Above, The Subtle Way gets love from the crowd. At front, Katsumoto kicked off the show. All photos by Hanna Thrasher / 209Vibe.

209Vibe’s anniversary bash Sept. 27 at the Stockton Empire Theatre started as a small show. It ended up as quite the blowout.

Letlive, from southern California, was the first band to play. At first, I thought the band was fairly good, but I kind of grew more and more disenchanted as time went by. The music sounded like it was trying far too hard to be something inventive. It was a slightly awkward blend that didn’t match the attitude the band portrayed. Still, the energy of the band was great; especially considering it was the opening band. The vocalist was all over the place and was quite possibly one of the more entertaining performers of the night. Overall, I applaud this band for getting the crowd excited and involved right off the bat and starting the show on a high note performance-wise, but I’m not sure if I’m completely sold on the music yet.

Los Angeles hardcore/metal act Kasumoto was up next. I have been a fan of this band for a little while now, but had never had the opportunity to see them live. I was not disappointed. Kasumoto had both strong breakdowns for the mosh pit and good old fashioned dirty rock and roll. Unfortunately, the crowd never really got into their performance. I still think Katsumoto is an awesome band with a great live performance and a lot of potential.

Stockton’s screamo darlings La Circa, were third to take the stage. and it was the same old La Circa. Thinking back to all of the other times I have seen this band play, I always thought its stage performance was pretty entertaining, but I think I was more entertained by the fans than the band. The band didn’t really move around very much and there wasn’t a lot of crowd interaction, which seems odd considering how many kids are obsessed with this band. The overall musicianship is not bad, but I still can’t pick out anything about the music that makes them stand out from the rest of the screamo pack. Maybe the La Circa phenomenon is just one of those things I’m not meant to understand.

The Subtle Way, meanwhile, has changed quite a bit over the past few months, and not for the better. The band showcased some of its new material and I must say that I was a little disappointed. I liked the whole “this band can’t be pigeonholed” thing The Subtle Way had going on, but now the band has chosen a definite direction and go figure, it’s screamo. I will say this though; this band has always had a fun, entertaining, and high energy live show, regardless of the music. Also, the members are incredible musicians and really showed a level of maturity that not a lot of local bands have. The sound system, which has problems all evening, stopped working completely during The Subtle Way’s set. But instead of getting frustrated, the band would just pick back up where they left off like it had never happened. So, I applaud them for handling the situation as well as they did. In the end, I may not be the biggest fan of The Subtle Way’s new material, but I will always have the utmost respect for them as musicians and people.

All in all, it was a great way to close out 209Vibe’s first year with some of the bands that helped to start it all. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds for 209Vibe.

Submit a comment