Aiden performed to soldout
show at Chain Reaction
By
Matthew Wilkinson
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
The kids in the Seattle, based quintet Aiden have worked hard to give goth
punk rock fans an alternative to MTV favorites My Chemical Romance. Just coming
off an opening slot on the 30 Seconds To Mars tour, the band stopped by Anaheim’s
Chain Reaction to headline a show, before heading off to the UK.
The guys finished high school in June 2005 and things haven’t slowed
down since. Victory Records released Aiden’s sophomore release “Nightmare
Anatomy” last October, and the group landed an opening slot on tour with
the Hurt Process and the Audition. The band barely got home before being sent
out again with a slew of Victory Records bands, this time with Hawthorne Heights,
Silverstein and Bayside.
The soldout crowd at Chain Reaction looks like it has a median age of 14. The
band enters to music that sounds like it was taken from an old horror movie.
The band members were dressed completely in black, with eyeliner to match.
Vocalist William “wil” Franco is completely decked out in make-up.
His face is painted completely white with dark circles around his eyes and
mouth. It looks like something out of the movie “The Crow.”
They kicked off with “Knife Blood Nightmare,” the first track off “Nightmare
Anatomy,” and continued in order with “The Last Sunrise.” The
hour-long set drew mostly from the most recent release, but visited the debut
album for old favorites such as “I Set My Friends On Fire.”
The band had a very strong stage presence for being so young. Guitarists Angel
Ibarra and Jake Wambold flung their guitars around their shoulder, while Franco
swang the microphone in the air and crouched down in fan’s faces encouraging
them to sing along. The energy and showmanship the band had on stage was of
a band who has been entertaining crowds for decades.
The energy and catchiness of their music makes you forget about their dark,
morose lyrics. Franco told the crowd about his best friend who shot and killed
herself when he was only 15. That was his motivation for “Nightmare Anatomy,” and
you can hear it in every song.
The band began off its encore with Misfits cover “Die, Die My Darling,” before
kicking off into two songs of their own. Before one song, Franco had the crowd
separate themselves down the middle and then recreate the battle scene from
the movie
“
Braveheart.” A little dramatic yes, but the kids ate it up. The show
looked to get very physical in the mosh pit. One kid was taken out during the
encore on a stretcher, but still seemed to be enjoying every second of the
show.
Goth punk seems to be a growing sub-genre of the punk scene, but with My Chemical
Romance in the studio, Aiden (who named their band after the kid in the horror
movie “The Ring”) will help you get your fix. Victory Records re-released
the old debut album earlier this month.
The group is finishing up a headlining UK tour right now, and will be playing
arenas nationwide with HIM upon their return. It will also be at this year’s
Vans Warped Tour.
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