Senses Fail – Live (April 11th, 2009)

It’s been seven years since New Jersey’s Senses Fail first broke out of their local scene and received national attention with their EP, From The Depths of Dream. In those seven years they’ve released three different CDs but have yet to make it up to Edmonton to tour in support of one of them. That is, of course, until tonight when they finally took over the Starlite Room in support of Life Is Not A Waiting Room – the band’s newest effort. The New Jersey band made up for the wait by putting in one hell of a performance; however, that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few glitches along the way.

As the curtains drew back, drummer Dan Trapp walked onto the stage and flicked a switch to turn on some lights within his fluorescent orange drum kit. The rest of the band, including newly appointed bass player Jason Black of Hot Water Music fame, soon joined him on stage as they burst into their set. Right away you could tell the sound mixing was a little off as the low end was way too loud (to the point where tables shook halfway across the venue with each bass drum kick) and Buddy Nielsen’s vocals were way too low in the mix.

It was annoying as Nielsen’s vocals after came through muffled and unclear. The backup vocals sounded crisp and evenly mixed, by Nielsen’s were placed too low in the mix which made it hard to hear at times. That choruses and gang vocals portions came through fine, but when Nielsen was alone the vocals felt a bit weak.

That didn’t stop the crowd from erupting with hardcore dancing and circle pits throughout the set though. Everyone happily helped Buddy out and sang along to tracks like You’re Cute When You Scream, Family Tradition, Sick or Sane, Calling All Cars, Can’t Be Saved and Buried A Lie. Nielsen encouraged the crowd participation as he often crouched down and threw the microphone admits the screaming mouths of fans. When he wasn’t doing that, Nielsen occupied himself by doing some hardcore dancing moves himself on stage, doing flips, one handed pushups and basically acting like a madman. He kept the banter to a minimum, when he did talk he ripped into Bob Saget, complained about having a moose knuckle, thanked the crowd and apologized for taking so long to get up here.

The hour long set featured tracks from all of their releases but did have some glaring omissions; tracks like Irony of Dying On Your Birthday, Lady In The Blue Dress and To All The Crowded Roomswould have been a welcomed addition to the set list. The hit singles, like Rum Is For Drinking, Not For Burning, and the heavier tracks, like Four Years and Lungs Like Gallows, seemed to get the best response from the crowd but nothing compared to the closer: One Eight Seven. It may be one of their oldest songs and be a slower track than most of their stuff, but every single person in the venue seemed to know every single word to the tune and they eagerly sang alongside Nielsen.

As the final drum beats of One Eight Seven rippled through the venue, Nielsen thanked the crowd and the band left the stage for the evening. Nielsen hung around for a bit, throwing out picks and set lists but just waved no to the chants of “one more song.” It had been seven years, but Senses Fail treated their Edmonton fans to a solid rock show, despite a few sound glitches.