Friday, February 25, 2011

Hinder and Saving Abel at the Cannery Ballroom

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Hinder, Saving Abel
Cannery Ballroom, Nashville, TN
$30
See all the photos from this show here

Having been over a month since my last live show, I was really itching to get back out there and head to my first show at the Cannery Ballroom. I'm not a huge fan of either Hinder or Saving Abel, but I am moderately familiar with both, and have liked what I've heard. So I figured that it would be a pretty good show. I watched this venue all last year and never saw anyone play there that I really wanted to see, so I was honestly just as excited to check out the Cannery as a venue for a hard rock show as I was to see the show itself! I'd only been inside once for a volunteer event, which was nowhere near the same kind of vibe :-)

After leaving work late and grabbing some Taco Bell for dinner, I arrived after Saving Abel had already taken the stage. When I picked up my ticket at the Will Call window...it said the show was for Brad Paisley! Thanks Cannery, now I can't even scrapbook my pics from the night because my ticket stub is wrong! But oh well...it got me in to the show, so it's all good.

The first thing I noticed upon arrival was how very unenthusiastic the crowd was. Everyone seemed to have their own little bubble of personal space around them, which meant that I had to stand fairly far back from the stage. Had everyone just moved forward and filled in all the space like you should at a concert, I'd have easily been twice as close as I was. Ultimately I made my way in front of a few people and landed directly behind what had to be the tallest woman in the venue. She, like everyone else, had a good three feet between her and the person in front of her. I just didn't get it. And no one seemed to be having a good time. No one was dancing or pounding their fists or even bobbing their heads. It was so odd!

But irregardless of the cold fish attitude of the crowd, Saving Abel's performance was solid. Not the most energetic I've seen, but I was sufficiently entertained. They didn't do much moving around on stage, nor did they do a lot of audience interaction, but it was alright. There ended up being a lot of fog in the room during their set, and the band stayed almost continually bathed in red light, so the pics didn't come out all that well, but I did my best.

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After their set, the stage was changed out in anticipation of Hinder's arrival. And as soon as Hinder took the stage, the mood, thankfully, improved dramatically. While the crowd didn't really compress at all, they did actually act like they were having a little fun. The performance was fun, and they did a fantastic job with the lighting. Not sure if I should attribute that to Hinder or the venue, but the lights were always doing fun stuff, which really gave an immersive feel to the performance.

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Hinder takes the stage

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Heeeey cute guitarist!

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So yeah...overall, not bad. Not the best show I've been to, but I had a good time. The audience was definitely the low point of the experience, be it the excessive personal space, the girl who was wearing too much perfume or the fact that I stood next to the person who could whistle the loudest in the entire venue (isn't that always the way? There's that one DB that whistles at an ear splitting pitch just to show that they can, I guess). But the show was just lacking a little something.

My next show is coming up next month, where I will be back at the Muse to see ABK, AMB and Kung Fu Vampire, which should almost certainly provide a much more entertaining experience! Til next time!

-Julie