Papa Roach with Jet
Date: 11/23/09
Place: Club Nokia, Los Angeles CA
Review by ~ Aniruddh 'Andrew' Bansal

The show got going when hometown rockers After Midnight Project hit the stage. Their music was pretty good and they showed good energy. The crowd seemed to like them and gave a decent response. These guys started out in 2004 so they are still relatively new and I am sure they have a bright future ahead of them. I go to all my shows early and see all the bands in the hope that at least some of those openers would be good and I would end up discovering some good new bands and music. Well, that doesn't happen too often. It sure did here though!

Here's their complete set list:

1. Intro
2. Digital
3. Becoming
4. Cmon
5. Metal
6. Criminal
7. Take Me Home
8. Scream
9. Slow Grind

The next band were called Billy Boy On Poison. The band's music and performance wasn't all bad, but their vocalist really killed it whenever he addressed the audience, including a story about him shaving his balls and cutting them in the process. Understandably so, no one in the crowd gave the band any response after that particular story. They might have been higher on the bill, but After Midnight Project were the better of the two bands tonight.

Here's their complete set list:

1. Killing The Peace
2. I'm Ready
3. Happy V Day
4. New Song
5. Bury Me
6. Baby Sue

Aussie band Jet appeared on stage among some loud cheers and applause. They opened with 'Cold Hard Bitch' from their debut album Get Born. After that they played 'Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is' followed by 'She's A Genius'. They were entertaining the crowd really well so far. I was getting to see them and hear they music for the first time and they seemed to be a talented group. They demonstrated plenty of that talent as well as good stage presence in the songs that they proceeded to play, including 'Hey Kids', 'Walk' and 'Get What You Need'.

They were making full use of the one hour allocated to them for their set by picking out and playing their best and most popular songs tonight. Some of these were 'Take It Or Leave It', 'Last Chance' and 'Rip It Up' while they also did some off of their recently released album Shakra Rock. 'Black Hearts' and 'Seventeen' were two of those songs. They closed out their set with 'Get Me Outta Here'. The front man Nic Cester did a great job with his vocals, guitar and crowd interaction. The other members Cameron and Mark on the guitar and bass respectively did well too. Special mention should be made of Nic's brother Chris Cester on the drums. He was aggressive and efficient while sharing vocal duty. Overall, a great show by them and a perfect warm-up for Papa Roach.

Here's their complete set list:

1. Cold Hard Bitch
2. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
3. She's A Genius
4. Hey Kids
5. Walk
6. Get What You Need
7. Take It Or Leave It
8. Last Chance
9. Come Around Again
10. Black Hearts
11. Are You Gonna
12. Seventeen
13. Rip It Up
14. Get Me Outta Here

The excitement in the crowd was very high as Papa Roach finally hit the stage at 15 minutes past 10 with the opening song off of their latest album Metamorphosis, the song called 'Days Of War'. It was more of a build up to the next song rather than a song in itself and indeed it led into the next song Change Or Die. The band hit the stage all guns blazing, making themselves easily visible to everyone in the crowd by using risers to stand on and perform. The drum kit was incredibly high and I have seen very few drummers sitting that high on stage, Dave Lombardo and Mickey Dee the only ones coming to mind right now. Papa Roach definitely gave a lot of importance to the production, specially in terms of the stage set up, lights and sound which was nice to see. Its always nice when bands make a clear effort to put on an entertaining show and give the fans their money's worth.

After these two new songs, it was time to bring out some stuff from the hugely popular Infest album in the form of 'Broken Home'. It hit me at that time that I am actually seeing a band called Papa Roach perform a song off of an album called Infest. This album goes back a few years, at a time when nearly everyone was a Papa Roach fan, me included! I had a hugely nostalgic feeling tonight reliving those old memories, thinking about those days in my head at least for a split second or two. From then on, I enjoyed myself in this show much, much more than I thought I would when I went in. Getting back to the show, they did another new song 'Lifeline' after Broken Home. They had as many as seven new songs in the set tonight. It was refreshing to see a band having that much confidence in their latest material to go out on tour and promote it with 100% commitment. I see so many bands who bill their tours as new album promotion but they hardly even play anything off of it. Other than the confidence factor, I think it is also a matter of practice to be able to play such new songs on tour. Papa Roach certainly didn't seem to lack in that aspect.

'To Be Loved' from the Paramour Sessions was played next, followed by the fun crowd participation song 'Getting Away With Murder', one of my favorites. I enjoyed signing the chorus a lot. Vocalist Jacoby Shaddix had the crowd under his command and we did whatever he told us to! It was a real thrill seeing this guy and his band mates perform tonight. Not only is he energetic himself, he infuses a lot of that energy into the crowd as well. I found myself jumping up and down for most of the show! The set got even better when they played 'Scars' next. Jacoby didn't have to tell anyone to sing along on this one. We all did it ourselves!

The remaining part of the set included songs like 'Forever', 'Jam' and 'Dead Cell'. There was also the great sing-along 'Time Is Running Out'. There were plenty of new songs too, one of them taking a dig at the females in LA, the song called 'Hollywood Whore' during which Jacoby asked us to raise our middle fingers. The show ended on a highly crazy note with two of the best Papa Roach songs 'Between Angels And Insects' and of course, 'Last Resort'. Whenever I felt frustrated or depressed, rocking out to this song used to make me normal again. Now was my chance to do just that with the band themselves!! I was singing every word, jumping up at least three or four feet in the air and head banging all at once. A fitting end to an immensely enjoyable show!

Jacoby Shaddix was beyond amazing with his performance tonight. He even spoke a few sentences in Spanish specially for the people of LA to get the crowd even more pumped. He got a mosh pit and the 'wall of death' started in the latter parts of the show. Jerry on guitar did a terrific job too, nailing all those leads. Tobin on the bass and Tony on drums complemented their mates very well. All in all, a very memorable night! Thank you Papa Roach!!

Here's their complete set list:

1. Days Of War
2. Change Or Die
3. Broken Home
4. Lifeline
5. To Be Loved
6. Getting Away With Murder
7. Scars
8. I've Had Enough
9. I Almost Told You That I Loved You
10. Forever
11. Into The Light
12. Jam
13. Dead Cell
14. Time Is Running Out
15. Hollywood Whore
16. Between Angels And Insects
17. Last Resort

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