2008 Woodie Awards
CSC hosts 4th annual Total Backstage Access
David Frederick
Issue date: 4/25/07 Section: Entertainment
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I went to TBA for two bands and two bands only: DownPlay and Ambulia. Truth is, they are the only acts I showed up to see. I heard a few of them on the radio, but only snippets.
DownPlay started to perform shortly after 2 p.m. to a diverse crowd. There were probably two punk and emo kids, and the DownPlay "groupies." One girl had a head full of dreads and a there was a guy with numerous tattoos and both ears fully pierced. These people are metal people.
"There wasn't a lot of people, I was kind of bummed. I didn't really get into it," said vocalist CJ.
The members that make up DownPlay prove that metal isn't just a genre of music, it's a lifestyle. On stage these boys just breathe metal.
CJ's voice sounds brutal, raw, deep and dark. Sadly, the loud sound of the instrumentals overpowered his voice, which sometimes was hard to hear. I think possibly because there was no time for the TBA crew to do a sound check.
Josh, who plays lead guitar, has the whole metal package. He plays really fast, has a long hair covered in a bandana, a beard, along with a number of facial piercings. He dresses in traditional metal garb like cut off cameo pants and a t-shirt with cut off sleeves. He is the stereotypical metal head.
Chris is always fooling around with his bass guitar. He often hops around stage making funny faces pretending his bass is a machine gun or plays it over his head slapping his bass strings and messing with his distortion pedals making some crazy sounds.
Lucien, on rhythm guitar, looks like some type of human windmill. As you watch him circle head bang, his hair whirls around like the thunderous blades of a helicopter propeller blowing you away.
Fred gets completely consumed by the music. His demeanor is great, his facial expressions are great, like when he grits his teeth like sadistic smile and menacingly sticks out his tongue as he pounds on his drums and stomps away on his double bass pedals.
DownPlay played a number of original songs, along with some covers by metal legends such as Tool, the Deftones and 40 Below Summer.
One Castleton student became an instant fan of DownPlay.
"These guys rock. You wouldn't happen to have them on your iTunes?" asked senior Steve Hartmann.
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