The Rave itself is actually three separate floors, each of which have stage set ups.  The basement, known as The Rave II was used as the merchant area, where fans could buy themselves band swag, signup with various organizations like PETA or even subscribe to Alternative Press.  The second floor, called The Rave, was used as the second stage, where bands like Blessthefall and Idiot Pilot played.  The third floor of the building is called the Eagles Ballroom.  It's absolutely huge and for the Taste of Chaos the ballroom was packed!  The sound in the ballroom is always deafening and oftentimes mushy, but on this night, the sound engineers seemed to have their act together.

We were able to catch most of the main stage bands and interestingly enough, it seemed as though most people stayed in the ballroom all night as the room on the second floor never quite had a huge group of people.  Bullet for My Valentine, Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold all brought their A-games and had the crowd going apeshit.  Aside from all of the moshing, crowd surfing and even flashing the crowd was so thick that we saw at least a half dozen people get carried out after passing out.

This was our first time seeing Bullet For My Valentine and they are quite a show.  From the guitar shredding to the long haired head banging, there was no lack of intensity with them.

Atreyu also put on a great set playing songs spanning their catalog of CDs.  Whether it was "Bleeding Mascara" off The Curse, "Creature" off A Death Grip on Yesterday or "Blow" from their latest record Lead Sails Paper Anchor, the crowd sang along to every song.

Avenged Sevenfold conducted themselves as they always do; rockstars.  Each of them perform with a swagger that is usually always picture perfect.  They too spanned their catalog, but focused primarily on songs off City of Evil and their newest Self-Titled album.  The highlight of Avenged's set was them playing "A Little Piece of Heaven" as their encore.  It is a song that I never thought they could pull off live, but they did and it was spectacular.

By the time this piece hits the web, the Taste of Chaos Tour will only be a few days from ending, but if it swings through your town, do yourself a favor and go.

PHOTO GALLERIES:

Blessthefall