearing, these guys just made the wait to see CAVE IN seem like it was an eternity. A few of their songs caught my eye from time to time, but with their vocalist jumping up and down and running all over the stage, I just didn’t feel that the music brought that type of reaction. It was also quite obvious that the band probably would have destroyed all their equipment and the stage too if they could afford it.

I caught the opener BURNING BRIDES as they were well into the second half of their set, and they concocted a pretty interesting grunge like rock, with a vocalist that made it seem like he wanted to be a part of a 70s metal band – nothing I’d run back to check out again, but it’s always cool to see something different that doesn’t suck.