Concert Review: REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT!
All photos by Kirstyn Kristiansen, taken at the House Of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC
Reggie And The Full Effect is, quite simply, the worlds greatest techno-emo-thrash band. For those of you who don't know, there is no one in the band named Reggie. Instead, this project is led by former Get Up Kids keyboardist James Dewees with a rotating cast to back him up. While his former band was an important landmark in the growth of emo, Reggie prefers to take things a little less seriously. Not that he's resting on his laurels, in fact he's created some of the most accomplished and artful music of his career...it's just disguised as a bunch of silliness.
Vagrant Records was cool enough to send us out to see Reggie at the House Of Blues along with David Mellilo, Cute Is What We Aim For and Hellogoodbye. Mellilo has a pretty talented band that straddles the line between emo, jam band and singer-sonwriter pretty well. Cute Is What We Aim For is about as good as their name would lead you to think, which is not very. It's basically every emo song you've ever heard, just without the hooks or catchy choruses.
Reggie And The Full Effect kick your ass!
You never know what you're going to get from Reggie, except that it will definitely be a good time. their sound is pretty difficult to explain...maybe like a non-hardcore, melodic Dillinger Escape Plan with barrage of keyboards. They can even get downright poppy at times, but this concert showed little of that. This was all about the metal! For this tour James is joined by Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, a fact that went largely unnoticed by this crowd. In fact, when it was mentioned they showed little reaction, either thinking it was one of the many jokes being told, or out of a fear of not appearing cool if people knew that they recognized the name Slipknot. you can never tell with crowds these days. For those of us who "get it" Reggie put on a fun, breakneck show pulled mostly from the bands latest album Songs Not To Get Married To. Between songs James told some pretty funny stories and actually (GASP) interacted with the crowd! The highlight of the night was the bands frenetic cover of "Reign In Blood" by Slayer which brought roadies, merch guys and just about everyone else working the show out on stage for a flurry of stage dives. Pretty awesome!
James with Paul Gray of Slipknot
James said it best when he said "we're the heavy band on this tour". In fact, once you get past the emo roots this band has no real business being on this tour, but you have to give props to Hellogoodbye for putting them on the bill. Very few bands can follow Reggie without coming off as completely boring, but Hellogoodbye are pretty good at what they do.
WIN A SIGNED CD BY REGGIE!
Once again I'd like to thank our friends at Vagrant Records for hooking us up with this great band! Now, its time for us to give something to the readers of this site! We have a copy of Reggie And The Full Effect's latest album Songs Not To Get Married To, signed by Reggie. Of course, there is no Reggie, but James signed it Reggie anyway...This is an EASY contest to enter, but first you go check out some Reggie songs before you enter. Here's links to their Myspace page and of course ReggieAndTheFullEffect.net.
You dig it? Cool! Send me an email either at anarchy@anarchymusic.net or at My Myspace Page and let me know that you want this cd! One of you who contacts me will be randomly selected to win! It's THAT easy!
Kirstyn Kristiansen is available to photograph your band for concert or promo shots, or for any modeling or promotional photography. Contact anarchy@anarchymusic.net with your needs.