Concert Review

Emphatic, Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold & Buck Cherry all performed at the Heartland Event Center In Grand Island on April 3rd.
Emphatic, a band from Omaha opened up the show with none-the-less than a BANG. When a band on the rise like Emphatic is opening for bands such as Papa Roach who this year have been together for 10 years, its important they put their “A game on.” Emphatic did just that.
Following Emphatic was Papa Roach who as usual hypnotized the crowd with not only their songs but their crowd interaction. It is very obvious when a band is comfortable with the Crowd and Cody Dick, the lead singer makes it very apparent in every concert the connection he wants to make with the fans of Papa Roach.
Avenged Sevenfold followed Papa Roach with what I would call a “looksie” performance. As far as stage presence Avenged Sevenfold takes first pace but when it comes to performance they take the back seat. The stage presence during Avenged Sevenfold was absolutely amazing but I for one don’t go to a concert to look at bright lights and drop down, flat screen TV’s. The sound during their portion of concert was terrible and being the darker, screaming band they are with bad sound it made it even harder to understand.
Last and defiantly least the headliner for the entire show was Buck Cherry. There is a fine line between putting on a show and performing and Buck Cherry lacks performance. People go to concerts because A. they like the music and B. they like to feel and interact with singers and band members. Buck Cherry lacks the ability to connect with the audience.
If I wanted to listen to merely just music I would turn on my iPod and listen. When I go to a concert I want to feel so hypnotized into what the artist is singing and the conversation they are having with “me.” Now don’t get me wrong, moshing, crowd surfing, and jumping up and down without a care in the world doesn’t feel better then when you’re at a concert but that doesn’t take away from the fact that a concert is something we attend to feel something different than just a sound out of a speaker.
Overall I would give this concert a solid C. If I had it my way I would have taken the first two bands, Emphatic and Papa Roach and put them last so there would have been a good lasting impression. There is nothing worse than walking out of a concert you have been looking forward to and being somewhat disappointed. Lesson Learned.