30 seconds to stardom - Canadian favorite stands out among the sound-alikes (and bad acoustics) at Edgefest
By Jeff Miers - News Pop Rock Critic
June 27, 2006
Buffalo News

Though it was originally scheduled to take place outdoors at LaSalle Park, Edgefest 2006 ended up inside the Buffalo Convention Center, a fortuitous move, considering the moody weather.
Some 15 bands performed on two stages on the Convention Center's second floor for an enthused, predominantly 25-and-under crowd. The folks at 103.3 The Edge, working with local promoter Fun Time Presents, offered up a seamless evening of the hottest rock-radio groups in existence. The action rolled without break between the two stages at either end of the Convention Center. Everything flowed remarkably smoothly.
The sound throughout the evening was atrocious, however, which is to be expected inside a venue unequipped, acoustically speaking, to deal with full-on rock shows. Several bands managed to cut through the wall of reverb and slap-back echo to distinguish themselves, happily. And the best of these - clearly the favorite of the crowd as well - was Canadian band 30 Seconds to Mars.
The group has been building a strong support base in Buffalo for many years and has shared the stage with Our Lady Peace and a plethora of bands at previous Edgefests and other shows during gigs that cemented the band as one to watch.
Now signed to Virgin Records, 30 Seconds is poised to take off, and Edgefest seemed a fitting launch point. The crowd went absolutely nuts during the band's well-played set, despite the fact that the sound quality made it difficult to tell what was going on. Guitars were swallowed up in the sonic maelstrom. Any subtlety in the rhythm section was lost somewhere up in the ceiling beams, and the vocals invariably ended up buried.
The bands that prosper under these conditions are the ones whose spirit manages to shine through, and 30 Seconds to Mars took the trophy in this regard.
The crowd was familiar with the material, always a plus, and sang along at full-tilt throughout. 30 Seconds to Mars is likely to be a headlining act within the year. The band's pop-tinged heavy alternative sound is radio-ready, and has clearly hit a nerve with this crowd.
Taking Back Sunday held 30 Seconds to Mars in a dead heat for most rapturously received set. The group, performing a slamming, visceral set of tunes concentrating on its April release "Louder Now," headlined Edgefest.
Buckcherry - a late '90s alt-metal breakthrough, gone for a while, but back in the alt-rock consciousness on the strength of its recent surprise hit "Crazy B----," (a tune that inspired a pre-Edgefest contest on the sponsoring radio station) - played a muscular set of tunes led by frontman Joshua Todd.
Buckcherry excels at a brand of riff-centered boogie a la heavier Aerosmith and Guns 'N' Roses, but what magic the band is capable of was sacrificed to the dreadful sound quality of the venue. The band's music relies on the unerring establishment of a groove and crystal-clear blues-based riffs. Minus the clarity of these, despite the fact that the band played well, it sounded as if Todd was ranting like an irate Iggy Pop, minus the Stooges.
Hawthorne Heights has been spreading its emo-based disease with finesse for the past year, and certainly a healthy contingent of the Edgefest crowd showed up to bask in the band's pop-punk glory. The group leans closer to emo than it does punk, blending its nasal-voiced adolescent angst with hard-core alt-punk ejaculations. The formula seems exactly that - a formula - but Hawthorne Heights boasted its own quite vocal fan base, which crowded the front of the stage and urged the group on.
Yellowcard, another band poised to break through in the coming months, if consistent touring and a passionate live presentation have anything to do with it, followed. Again, though the crowd seemed to be eating it up, Yellowcard did little to differentiate itself from the masses of sound-alike groups despite its use of violin in an emo-punk context. An unusual instrument at shows like these, but it was employed to do nothing more than offer unisons of the same lines the vocalist or guitarist was playing.
It's interesting that the two hottest live performances at this year's Edgefest - from Buckcherry and 30 Seconds to Mars - were the closest thing to "classic rock" on the bill.
Why? Give us a tune, man. Learn to play your instrument, to make it sing, to express something of your uniqueness. Otherwise, you're shredding our eardrums for nothing.

e-mail: jmiers@buffnews.com