**UPDATED With Pictures!**

If you had told me a week ago that I would be attending a heavy metal concert featuring a band called Fear Factory, I would have said, yeah right, buddy.  So when Matt and I were driving around last weekend and an ad for the concert came over the radio and Matt expressed interest, I was more than a little skeptical.

I wanted to hear what they sounded like so when we got to my house, we listened to some clips on the internet.  It wasn't exactly my type of music, but I did like some things about it, especially their more technical stuff because it's kind of like drum & bass, which Matt also introduced me to.

So on Tuesday night we headed over to the theater for the concert.  The last time we went to the Sunshine Theater was for the Static X concert and it was PACKED.  We were lucky to get a spot on the topmost rank of the balcony.  This time, the balcony wasn't even open.  There weren't many people at all.  There were maybe about 50 people all crowded up by the stage, and that was it.  We opted to stand a little behind that group in case they got rowdy and tripped or something, but we were pretty much front and center.

There were three bands performing before Fear Factory.  The first was Periphery.  They were all right.  They had four guitars, which was probably overkill (one guitar player was really hot though) and the singer wasn't that great when he actually sang.  He seemed really off pitch.  And I know this.  It was one of the few things I was good at when I played piano.

Hot guitarist

The second band was Dirge something.  They were probably the best of the three opening bands.  The singer was pretty good, but kind of weird looking, and he was all about starting a mosh pit.  The audience didn't seem all that into it, though, so I figured I was safe.  One minute, everyone was just standing around listening to the music, and then someone ran through the crowd (more people had shown up by this point and the floor was pretty much full) and I was pushed down as more people joined in and I was in the middle of the dang mosh pit.  My reflex was to grab onto Matt and we went over to the side of the stage.  My shoe had fallen off partially so I was hobbling around trying to get it back on.  Luckily I had my purse tucked under my coat, so I didn't drop anything, but it was definitely interesting.

Weird, kinda emo looking singer dude

On the side where we opted to stand, we encountered the most interesting of all the concert-goers.  A middle aged man wearing his business clothes.  No joke.  He was just hanging out and head-banging with the rest of them.  At one point, he left for a while and I was able to make it to the front of the room, right in front of the stage.  That was kinda cool, except I was pretty much next to the speaker during the performance of my least favorite of the bands.  The instruments were all right, but the singer's style was that sort of deep evil groan that my old high school Theology teacher would have said sounded like someone put a microphone in hell and broadcast it over the speakers.  And he kept promoting all his CD's and crap after every song.  Kind of annoying.

Annoying, scary sounding singer

When the main band came out, I was pushed out of the front area a little but not before I got a couple pictures.  I took them with my phone so they probably turned out really crappy, but it's ok.  I'm still bummed about not getting any pictures of Tool at all, so I wanted to get at least a couple of these guys.

Anyway, the first thing I thought about Fear Factory were that the guitar and bass players were very much overweight and not attractive at all to look at. Yes, I know this is super shallow, but it's not my fault they looked like nasty unwashed fat slobs, and probably stunk like B.O. 

One of those guys

The singer was much better looking so I tried to focus on him the most. I liked that he actually had a decent singing voice, as well as a heavy metal voice, and enjoyed the songs when he actually sang the most.  To be honest, it took me a while to get into it, but I started liking it a lot better when they began playing songs from what Matt told me was their best album.

Lead singer of Fear Factory

Plus everyone else was getting into it and that's always fun to watch.  It's a very interesting demographic of heavy metal fans here in New Mexico.  They are a very pushy lot.  The guy in front of us was definitely on something and kept falling backwards.  And there was a random blond chick (possibly the only one there) who was totally into the music.

So, yep, all in all it was a pretty good time.  I probably wouldn't want to see them again, but it was a good experience for me, and it made Matt really happy, which was the best part.