When the frontman from (Int'l) Noise Conspiracy started with left-wing diatribe I could tell the audience became a little uneasy. It's akin to telling your girlfriend she's a cow which is all well and good; but we don't like it when you call her a cow. Plus, there were a whole lot of people in the audience who didn't know who this Bush fellow is.

The (I)NC were a visual treat and there's no denying that. The singer of this Swedish band had all the moves of James Brown, Iggy Pop and Scott Weiland down to a science. And this provided the impetus for what amounted to a rather good-time had by all, because upon closer inspection the songs themselves just didn't hold up very well. Fortunately the manic show covered this fact better than Clearasil covers pimples.

At intermission I could see in the face young female friend some concern. She was worried the headline act wouldn't be able to top the set she'd just witnessed. "How do you know they'll be better?"

"I just know these things."

Trail of Dead came on with hot coals in their shoes. Drum kits were getting kicked over right from the start. I was keenly aware (and suspected they might beforehand) their seminal album ST&C was being almost skipped over entirely in favor of mostly tunes from World's Apart on purpose. It was as though the band were saying, We are so fucking good and our material so fucking strong we are gonna blow yer minds anyway. And guess what? They were right.

Sure, the set had a few lowlights. Jason's posturing on Caterwaul seemed like a pose from a Bay City Rollers tribute band. But this is such a minor part of the whole I feel uneasy even mentioning it.

There wasn't an encore despite the adrenaline pumped performance. Conrad invited the entire audience to join him on stage and that's what happened. Cymbals went flying, guitars got broken and twenty extra hands helped Conrad strum the final notes. It was pure rock 'n roll mayhem. It made me feel good to be alive. And really, I couldn't ask for more than that.