Taste of Chaos

Founded by Warped Tour creator Kevin Lyman, the Taste of Chaos tour brought a Warped-in-the-winter ideal to Mississauga for all the kiddies with expendable income in their wallets itching to be spent. Though the "taste" wasn't as varied as the summertime travelling festival, this screamo-heavy line-up made an impression, as this stop, amongst the rest of the tour, was completely sold-out. Floridian bible-thumpers Underoath began their set in poor fashion, introducing themselves with the Marilyn Manson-adopted Willy Wonka tunnel sample. From there on in, they managed to find redemption by delivering a set of tight and punchy emocore but still felt the need to drop other film soundbites and declare their obvious friendship with J.C. Senses Fail followed suit but like their name suggests, they failed to make much of an impact. Respect goes out to them for attempting a brief cover of Faith No More's "Epic," but the fact that most concertgoers were born after that song's birth saw it flying over their crowd-surfing heads. Unfortunately, the only real metalcore band in the line-up — Killswitch Engage — were completely out of their element. Tossing some much needed growling and wrist-slitting riffs into the mix, the band seemed almost too powerful for the saccharine-hungry ears in the audience. The momentum completely changed when My Chemical Romance hit the stage. Like a giant sugar rush, the crowd immediately reacted to their faux-goth heroes, bouncing around and screaming while the band played through a number of tunes from Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. Front-man Gerard Way spit lyrics with poisonous abandon and often teased the crowd (asking if they wanted to suck on him like a piece of candy and if anyone had been knocked up) before he introduced "The Ghost of You." The Used easily proved their value as headliners, causing fits of excitement reminiscent of NKOTB hysteria. Led by the grateful, yet perverted, mouth of Bert McCracken, the band executed a set of expected cuts from both albums. Playing off the energy, McCracken, like Way, entertained the crowd with banter. Though he made foolish comments, inviting the crowd to shower with him and listing his STDs, he did leave a good taste in the mouth, offering a heartfelt word on the importance of friendship… just before he offered to fuck everyone in the face. Nice.