By: James Bickers
Special to The Courier Journal
Travis Meeks could not have asked for a better crowd for his homecoming concert than the one he got last night at the Louisville Palace. The faithful came out in droves to see the local boy who had made good, and an energetic performance left none of them unsatisfied.
Some people have described the music of Days of the New as acoustic metal. I disagree with that description.
Not only do I think the phrase acoustic metal is a contradiction, but even if you handed these guys electric guitars and turned the distortion up to 10, they still would not be a metal band.
Days of the New falls squarely in the realm of traditional rock, something like what might result if Jim Morrsion had unprotected sex with Alice In Chains.
The opening act was a metal band by the name of Finger Eleven. Musically, they come across as a watered-down version of the Deftones. I thought I detected hints of Tool and Fear Factory in their style as well. Their set was smart and lively, punctuated by great guitar and vocal work.
Then came Days of the New--and not a moment too soon for the bristling and passionate crowd.
Meeks is a by-the-book angry young man, but he possesses a fantastic stage presence; his confidence and style suggest someone who has been doing this for decades. In his shirtless and unshaven swagger, he is a walking study in post-adolescent rage.
In a live setting, Days sound much more vibrant and interesting than their recorded material; many of their songs have a mundane, almost droning quality on album, but much of that lifelessness is hammered out on stage.
The band’s cover version of The End showed beyond a doubt just how much of an influence Jim Morrison must have been on Meeks. In many ways, Meeks is the better singer, and this song in particular was one of the high points of the night.
Watching the performance, though, one cannot escape the grim feeling that Days of the New is a novelty band in some respects. Had they been carrying electric guitars all along, they might never have been noticed. Maybe. To be sure, there are times when the use of acoustic guitars feels like a gimmick, especially since those guitars are strummed and thumped with such fervor that they don’t really sound acoustic anymore.
But novelty or not, the band certainly possesses performance skills beyond their years, and any fan of their recorded output would have been easily swept up in the evening’s spell.
