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3.12.99.
V.A.S.T. rocked. Their first opening act, Life-Like-Feel, was okay. They would have been pretty cool, except in the middle of their third song, it sounded like they had sampled a fire alarm. This obnoxious, deafening screech wails over their song at intermittent periods, turning off and on and drove me insane. By the end of the song, I hated them. The second opening act, Oleander(sp?) was pretty cool. Their lead singer was having fun and talking to the audience and trying to get this sulking high school girl to smile at him. Their drummer and bassist looked like the Hetfeild brothers from Metallica, and the drummer was pounding away so hard it looked like he might explode from the sheer effort he was putting into it. Then came V.A.S.T. themselves. V.A.S.T. is the product of this 21 year old guy from California. At age 13, Guitar World Magazine said that he was someone to keep an eye on. He's now come of age, and has an entire album of songs he wrote. The album is amazing. It sounds (to me) like a cross between Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, only instead of being suicidal, it's about keeping hope through rotten situations. I guess you could call it the Upward Spiral. I first heard them on vacation with Annie. As we were falling asleep, I was watching 120 Minutes on MTV, because I never get to watch MTV anymore. Just as I was drifting off, a V.A.S.T. video came on. It was for "Pretty When You Cry." I was blown away. Unfortunately, I was also asleep, and the next day I couldn't remember the name of the group, just that they rocked. A week later, Dave said that he had a CD he wanted to loan me that he thought I would like. It was V.A.S.T.. So when I heard that V.A.S.T. was coming to Portland, I thought it would be the perfect birthday present for Dave (better than anything I could actually buy him, anyway). He agreed, and we went! The strange thing about it was that they all looked REALLY young. He's a kinda chubby guy, not real tall, with scraggly hair and sideburns. He wore a turtleneck shirt and sweated a lot. His bassist was a stereotypical guy... long hair, quiet, out of the way. The drummer had glasses and really short hair and also didn't draw much attention to himself. The other guitarist was cool, but he looked like a gimp. He had one really long dangly earring, and pointy shoes on. But all was forgiven when they just started goofing around. They didn't have many songs to perform, so when someone in the audience asked them to just jam for a few minutes, they did... pulled out this blues number and just played. And the guitarist guy was freaking impressive. The overall impression they left was that they were young, shy, and tired. I'd have to agree with Dave that these guys will be fun to see next time they tour, when they're a little more comfortable with themselves and have developed a better stage prescence. But the music rocked, no doubt about it. So at about midnight, we got home and all climbed in bed. At 4am, my alarm went off, and I staggered down to the bus station to pick up Annie. The bus station was closed (the bus station closes??), and the front door was locked, but looking inside, I could see lots of people, and the back door was open. So I wandered around back, and walked in, and the place was the exact same as when it was open, except with no greyhound employees (there was one security guard). It was kind of odd. I waited for a half hour and then her bus got in and we went home and got in bed. After about an hour of sleeping, I had to get up and come to school, which is why I'm so tired now. But it was worth it. :)
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