The Expendables, 12/12/10
Santa Cruz, CA

After being overseas for the first time in their career and having toured extensively all over the U.S., The Expendables were ready to rock their home town for the first time in almost eight months. The sold out crowd at the Catalyst made their homecoming show electric, as the band walked out to the loudest 800 people I have ever heard. Before starting the first song of the night, lead singer Geoff Weers said, "I know this may be a stupid question, but do we have any party people here?" The crowd exploded with cheers, and the band began the night with "Let Loose."

Next came the classic "Down, Down, Down" followed by one of their slower songs, "Die for You." The band may have sensed the crowds' anxiousness to move around, because the last half of "Die for You" transitioned to a fast paced punk version of the song. This not only demonstrated the bands extreme talent and versatility, but proved that they were great performers too. A song that could have been boring if it was performed identically to the album, instead turned into a highlight of the concert.

The Expendables played a lot of their older songs, such as "Drift Away" and "Right Time" before playing "One Night Stand," which the band dedicated to all of the single people in the room! Not only is it a very danceable ska song, but it gave lead guitarist Raul Bianchi a chance to show off his talent. The band broke it down half way through the song and let Bianchi take a solo. Even the rest of the band seemed to be in awe of the speed he plays at. Once again, The Expendables proved to be performers as well as artists as they changed things up during the live performance and kept things interesting for the audience.

After paying homage to reggae legend Eek-A-Mouse and covering his song "Ganja Smuggling," the band played my favorite song of the night, "Sacrifice." The song starts out as a calm and relaxing reggae song, turns into a punk instrumental for a couple of minutes, and then makes its way back to reggae. It was interesting to see the crowd dancing and together, then open up mosh pits, and then come back together again, all in the same song.

Other than the music, Weers kept the crowd entertained with his funky dance moves. When he wasn't singing, he would bounce his knees up and down, spin around, and make bizarre faces. You could tell he was having a blast. During a guitar solo, I found myself watching Weers dancing instead of Bianchi shredding on the guitar.

The Expendables finished off the first set with "Burning Up," another song that starts out with reggae, but ends up at a totally different place. Drummer Adam Patterson took the stage for the start of the encore by himself. Being a diehard Giants fan, he asked the crowd to give it up one last time for the Giants winning the World Series. He then started playing a beat on the drums, was later accompanied by bassist Ryan DeMars, and then Weers and Bianchi came on to play "Minimum Wage." The second song of the encore was a new song that had never been played before a crowd. After the song, Weers told us we got an "early Christmas present" because the crowd the next night would not get to hear that song. The night ended with "Bowl for Two," arguably their most popular song. Weers let us sing the last chorus, and he even seemed to be surprised at how loud we could sing.

In summary, it was great to hear some of the older Expendables music and see the band change up the arrangement of some of their songs. My favorites were "Mr. Sun", "One Night Stand," and "Sacrifice." Their live shows are so enjoyable because of the wide variety of music they play - one minute you'll feel like Metallica is on stage, and the next, it's Bob Marley.



Reviewed by: Nathan