All that remains — one weird day.
All That Remains rolled into Clifton Park a few days ago. They rocked the house along with Soil and local openers Hollow is thy Heart, but the day left us with some questions and stories to tell. Here’s what went down:
1. Lead vocalist, and official band a – hole, Phil Labonte called out the New York State Police on their apparent violation of the 4th Amendment of the Constitution. Actually, their tour bus was hit by a car. No one was hurt, but the responding officer asked for the names and ages of everyone on the bus. Labonte specifically said on Facebook, “The fuck has absolutely no right to ask for that information…welcome to NY where the Bill of Rights won’t protect you.”
Just so Labonte knows, the 4th Amendment protects you from unwarranted search and seizure, not someone asking you for your name. I guess you could just say no if you really want to. He’s not going to shoot you.
Even so, reports have just been confirmed that Labonte will be working on a Fuck the Police type mix tape alongside no-longer-relevant rapper 50 Cent.
2. Hollow is thy Heart proved, once again, that they are one of the biggest forces in local metal right now. They played both fan favorites, “Death Comes Marching, and Without a Savior.” Although the snow led to a lot of cancellations, the ever-building crowd may have been one of Hollow is thy Heart’s milestones, as drummer Brandon Weaver said.
As always, AJ Justiniano’s voice was nothing short of powerful, while the instrumentation was on dead point. The crowd began to move. Hollow is thy Heart is certainly big-time material. Give them some time and those guys will be on tour.
3. Soil may be up and coming, but they certainly proved that they deserve to be on stage with All that Remains. They were not necessarily unique, but they came out with a bang and the crowd could move along. If nobody knows your music, at least have a catchy hook.
4. Apparently, All That Remains has become a country band. When Labonte came out with those sweet, angelic pipes for one of their slower songs, everyone got their lighters in the air for “What if I was Nothing?” While this song could have easily been denounced as a horrible rip off of Taylor Swift, it actually sounded very different in a live setting. Who knows what the cause was, but Labonte has stepped his game up when it comes to clean vocals.
The magic didn’t stop there. ATR played some of their old classics as well. From the perspective of someone who first heard the band when they came out with the Fall of Ideals, it was pretty enjoyable to hear some of these once again. In the same way, the performance ethic of the band as an entity has greatly improved.
5. An anonymous source told us that Oli Hebert, the lead guitarist, smoked a bowl with a few members of other bands after the show. Since this is unconfirmed, we just wanted to make sure that the responding car crash officer doesn’t go after any of the other smokers. Don’t even think about asking for names, sir!
All in all, there’s nothing like going to a sweaty metal show, being packed into a room like Upstate Concert Hall, and singing along with some of the first metal songs you ever heard — with or without the silly antics apparent before and after the show.
