I Am The Avalanche plays to a packed crowd along with Four Year Strong, Fireworks, For The Horizon, and Rodeia for the final Ozone show of the spring semester at Oswego State.
A caravan of buses and cars was the scene outside Hewitt Union for the last show in the Ozone till September. Thanks to WNYO, I Am The Avalanche took some time off from their pre-recording process to play an intimate campus show. Opening for the group was Rodeia, SUNY Oswego’s own For The Horizon, Fireworks, and the crowd warmer of the night, Four Years Strong.
Hailing from New York City, I Am The Avalanche is the reminisce of defunct group, The Movielife. After The Movielife went their separate ways in 2003, two groups were born: I Am The Avalanche and Nightmare Of You. I Am The Avalanche released their debut Self-Titled effort via Drive-Thru Records. Touring across the country, they’ve managed to successfully spread their dance punk rock sound. Similar to what would be the birth-child of Head Automatica and Audio Karate, I Am The Avalanche made the Ozone the place to be after a tired Oswego rocked out to OAR and Ludo at the Campus Center this past Sunday.
The opening band from Florida, Rodeia played their hearts out to a apathetic crowd. The audience managed to bob their heads for most of the set but no one was really too impressed. For those who were obviously rocking out to the band, they knew the newly released songs off their month old EP Till We Have Faces. The band played songs such as “A False Sense Of Security,” and their constant drag of a song titled “I Once Rehearsed Conversation.” The song sounded like a conversation one would want to tune out of.
For The Horizon came on second; a band made up of mostly students from SUNY Oswego. After playing to a sold out crowd alongside Bayside and The Starting Line, they’re returned with their second Oswego State appearance. They began the set with their instrumental song, an enjoyable introduction to an anticipated set. The rest of the performance belonged to Brett Walts string talent and ability to occasionally work the sound board during the set when he felt something wasn’t right. For The Horizon played well. The issue with their performance was with Mike on Bass giving his back to the crowd and the lack of stage presence John Long had. He was not able to move the crowd an inch dispute his clean vocals and powered growls. John’s hat also hid his face from the audience severing any connection between him and the audience. For The Horizon wrapped up their set with the song “What A Lovely Solution” and gracefully bowed out.
With the stage warm and the next band prepared. Fireworks lead vocalist, David Pest approached the stage in an energetic fashion. With his gut splurging from his pants, as he moves from one side of the stage to the other, he furiously battled with his pants to keep from falling to the floor. Fireworks came out very strong with guitarist Chris Mojan hopping around the stage playing song off the We Are Everywhere EP including “From Mountain Movers, to Lazy Losers,” “Cardellini,” and “The Midnight Society.” Their cheap tricks, such as dedicating songs to inanimate objects and TV stars did not go over with the audience as well as Fireworks was expecting. For the most part, the instruments were played very well but David could not reach most of the high notes, especially towards the end. Also he kept cupping his hand over the microphone, making his voice sound muffled over the PA system. The crowd could barely put words together, let alone sentences. Drummer Tymm Rengers had a few spills on the drums, missing symbol crashes and tempo speeds but he recovered pretty quickly for the most part.
After two hours of head nodding, the crowd was ready to get loose with Four Years Strong taking the stage. Without hesitation the group began with a series of breakdowns which as they put it melted faces. They played songs off their demo disc including two new songs which will be on the new album, “Bada Bing! Wit A Pipe!” and “Heroes Get Remembered” found on the bands myspace. The crowd responded well to the Mass natives though Jake Massucco’s snare drum was acting up. Once the group finished the set, he maliciously stabbed his snare drum several times then sighing in relief.
The crowd sort of diminished a bit when I Am The Avalanche took the stage but that had no effect on the response the crowd gave the band. Playing most of the songs off their debut disc, song included: “Dead And Gone,” “New Disaster,” and their new single “Murderous.” The crowd could not stop singing along to every word. In-between songs, lead singer Vinnie Caruana gave guitar tuning lessons demonstrating what guitarist Brandon Swanson was doing when he was dropping D. The bands antics were funny and acceptable as their ability to perform. Vinnie even shared a story behind his song “My Second Restraining Order.” The fans responded respectable for his story afterwards going crazy for the song. I Am The Avalanche also played three new songs which were all either tentatively titled or untitled. Afterwards, the band hung around their merchandise table signing posters and talking with fans.
For the final show in the Ozone, it was a fun night which is hoped to be topped in the fall with the newly elected show director, Shawn Axtell of WNYO. He was seen a few times behind the scenes greeting band members and aiding in a successful show that night. With finals approaching fast, everyone is certainly looking forward to return with a fresh new list of bands playing in the far corner of The Union.
~The Oswegonian: Arts & Entertainment
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