Toad’s Place Welcomes the Freakshow with Hinder and Nonpoint

New Haven’s Toads Place was packed to capacity last night in anticipation of Nonpoint’s long awaited return to Connecticut along with Hinder, on the road in support of their latest release “Welcome to the Freakshow”. The show featured recently signed opening act Acidic.
Though most had never heard of the Southern California rockers, Acidic had the crowd hooked in minutes. Vocalist and lead guitarist Michael Gossard sounded like a heavier, grittier Billie Joe Armstrong as the band ran through tracks from their debut label release “Copper Man”. The energy of bassist Ted Dubrawski was contagious, and the beats from drummer Matt Whitaker had Toad’s Place shaking as fans jumped along. The highlight of the set came when Gossard told fans they liked to play a different cover song each night. They ignored the cliché requests for “Freebird” and broke into an awesome rendition of The Beatles “Come Together”. Throughout the song Gossard made his way through the crowd as we took part in a rocking Beatles sing along.
After an awesome set from Acidic the crowd was warmed

up—perhaps too much—for metal giants Nonpoint to take the stage. The bands set included a number of songs from their October self-titled release, including their latest single “Left For You” which singer Elias Soriano said was an apparent fan favorite. His claim became evident when Toads Place erupted into a frenzy of head banging and flailing arms. The set also included one of the heaviest, and quite possibly best covers of Phil Collin’s “In the Air Tonight”, a cover from 2004’s “Recoil”. The melodic vocals from Soriano grew more intense as the drums picked up, causing the place to go crazy when the full band kicked in at the second chorus. Their set closed out with “Bullet With a Name”. By the end of the song fans throats were raw from screaming along and ready for a much-needed rest before Hinder would take the stage.
An appearance from Hinder in such an intimate venue was an awesome treat for Connecticut fans that saw the band rock the massive Oakdale Theater at WCCC’s Christmas Chaos back in December. They opened up the set with “Up All Night”, wide grins across all of the member’s faces as they fed off of the crowd’s energy. The rock continued with an endless stream of hits including “All American Nightmare” and “Save Me”. The band slowed things down a bit as singer Austin Winkler sat down with drummer Cody Hanson on guitar to perform to acoustic tracks, including the upcoming single from “Welcome to the Freakshow”,

“Get Me Away From You”. The audience received the light sound with huge applause and deafening screams, happy to hear the lighter side to Winkler’s soulful voice. Things picked back up again as the set came to a close with a two song encore. “How Long” got us amped up for the fan favorite “Get Stoned” as each and every single person sang along with the rock anthem. Lead guitarist Blower blew fans away (pun intended) with his intricate guitar work as he casually strolled around the stage with an unwavering smile across his face. The entire band was in sync and seemed to love every second of the show. The lights went down late on the Tuesday night to a room of very content rockers and metalheads.

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