Theatre of Green, With These Words, This Side Down, and Jefferson Colby @ Tomcats Deep Ellum- Saturday, Deceomber 18

With These Words rockin out!
JEFFERSON COLBY, a teen pop-rock band from Cowtown, drew a good share of the under 21 crowd. Their music was very fun, very energetic- but not played with enough energy. A clear example is Stone Temple Pilot's "What's On My Mind," (or whatever the hell that song is called- the did a couple of Nirvana covers too)- they should have been jumping up and down, all around the stage, but stayed still instead. That's okay for Nirvana (though I'd be headbanging like a motherfucker), but for such a pop-rock, fun song, they needed a lot more energy. That's okay though- they're young and they've got plenty of time to work on their performance. They've already got a good following and some good music.

When THIS SIDE DOWN took the stage, it was clear that it was metal from here on out! It was hard, dark, growl-metal, with lots of bass- a thick, hard sound that pounded on your chest like a drum! The crowd loved them, and they didn't even stop between a couple of songs- they just kept on rockin!

WITH THESE WORDSs kicked ass! Their female front-man (er, woman) howled and screeched like a banshee, then headbanged like an 80s metal head. She growled just as hard as any boy, but was... more pleasing to look at. They played all originals, such melonchaly songs as "Take Me Away," "Walk Away," and "Close Your Eyes."

THEATRE OF GREEN (mine and everyone else's personal favorite) drew about thirty people... from Waxahachie! (where they're from) And everyone was rockin out to these five guys- two guitars, two vocalists. This was their return show after six months on hiatus, premiering a new singer. Black lights lit up the stage, and the crowd threw up the international 'rock on' sign and sang along, chanting like... a rally! They played such crowd pleasers as "Tongue," Korn's "Blind," "Spider Alice," and "Colors"- at which point they brought up all of the drummers from the first three bands and banged away! The crowd loved it. They even ended their show with an acoustic set, which I thought was pretty cool. I look forward to seeing these bands all again very soon!

-Grady Smith, Ftworthmusic.com Editor