Animals As Leaders MEGATHREAD

[Kurkkuviipale]

I asked him on facebook "Did you help Tosin write Wave of Babies?"
And he replied:
"yeah i wrote a bunch of those riffs, programmed all the drums too"

...and then I got all giddy since he replied to me on facebook

Wave of Babies was recorded right after they finished the first album...

 

[Customisbetter]

tosin originally approached me to write a few of the songs on the new album with him, and the idea was i was going to program the drums for those songs, but then navene was going to learn them and give them his own flavor
the only problem is scheduling, i honestly dont know if this will work for either of our schedules based off of their deadline, but if i can, i obviously want to do it, writing with tosin is so much fun!

I imagine that writing with Tosin is like getting a 55 gallon drum of liquid knowledge poured onto your face.

 

[Rudebrat]

Where did Tosin study music? He went to college for Jazz theory right?

 

[Breadmonkey]

I'd much rather AAL do what Misha did on the Periphery album and have Navene's performance with high quality samples used, best of both worlds IMO

 

[paintkilz]

Where did Tosin study music? He went to college for Jazz theory right?

atlanta school of music or something similiar to that. git/mit?

 

[JoshuaLogan]

Anybody else go to this tour? This specific show was at the House of Blues on Disney property in Orlando, FL. It's the first show I've been to in a while, and the first non-metal show I've been to in a LONG while. I had a good time.

Animals as Leaders opened... played pretty well, but they didn't get to play for very long at all unfortunately. Still, it was my first time seeing them play, so I enjoyed it... Tosin was rocking his new LACS 8 string that he has posted pics of here on this forum. Both he and the other guitarist were using Axe-FXs... Unfortunately, I do have to say that I wasn't feeling the distorted guitar tones or FOH mix very much at all though. (just being honest... sorry, guys) Also, there were some completely brain dead teeny kids trying to hardcore dance to the heavier sections and looking dumbfounded and confused during all the jazz... pretty lame.

Codeseven played next... wasn't really into them. They were alright... kind of a slow, doomy prog rock sort of band. Their set was cut short due to equipment problems.

Dredg was next... they also had equipment problems, but were very good. I'm not a huge fan or anything, but I definitely like them, and I was seriously impressed with how good their singer is live... possibly one of the best live vocalists I've seen (as far as actual singing, note accuracy, etc.)

Circa Survive was really very good. The band was tight, the sound was great, and Anthony was very good. I've seen videos of him having off nights live before, but he was pretty damn on this night. I wouldn't say he was as dead on accurate as Dredg's singer, but he was still very good and had a lot of energy.

Also, I knew they were the headliners, but I was not expecting such a great stage show. The House of Blues is a rather nice venue, and they definitely took advantage of it. They had two large square light systems that flashed multicolored LEDs in all sorts of patterns and sequences on each side of the drummer, big confetti canons that launched confetti into the audience a few times during certain songs, huge inflatable balloons/balls filled with glowsticks or something similar bouncing around the crowd. Obviously, the music itself and the energy of the performance is the most important part, but their stage show was really impressive and made everything that much better.

Besides the stage show, two special things happened during Circa's set:

1. Tosin from AAL came out during a spacey jam session section of one of Circa's songs, and he played a guest solo followed by a short little jam session while Anthony was singing. I'd say he played along with the band for a good 3 minutes or so. The solo was really fucking cool... very fusiony, alien sounding stuff. After the song Anthony told the crowd to give it up for him and commented on his playing, saying "That's some otherworldy shit right there..." hahaha. I think it's awesome when bands collaborate live on stage, and AAL didn't get to play very long earlier, so I really enjoyed it. I hope someone gets a video of the performance up on youtube so you all can see it.

2. They played a cover of a section of an At The Drive-In song. I used to be a big fan of ATDI when I was younger, and I dig The Mars Volta. So, I thought this was pretty damn cool... I think it was mostly lost on the crowd, as there was a LOT of really young kids there, but still cool nonetheless.

Despite said young crowd and beer being way too fucking expensive, I had a good time. There was a lot of energy in the place, and Anthony seemed very appreciative. All of the musicians were very down to earth, nice, humble guys. Good times.

