Concert Reviews

Hultsfred Festival -- Sweden

Review by Richard

I got to see Handsome for the first time, and I was in the front row! It was at the Hultsfred festival in Sweden june 14. They took the stage at about 8.30 pm and opened with needles. God such power! Jeremy was just maniacal! He got a frisbee thrown at him, and he tossed it right back in the audience! This happened at least 3 times! Eddie had some trouble with his bassamp, but apart from that it RULED! I listened to the soundcheck and got to hear three new songs + some guitarwanking on some Yngvie Malmsteen song! There were alot of crowdsurfing and a very good mood from both band and crowd, and yes they did an encore. A new song that was very short but very good! They played three songs that I assume are new (at least they are not on the album). After the show I met Peter Mengede! He was so cool! I asked him if he had any merchandise left cause they sold out at the festival area. He came back with a long sleeve that read "powered by satan" on the back, and he sold it to me for half the price! + I got five stickers! He also gave me his email address and promised to put me on the guest list when ever they got back here! Well the setlist in no good order was:
Needles
Ride down
Going to panic
Left of heaven
Thrown away
Dim the lights
My minds eye
swimming
Lead bellied

May 30, Soma -- San Diego, CA

review by Jon
I arrived at Soma, a club in San Diego, at 6:45. I met up with four friends outside and we all entered. Unfortunately, they confiscated my tape recorder so I could not get a bootleg of HANDSOME. The concert was supposed to start at 7:00, but the first band, Pollen, didn't start to play until about 7:30. Pollen, a band from Arizona, was the opener for the Caffeine Nation Tour. The prominent bands on this tour were, The Descendants (old school punk rock), Less Than Jake (ska), Guttermouth (new school punk rock), and of course, HANDSOME (kick-ass music). There were many different types of people there, all interested in different music genres. The hall was gradually filling up with tons of people. There are no seats at Soma, so people were filing up toward the front. My friends and I managed to stand right in front of the stage. When HANDSOME took the stage, I was dissapointed not to see Tom Capone (being a Quicksand fan, naturally), but was excited to see Peter Mengede (being a Helmet fan, naturally). I was expecting the best, and I definately got the best. HANDSOME started their set with Needles, followed by, Thrown Away, My Mind's Eye, Swivel (not on CD), Ride Down, Dim the Lights, Closer (also not on CD), Lead Bellied, and finally, my personal favorite, Going To Panic. It seemed like my friends and I were the only ones who knew and appreciated the music. Jeremy Chatelain noticed this and periodically held the microphone in front of our faces and let us belt out the lyrics. When they got to the last song, Going To Panic, Jeremy Chatelain pointed at my friends and I and said,"This one's for you guys, cause it looks like you care". This made me feel very energetic. I was very impressed with the two songs HANDSOME performed that did not appear on the CD. Although Swivel sounded like a great song, I was particularly impressed with Closer. I was also impressed with the new guitarist who took the place of Tom Capone. He played all of the songs correctly and seemed to have a great attitude. At one point, he started laughing when I reached up on stage and hit his shoe. When asked what was thought of HANDSOME's performance, my friend Mike Schwering replied, "Chatelain's movement on stage would seemingly impel the crowd into mass movement, and if people paid attention to the music, they would have rocked out just like me!" All I have to say to sum up this review is that if you are a HANDSOME fan, tou would have loved this concert. Even if you are not, you would have gotten something out of it. I did not stick around to see the other three bands play.

May 20, 9:30 Club -- Washington, DC

Review by Kari

I got to the 9:30 Club shortly after the doors opened(5:30pm). There weren't very many people there yet, so I just hung around the T-shirt stand for awhile. The first band of the night was 30 Amp Fuse. I'd never heard of them before, but they were really good. They put on a great show. However, I was really there to see Handsome (of course).

They took the stage around 6:40. I had gotten to the second row with absolutley no resistance. I was so excited to see them play. They opened up with "Needles", and all I can say is that it rocked. They have so much energy on stage--it was absolutely amazing. During the show Jeremy made a few cracks about how much energy(more correctly the lack there of) that the audience seemed to be demonstrating. He also commented on the bad luck they had had last time they played the club ( as some of you know the last time they played here some equipment fell on Pete Hines and he suffered a couple of broken ribs) he said that last time they played the 9:30 club the lights went out and Pete got abducted by aliens. After that,they were going on through the rest of the show, each song sounding better than the last. They even played "Closer", which I really enjoyed. After that came the best part of the show ( at least in my opinion). Peter leaned over to Jeremy and whispered something to him. Then Jeremy got back on the mic and said " Is Kari here?", I'm not sure if those were his exact words, but you get the picture. Being right in the front I responded with a wave and a smile. Then Jeremy said," okay we're gonna play this next song for Kari, it's called Lead Bellied." I was totally floored at that moment, they were playing the song for me. It totally made my day, it was by far the best concert I've ever been to. After that they played their final song of the night "Going to Panic" I believe it was. It was an incredible show and I loved every minute. If Handsome ever comes to a city near you don't even hesitate just go!(unfortunately I had to leave shortly after Handsome finished playing, but I heard from some other people I know that all the bands after them were equally as good).I'll get a more complete set list up here pretty soon--I have to find the sheet of paper I wrote it down on first:)

Review by "Slipque"

The first show of the Caffeine Nation tour!

