Aragon Ballroom / Chicago, IL
October 5th, 2003
reviewed by Josh Drake
“THROUGH OUR BLEEDING, WE ARE ONE!” was all one
could hear from the crowd in anticipation for the night’s headliner, AFI.
Prior to this moment, a completely different and
non-energetic crowd watched the two opening bands, Bleeding Through and
Hot Water Music.
Bleeding Through was the first to come on and they were
completely astounding. A six-member, melodic metal band that,
despite the crowd’s lack of energy, were amazing and played their hearts
out for merely a half-hour. The singer and bassist had to have been
acrobats at one point for they were rolling around and doing crazy,
ballet-like spins across the stage. It was a great opener.
Hot Water Music proceeded Bleeding Through and really
was not impressive to view. The music was good, sounding like a
mixture of punk and rock, but something about their stage presence was
rather boring. It could have been that
there was not nearly as much energy as Bleeding Through, but whatever it
was made tha forty-five minutes they played seem like an eternity.
Shortly after Hot Water Music ended, the crowd’s
chanting began and the lights in The Aragon turned off. The lights
on stage were dim and scary, yet gorgeous in their own right. AFI
took the stage opening their set with “Miseria Cantare - The
Beginning.” Everything was perfect.
The energy between the band and the crowd was unified.
They played songs from every album, but mostly stuck to the tunes found on
“Sing The Sorrow.”
AFI ended (or so we thought) with “Total Immortal.”
Once again the crowd’s chanting started up. The band returned for
their encore and played two songs, ending with “God Called In Sick
Today,” and also with Davey Havoc walking on the hands held up high by
the middle of the crowd like Jesus walking on water. The show was
amazing and is definitely something everyone should try attending once in
their life.
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