Concert Review – Puddle Of Mudd & Co.

On August 19th, Puddle Of Mudd rolled into town to play in the Woody’s parking lot with special guest Silverstone. Other acts on the bill included Kaptain Crunch & The Cereal Killers, Paradigum & Calling Corners.

The weather forecast called for scattered showers and thunderstorms so I was really expecting this event to get rained out half way through but mother nature decided to play nice. There was a nice breeze flowing through the area and it ended up being the perfect night for an outdoor show.

Kaptain Crunch & The Cereal Killers is a band of teens based out of Princeton, Indiana. Don’t let the fact that they are teens fool you, they’re very talented. The three young men and one young lady all share lead vocals giving this band an added boost. With the exception of their final song they only did cover tunes. It was interesting to see them pull off covers of songs almost as old as me. Overall these guys (and gal) did a great job, my only complaint is that I never heard the keyboard. It seemed to me that almost every band (especially the local bands) had some sound issues. Anyway, if you get the chance to check out this band, take it. I hope when you see them they get to play more than just one of their originals!

Paradigum was the second band of the night and it was a pleasant surprise for me. I didn’t even realize they were on the bill until the morning of the show. I’ve been wanting to check them out for some time but had yet to find the opportunity. They didn’t disappoint me either. Bulldog, their lead singer, started things off with a parental advisory disclaimer “I say fuck a lot.” and gave the crowd a good laugh. Great way to get the show started. These guys are a kick ass band who delivered a solid performance and are definitely on my “must see again” list. Going back to sound issues, my biggest complaint was that the sound “engineers” had the vocals and the drums way louder than the other instruments so guitar solos and such were buried. Otherwise, another great band in a full night of great bands.

Calling Corners was up next and they too delivered a solid performance. This was my third time seeing them and the second time as an opener for a national act. Besides the fact that they deliver some killer tunes, I like that they don’t just stand there and stare at their shoes. Larry is not afraid to move around the stage and engage the crowd. These guys are a high energy band that are well worth the price of admission and if they keep pushing forward, there’s a good chance you’ll see them break out of the Evansville scene and gain some musical notoriety. I am certainly doing what I can to help them along. Once again, there was an issue with sound while they were on stage. The guitars, drums & lead vocals sounded pretty good but the sound guys apparently didn’t think that the backing vocals were important but, for songs like Punchline, the backing vocals were essential.

Silverstone hails from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Up until the day of the show, I’d not heard of them but I’m glad I caught them because I enjoyed what I heard. The only complaint I had with their time on stage once again fell back to the sound. For the majority of their set the keyboards were either inaudible or only barely audible. It would be nice to see Woody’s get them back into Evansville as the headliner so they can have more time on stage and play more of their stuff.

Puddle Of Mudd was the show’s headliner and the reason most folks came out but I must admit that I was there to support my friends in the local music scene. Having said that, POM put on a pretty decent show. I am not familiar with their music and I only recognized 3 of their songs, 4 if you count the cover of AC/DC’s TNT. I enjoyed when they blended War Pigs into the middle of Control. One thing that stood out to me as kind of lame was right before the encore. While the crowd was standing around waiting for them to come out and finish their set, you could hear fake crowd noise running through the sound system. Overall, they were enjoyable and there were no noticable sound issues with any of their instruments.