Sunday, April 22, 2007
State Theatre, St. Petersburg
Long hair, southern accents and heavy metal music are what these guys are into. Last year, they called one of my friends to sing her happy birthday and rant about alligators. This year, they are promoting their newest album, Temptation Come My Way. These are the Tennessee natives of The Showdown.
The Showdown opened unafraid to sport their own band t-shirts and bang their heads to guitar riffs at the State Theater on April 22 with Days of the New.
Before the show, I had the chance to meet up with singer David Bunton where he gave me some insight on what their band is all about. “We are into touring and having fun. No Xboxes. No PlayStations. None of that,” David said. “We are into outside.”
I saw them play once before at Cornerstone Florida, which is like a Christian Warped Tour. “We are all Christians in the band and I think that it definitely comes out in the lyrics,” David said.
David said that the band is just out there having a good time and hopes to get fans
to do the same. “I think we have a positive message and I’m pretty proud of that,” he
said. He does not think that many bands out there can say that. “The main thing we want people to do is head bang and learn a good lesson at the same time, you know?” according to David.
Temptation Come My Way is The Showdown’s sophomore release, and its production was provided by Paul Ebersold (Three Doors Down, Saliva). This album took two years to make and is a better reflection of the band members, according to David. It has more of a classic, heavy southern rock feel, as opposed to their previous record, A Chorus of Obliteration, which has a more heavy metal core feel.
Temptation Come My Way is a rather taunting title to give, I said to David. He responded, “It’s about all the stuff we face as dudes: addictions, sex, drugs and rock and roll.” The album is about dealing with those struggles and coming out okay. After all, “everybody messes up,” David said.
Even so, he does not think that the band has a harder struggle with temptations because they are out on tour. “We’re dudes. We get into trouble everywhere,” David said. “I’m just being honest.”
The first album has lyrics about the Old Testament. It was written in 2003, mostly by guitarist and vocalist Josh Childers, with a little help from guitarist and vocalist Travis Bailey. David said that they were not looking to be a serious band at the time. When they first started out, they wanted to get signed, but that was not their main goal because they had so much other stuff going on at the time. “We just wanted to do a record that was totally against the norm, as far as, like, you know, the breakdown and metal core,” he said. “We wanted to rebel and do something extremely heavy.”The newest album is more personal, with songs titled “It Drinks from Me” and “We Die Young.” “It’s stories about us and our lives after being on the road for a couple years. A lot goes down,” David said. He explained that it can be difficult to put out a record and be tour, especially for the family. “It’s like being in a whirlwind. It’s kinda crazy; you learn a lot and grow up fast,” he said.
The band wrote the new record together, and David said that it represents them all. The new album has more structure and chorus and they all got to have more of a hand in it. “It’s music that we actually like,” he said. “The first album, we are definitely proud of. We are into heavy music, but I think that the new record is more us, you know?” David said.
“I don’t know, it’s a lot different doing the first record than the next one. Doing the second record was like ‘this is who we are, this is what we are into,” according to David.
This summer, The Showdown will be touring with Ozzfest. It will be their first tour with the Prince of Darkness, and I think that it is pretty safe to say that they are excited about it. Especially with all that Monster Energy Drink David kept talking about.
Published in REAX Music Magazine Vol. 2 Issue #1
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