Taste of Chaos

Compared to the pandemonium you'd encounter on, say, a Mariah Carey tour when the wrong color limo arrives, the relative bedlam of a well-oiled machine like the Taste of Chaos tour might seem sedate. Created by Warped Tour mastermind Kevin Lyman as a successful off-season counterpart to Warped, Taste of Chaos exists mainly so bands not in the accepted modes of nu-metal, emo and punk can get a fair shake. So it's no surprise that the grand ol' band on this second TOC tour is The Deftones, who indeed proved deft at distancing themselves from nu-metal when it looked like there'd be no place for impulses more artsy than wearing a baseball cap backward. Their last release, a collection of B-sides and rarities, contained covers of songs by Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Sade, and Morrissey. Also coloring outside the lines this tour is Thrice, whose metalcore is generally considered more experimental (since it occasionally toys with electronics, Fender Rhodes piano, and even melody!), and Funeral for a Friend, an emocore band from Pontypridd, Wales, the same mining town that gave us Tom Jones and Grogg clay models, which are like Welsh celebrity bobbleheads except that the heads remain stationary. Also remaining stationary -- As I Lay Dying! No, seriously, these Cali growlers sound like black metal fresh outta Norway. It took us three songs before we could make out one English word, and we think it was "Godzilla."