Armchair Martian from Colorado started things off, but unfortunately I missedthem. I walked in during Handsomes first song: "Needles" the first thing thatI noticed was that all the rumors are true, Tom Capone is no longer in theband. Word is that he's left to re-form Quicksand, which I personally feel isthe greatest news I've heard in a very long time. The new Handsome guitaristseemed very unsure of himself, which is understandable considering theammount of time they had to work him in must not have been very long. The setwas filled with all of the songs from their album, with the exception of EDENCOMPLEX, which is my favorite Handsome song by far! I've seen them 4 timesand don't recall them ever playing it, which would be a shame. Musically,they sounded just as good as before Tom's departure, but the new guy doesn'thave the uniqueness and style Tom gave the band.... We'll have to give himthe benefit of the doubt and see if time will change that. Handsome rules,but everytime I see them live I feel there's a secret they're not letting usin on. It looks like they all hate eachother. Never smiling, always justgoing through the motions together... Inbetween song banter is just kept to"thanks", I love the record, but after seeing them 4 times, I don't reallyenjoy their shows as much as I should, they should get over it, or moveon....

Speaking of between stage banter, the next band: Less Than Jake did the exactopposite and ramble on and on about topics such as spanking, masturbation,dancing, etc.. which may have kept my attention if I was 15 again, but I'mnot so, I thought that part of their show was stupid. The music on the otherhand ROCKED! They had the crowd going bonkers! People on stage singing, anddancing, everyone just loving every minute of it. What I loved most aboutthis band was how they all looked like they were having more fun than thefans. All 6 members sang together and performed as a single unit (unlikehandsome). I probably won't listen to their CD as much as Handsomes, but I'llnever miss one of their shows again!

Next up was Guttermouth...I never knew how popular this band was, everywherepeople had their shirts on and they went nuts for them. I think they suckedBIG TIME and I wanted to kill the singer.

DESCENDENTS were next, and they just ripped! They used to rule, and theystill do. I've been listening to them for about 13+ years and their music ispart of my soul.... I wasn't disappointed at all, they lived up to all of myexpectations and played my favorite songs.... They were perfect and I was ontop of the world!

Well, for whatever it's worth, there's my dumb review, which no one shouldreally pay attention to.....thanks.

review written by jag !

Silverchair, Handsome and Local H concert Review.

April 25, the day I've been waiting for for weeks. Silverchair, at theInternational Centre. We got there at 5:30, the time the doors opened and founda huge line up. It took us 1 hour to finally get in the place!!! We got in,were searched and ran towards the stage. The International Centre has no seats,it is just one big room. We were about 20 feet from the stage. At 7:00 Handsomecame on. Immediatly, the mosh pit began because everyone was so wound up.Handsome is a real good band. They played until 7:30.

There was a 30min equipment change and then Local H came on. They rock thehouse, they were good, but not as good as Handsome. For both of these bands Iwas 10-20 feet from the stage and in the middle of the mosh.

About 45 min later, the lights went out and the "circus" music began. The pitgot REALLY tight. They then started with Slave. When the 'chair came on, itwas so uncomfortable because everyone was squished!!! When Roses started thingscleared out and I was relieved. I think I held my ground pretty wellconsidering I am only 5'9", 130lbs. Some things I remember Daniel saying, "Youguys fucking rock", "Fucking wild", "Thanks" and he mumbled something abouteveryone getting away from the snack stand and jumping around.

In madman, his guitar strap fell off and he ended up playing the rest of thesong with his foot on a speaker.

In Tommorow he changed the lyrics to "The Water out of the HOT TUB is very hardto drink"
The solo was also different.

In Freak, the coils from the video came on.

They closed with a WILD version of Isreal's Son.

Here is the setlist in a pretty good order.

Slave
Roses
Findaway
Abuse Me
Pure Massacre
Cemetery
Suicidal Dream
Tommorow
The Door
No Association
Freak
Madman

Encore:

Minor Threat-with Jeremy Chatelain singing
Isreal's Son

Somewhere in the setlist Faultline was played.

The girls were good, the moshing was great but the music was wicked!!!

If anyone else has concert reviews I'd appreciate them--thanx

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