I arrived at the venue around eight-o'clock, in time to catch the opening acts. "The lot's full" the parking lot attendant informed me. I was a little bit surprised. I've been to the Webster Theater a few times, but have never seen the parking lot fill-up so early before... this was a promising sign of things to come.

There was a great turnout at the venue... it was good to see so many people. HURT began their set by playing a recording of the un-released track "Yearn". Evan Johns was the first to make his way on stage and began to play along to the track. He pounded his drums so hard that I though he was going to break a drum head. The rest of the band joined him and they segued into the opening track from Vol. II, "Summers Lost".

The performance, the musicianship, and the stage presence... all of it was top-notch. It was extraordinarily compelling and intense and never seemed routine. This was my third time seeing HURT perform live, and it was better than I remembered. Their live show now rivals many of the top-acts out there today.

It was a lively crowd too. There was an active mosh pit during the entire show, even while HURT played "Danse Russe" (which was a bit amusing). The only time the moshing paused was toward the end of "Rapture" when J. Loren climbed onto the pit barricade to scream out the lyric "just don't leave" and the entire crowd was drawn to him like iron filings to a magnet. It was very cool, and uncommon, to be able to witness something like that.

HURT closed their set with an encore performance of "Thank You for Listening". Afterward they were signing autographs for fans at the merchandise booth for nearly an hour. Some of the band's family in attendance even jumped behind the counter to help out.

One of the opening acts of the night was Cinder Road. Before this night, I hadn't seen synchronized head-banging onstage since I saw Warrant perform in 1991. There's probably a really good reason for that.

I hopped into my car for the long drive home, during which I took some time to digest what I had just seen. The guys in HURT are onto something, and I'm just glad they've invited us along to see and hear it.

| 10.12.2007 | Review by J. Pierson |