 

[Jtizzle]

I'm not a fan of any of the bands except for AAL obv. I was going for them today at Ft Lauderdale, but I don't really feel like spending all my money. It's good to know that AAL doesn't play that long cause I was really just gonna go for them.

 

[josh pelican]

I want to see Animals as Leaders and Circa Survive so fucking bad.

 

[ZackP3750]

I'm planning on catching a side date in Syracuse at the end of November, but its just Dredg, Animals as Leaders, and Codeseven. I'm really only going to see AAL, and hopefully since its not the full tour lineup they'll play a bit longer than normal. Plus the show's only $15, and I'd pay that to see Tosin play 3 songs let alone a set worth, so either way it should be a good time

 

[Matt-Hatchett]

I'm going to the show in New Orleans tomorrow. I love AAL and Circa, so I'm pretty stoked on it. I really hope I get to experience all of those goodies as well. Especially the At The Drive In cover. I'm a long time fan.

 

[AzzMan]

What ATDI song did they jam out? I was going to go.... then I didn't.

 

[Drow Swordsman]

I'm going to the show in New Orleans tomorrow. I love AAL and Circa, so I'm pretty stoked on it. I really hope I get to experience all of those goodies as well. Especially the At The Drive In cover. I'm a long time fan.

They've been playing that bit of a cover the whole run, you'll definitely see it! As well as the solo, he plays during In Fear And Faith. The song they cover for a bit is Invalid Litter Department. Anthony cues it in by saying "dancing on the corpses' ashes". I was so pumped when I heard him saying that, but I think it was lost on 3/4 of the crowd, but I still loved it.

 

[pineappleman]

I'm probably going to the Detroit date. Should be awesome.

 

[Matt-Hatchett]

They've been playing that bit of a cover the whole run, you'll definitely see it! As well as the solo, he plays during In Fear And Faith. The song they cover for a bit is Invalid Litter Department. Anthony cues it in by saying "dancing on the corpses' ashes". I was so pumped when I heard him saying that, but I think it was lost on 3/4 of the crowd, but I still loved it.

That's the best news ever.

 

[sans cosm]

atdi - invalid litter dept.

 

[AlucardXIX]

I would have been there...But a week earlier my grandfather passed so family and I had to travel to Indiana for the funeral and all. Just now on the way home, really which I could have been there, but the circumstances were not in my favor.

 

[Xiphos68]

Was it this song he came and played out on?

 

[thefool]

went to the show at the recher theatre in towson, it was kinda their home show, AAL were amazing, tosin nailed all the solos and the band sounded so full and tight. I wish AAL played more than the 4 songs that they play but they were totally worth paying to go to the show, I left after seeing them, not a big fan of codeseven and I can't stand anthony greens voice. animals as leaders killed the show though

 

[Harry]

You can definitely hear the ATDI influence in Circa's sound, so no surprised about that small cover snippet.
Shame it was lost on most of the crowd, because as far as I'm concerned, ATDI released the best post hardcore album of all time with Relationship of Command.

No idea who Codeseven are, but the rest of the lineup is just stellar.

 

[red1010]

I saw the same show in Atlanta this past Thursday and i must say that for my third time seeing AAL I was pretty disappointed. The first time was great but I am beginning to get sick of Naveen's drumming. It seems a little flashy and sort of steals the spot light from the guitars. During On Impulse in the beginning when Tossin has his guitar intro Naveen would not stop wailing on the hi-hat. It stole the attention from the guitars completely for me. Not only that but nearly all his parts seem improvised which upsets me seeing that I know the original parts so well. Aside from a few other hick-ups in some songs it was still a great performance but definitely not the best I have seen them do. I still love you guys and look forward to hearing new materials.

As for codeseven and dredge both bands seemed very nu-metal and sort of boring. Nothing really stood out except for codesevens wacky vocalist Jeff. The music was pretty basic but I can see why it would work well with Circa(who of course was great)

I also had the chance to see Circa perform a short acoustic set at a local record store before the show began. It was a great experience and I enjoyed it more than the actual show just because I actually had a chance to talk to the guys and get some signatures. I was very glad they decided to do that.