If you were out last night and in search of some kind of headbanger purity, this wasn’t the place to shop, but if you like your pop metal crossovers safe and sanitary, here was your sonic Nirvana. Alien Ant Farm was added to this bill well after it had already sold out, which proved to be a windfall for all involved. First, they had a full house in which to ply their relatively unknown wares; second, the audience got in on the ground floor of a band that looks to jump from opener to top of the bill rather quickly. There was little time - only 25 minutes - to get familiar with AAF, so the fact that they went down as well as they did was quite impressive. ‘Wish’ appeared to be the track of greatest reaction, resulting in a rather loud cheer at its completion. A ragged version of Michael Jackson ’ s ‘Smooth Criminal’ seemed a strange way to end the set, but not nearly as strange as the group’s hair cuts.

(3) Taproot spent the evening enjoying a homecoming of sorts as many friends and relatives of the band made the hour long journey from Ann Arbor, MI, to revel in their local loved ones celebrity. The band didn’t disappoint their well-travelled guests and dug deep into their energy reserves for that special something, ultimately finding it hard to contain all their enthusiasm to the Clutch Cargo stage. Lead singer Stephen Richards had to be fished from the audience no less than a dozen times, twice after he climbed and dove from the second tear balcony. Rock star with a death wish? More likely a confident frontman. who knew that the crowd was jammed in so tight that there wasn’t much chance of him hitting the floor. The song selection read almost exactly the same as the running order of their major label debut, with the addition of an old EP track, ‘Again And Again’, and their contribution to the ‘Dracula 2000’ soundtrack thrown in for variety. In all, Taproot were easily the highlight of the evening.

(4) Linkin Park was energetic, exciting, perfectly paced and a closer kin to the Backstreet Boys than to anything traditionally referred to as ‘metal’. They are completely hollow, vapid and non-threatening entity, with members so cute that the large number of very young girls in the audience alone justifies Linkin Park’s general dismissal as hard rock’s pre-fab boy band. Despite their attempts to grimace and look tough or ‘crazy’, this was pure fluff and what is worse, they got the crowd so excited, the little girls in the front row were either weeping at the sight of their heroes or passing out from the heat. From a performance standpoint, Linkin Park are extremely tight, reproducing their recordings with unparalleled efficiency, not a single note out of place for the length of 12 songs. They are the hottest thing going in the rap/metal world at the moment and will undoubtedly banish the likes of Limp Bizkit and Korn to obscurity - and don’t think that they don’t know it. Their stage demeanour crossed from cocksure to arrogant early on and by the time ‘One Step Closer’ dripped from the speakers to close the set, all that the hundreds of outstretched hands in the audience could inspire in the band was a roll of their eyes. During Linkin Park’s time on stage, not once did I think, Yeah, rappers, DJ’s and phat ass beats - now that is metal. Alas, the sold out house and platinum response to ‘Hybrid Theory’ would seem to trump my singular opinion. No accounting for taste, I suppose.

(4) for rehearsed excellence, but a 3 overall for being another sign that the anti-Christ is closing in on full ownership of metal, and it isn’t nearly as amusing as I thought it would be!