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By Janee

11.30.04~1, 2, 3 BLOW IT UUUUUPPPPP!! That lyrical segment from Twisted Method’s “Reach” is the perfect description of what the band did to The Downtown that night. [Hah and I bet half of you thought I was just going to burst into song with that intro] But as always I’m starting at some random point. Let me rewind to the beginning.

The Farmingdale show was my 4th date on the American Apathy tour. It was an early show, but I still wanted a prime spot near the stage so I forced myself to get ready and get out to Long Island by 3:30 in the afternoon. I got there, made friends with random kids who were already there and killed time with them by talking about the last time Dope and Twisted Method made their way out to Farmingdale. Time passed pretty quickly and with about fifteen minutes to doors Becky and Tom joined me. Doors opened and we had a pretty good crowd lined up and it was looking like it was going to be a pretty full house if not sold out.

There were there local bands before Twisted Method. The first one was Year of Confession. They were an interesting hardcore band and seemed to be pretty popular with the hometown crowd. I wasn’t too impressed by them but they did wake up the crowd by their third song, and had the first mosh pit of the night. The second band was called Niobe. They took forever to set up, granted part of it was due to technical difficulties, but I honestly don’t think the set up time would have been that much shorter without them. They had 7 members and an all right sound. The vocals were very weak though. Actually the whole set was weak and I would best classify that band as a wannabe Ill Nino. Except a very unsuccessful imitation of them. The third band was Camp Tangle. I never had heard of them before and I guarantee that by the time I’m done typing this review, their name will be erased from my memory. They weren’t bad per se, but I have definitely seen better. And plus I take points away from them for hitting Becky in the head with a DVD.

Next up was the band I was waiting for. Twisted Method. The boys did not disappoint AT ALL! Their set was incredibly high energy and they played the hell out of all their songs, especially set opener “The End”. The crowd really was into them and only fell quiet at two points through the set. The first was when vocalist Tripp Tribbett asked the crowd if the venue had searched us when we entered. Everyone kind of just stared at him, and he asked the question 4 times! Finally someone responded and the crowd came alive again as he went on a tangent about how brilliant the venue was for not searching a crowd at a Dope show and joked about free beer and pot for everyone. The second time the crowd kind of died was when he dedicated “Mannequin” to all the ladies in the house. Very little response. *laughs* "Tripp, babe, I hate to break it to you but I think they are catching on as to what’s coming out of your mouth next." However the silence was shattered as the band exploded into the song which was also the set closer. For the rest of the set the crowd was enthusiastic, dancing and shouting along to the songs. And as always the band was fantastic. Tripp worked both sides of the stage and conveyed the emotions of each song fully to the crowd. 13en beat hit drums maniacally, making me very thankful that I wasn’t his kit [well it’s not too often I wish I was a drum kit..but anyway...], Derek made love to his bass and Andy... well lets just say that he totally lives up to his nickname of Sick Andy. The entire set was exciting, charismatic and to put it simply... FUCKING AWESOME! Set list was: The End, Panic, Reach, Hurt Me, The Way I Was, Change Me, Rot, Fled and Mannequin. [I may be leaving out a song and messing up the order a bit, but that was basically it]

Dope, being the headliners of the tour, deserve a mention too I suppose. Hehe. Their set was as fun and energetic as I’ve come to expect from them. Opened with “Motivation”, played some of the favorites like “Die Motherfucker Die”, “Spin me Right Round” and “Bitch”. Also included three songs that are going to be appearing on their new album “American Apathy” due in stores in Feb 2005. The new songs got a great response from the audience and definitely have a raw feel to them. The ones they debuted at this show were “Survive”, “Fuck the World” and “No Way Out”. Kick ass. One of the highlights from their set had to be “Fuck the Police”. It’s a great song to begin with, and then the addition of having Tripp come on stage to perform it with the band just adds to it. Nothing beats having one insane front man performing that song, except maybe by having yet another insane front man join ya! A fantastic set by Dope once again.

Yep, so there you have it. Farmingdale NY got their asses kicked by these two bands. And you know what? I’m pretty sure they can’t wait until they come back to do it again!