Alkaline Trio at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Alkaline Trio at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

The Aquabats at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of The Aquabats at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Dashboard Confessional at the House of Blues Anaheim

Chris Carrabba better known as Dashboard Confessional easily sold out the House of Blues Anaheim as he played a stacked twenty-four song set to throngs of adoring fans. Carrabba is touring to promote his new batch of cover songs entitled Covered In The Flood which includes covers from Cory Brenan, Big Star, R.E.M. and The Replacements.

Madi Diaz


Madi Diaz won over the crowd with her breezy acoustic tunes and charming smile as she unveiled tracks from her latest release Plastic Moon. Her cover of "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul was quite humorous. It would be interesting to see her with a full electric band. I would definitely keep an eye out for her judging from the appreciative response from the crowd.

Dashboard Confessional


Dashboard Confessional shows are a unique phenomena.  Fans sing just about every word to his songs to the point were Carrabba could actually just sit there a provide an acoustic guitar soundtrack and let the fans do the heavy singing. This wasn't the case as Carrabba worked through a marathon set hitting all of the crowd favorites.

Instead of throwing bras on stage, someone threw a Mickey Mouse ears hat embroidered with Chris's name.  While Chris mentioned he was having a good hair night, he relented and put on the hat for a quick photo opportunity.

Some of the many highlights of the set included "Swiss Army Romance", "Again I Go Unnoticed" and the fact that it was actually quiet for his Big Star cover of "I'm In Love With A Girl". Carrabba later mentioned on his Twitter account that this show was "one of his favorite shows ever".

Setlist:
01 "The Good Fight"
02 "Swiss Army Romance"
03 "As Lovers Go"
04 "Where There's Gold"
05 "This Bitter Pill"
06 "I'm In Love With A Girl"
07 "So Impossible"
08 "The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most"
09 "Screaming Infidelities"
10 "The Sharp Hint of New Tears"
11 "Again I Go Unnoticed"
12 "Cold Comfort"
13 "Shirts and Gloves"
14 "Thick as Thieves"
15 "Carry This Picture"
16 "Don't Wait"
17 "Tall Green Grass"
18 "Ghost of a Good Thing"
19 "Dusk & Summer"
20 "You Have Stolen My Heart"
21 "Vindicated"
22 "Hands Down"
23 "Remember to Breathe"
24 "The Best Deceptions"

Lit at the House of Blues Anaheim

Almost 11 years ago I went to the grand opening of the House of Blues Anaheim to see Lit break in the venue. Well, both Lit and House of Blues Anaheim are still in business and bringing the rock to the masses of Orange County. Lit are touring in support of their new solidly rocking new album "The View From The Bottom" which was just released on Megaforce records. Check out the pictures above and the setlist below.

Setlist
01 "The Broken"
02 "Four"
03 "You Tonight"
04 "C'mon"
05 "Something to Someone"
06 "U-Turn"
07 "Looks Like They Were Right"
08 "She Don't Know"
09 "Lipstick and Bruises"
10 "Over My Head"
11 "Ziplock"
12 "Same Shit, Different Drink
13 "Miserable"
14 "Miss You Gone"
15 "Here's to Us"
16 "Last Time Again"
17 "The Wall"
18 "No Big Thing"
19 "My Own Worst Enemy"
20 "Peace Love and Understanding"
21 "Wrathchild"

Thrice at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Thrice at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Dragonforce at the House of Blues Anaheim

Power metal is alive and very well thanks to bands like Dragonforce. Their unabashed love for the guitar solo makes them full blown rock stars when they walked the halls of the Anaheim Convention Center during NAMM. Dragonforce hit the House of Blues Anaheim supporting their new album, The Power Within and came out breathing fire.

Huntress
 

Hailing from Highland Park and led by the stunning statuesque lead singer Jill Janus, Huntress threw down the gauntlet early with their fiery solos and operatic soaring vocals. Their latest release is Spell Eater and they will be casting their dark spells over in Europe in June with Megadeth and Kreator.


Holy Grail
 

As a fan of the movie Excalibur, how can you not like a band called Holy Grail? Furious guitar solos and fusing elements of speed, thrash and power metal, Holy Grail's cup runneth over. Holy Grail's last release was Crisis In Utopia was released in 2010 and should be working on a new album.

Dragonforce


Bombastic, loud and fast are just some of the adjectives that one can use to describe a Dragonforce show.  Led by their new lead singer Marc Hudson, Dragonforce burned through an 11 song set as guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman furiously navigated the fretboards of their custom Ibanez guitars. I will stand by old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words and leave you with the photos above.

Dragonforce setlist at the House of Blues Anaheim (5/12/12)
01 Die By The Sword
02 Operation Ground and Pound
03 Cry Thunder
04 Heroes of Out Time
05 Seasons
06 Soldiers of the Wasteland
07 Fallen World
08 Holding On
09 Through the Fire and Flames
10 Fury of the Storm
11 Valley of the Damned

Meshuggah at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Meshuggah at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Lagwagon at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Lagwagon at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Anthrax at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Anthrax at House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Angels and Airwaves at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Angels and Airwaves at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly

Yngwie Malmsteen at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Yngwie Malmsteen at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

OMD at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of OMD at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Gang of Four at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of Gang of Four at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

BB King at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of BB King at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Lit at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my review of Lit at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

My photo slideshow is also over at OC Weekly.

Motorhead at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my review of Motorhead and Valient Thorr at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

Willie Nelson at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my review of Willie Nelson at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

My photo slideshow is also over at OC Weekly.

Dashboard Confessional at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my review of Dashboard Confessional at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

My photo slideshow is also over at OC Weekly.

Social Distortion at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my review of Social Distortion at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

The Vandals at the House of Blues Anaheim

Check out my photos of The Vandals at the House of Blues Anaheim over at OC Weekly.

My review is also over at OC Weekly.