Sevendust entertains crowd
with energetic performance
By Megan Finnerty
Features Editor
Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust thought Lafayette
was the best stop on the band's tour thus far.
Sunday night at Riehle Brothers in Lafayette, Sevendust
and Drowning Pool packed the house full of wall to wall thrashing bodies.
"I think you guys have been the best, most fun
crowd on the tour," Witherspoon screamed out at the crowd as he perched
on the speakers on the front of the stage. "Can you feel the energy?
You guys are beautiful."
The crowd exploded after Witherspoon made this
pronouncement and as the band launched into a ballad off a recent tribute
album for the lead singer of Snot, "Angels Son."
Tiny lighter flames filled the air and the crowd
sang along with the most melodic tune of the otherwise hard rockin'
evening.
The crowd was sweaty and enthusiastic, pounding
fists and heads in unison during almost every song.
Horns of the devil were flashed constantly as the
two aggressive rock bands implored the crowd to "Get up!" and "Jump
around."
Arms and legs could be seen bouncing on top of
the crowd as fans jostled around body surfing and plummeting down into
security area just before hitting the stage.
"I love how close you can get to the band here,"
said Dan Luce, a sophomore in the School of Liberal Arts. "This is a
great place to see the show; you can really interact with the band members.
They can feed of the intensity of the crowd."
For Eric Murphy, a sophomore in the School of Science,
this was his third time seeing the Atlanta-based rock quintet.
"They're really energetic," he said as fans ran
past him, making their way to the ever-expanding mosh pit up front.
"They put on a great show."
Teeth-rattling bass shook the room as Witherspoon,
barechested and dripping sweat, clad in women's bell-bottom jeans, stood
screaming at the tip of the stage through song after song. Even the
security was headbanging.
Fans emerged from the pit soaked in sweat and often
running to get back up to the front of the crowd to go for another ride
on top of it.
Even so, Murphy said it was a pretty laid-back
crowd for a hard rock show, compared to the several he'd been to before.
"It seems like everyone's just enjoying the music
tonight," he said.
Going on stage just before Sevendust, Drowning
Pool, newcomers to the aggressive rock scene, screamed and implored
the audience members to throw their middle fingers in the air and scream
throughout the first half of the evening.
When the band launched into its first radio and
MTV hit, "Bodies," the crowd jumped and thrashed in unison, moshing
out even to the edges of the enormous, gym-like room.
Sevendust is on tour promoting its third album,
"Animosity," which is due to hit stores Nov. 13.
Witherspoon said the album would be more melodic
than the band's previous ones, and that was evident in the songs Sevendust
chose.
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