A T-shirt at the souvenir stand in the lobby of the Royal Oak Music Theatre on Thursday night, March 20, delivered a succinct message — “Chiodos is (expletive) back.”
And that was more than enough to draw a packed house to the venue for the first of two-sold out dates opening the first tour in 11 years by the heavy rock troupe from Davison, Mich.
It’s a different Chiodos these days, of course. Frontman Craig Owens — who resurrected the band for last October’s When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas — is the sole remaining member, accompanied now by a lineup that includes members of his other band, D.R.U.G.S. That’s not phasing fans, however; the 31-date 20 Years of All’s Well That Ends Well Tour, which runs into late April, is doing mostly sold-out business, with more — including the Vans Warped Tour during the summer and October’s Aftershock festival in Sacramento, Calif. — ahead. (Chiodos was also part of the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise last month.)
“Thank you for coming out and celebrating (the songs) together,” Owens, clad all in white, told the Royal Oak crowd, some of whom had traveled from other states and even countries, on Thursday. And the 15-song, 75-minute set was indeed a celebration that found Owens and his four compatriots ably holding up Chiodos’ ferocious legacy, handling the group’s blend of metal, prog and angsty punk with tight precision if not complete perfection — but any rough edges (some of which could be attributed to opening night) gave the performance an earnest authenticity that’s as much a Chiodos trademark as long, trippy song titles.
As the tour title indicates, the star of the show was “All’s Well That Ends Well,” Chiodos’ debut album, which will turn 20 in July. The quintet opened Thursday’s show with nine tracks, played out of sequence, and saved its anthemic hit, “Baby, You Wouldn’t Last a Minute on the Creek,” for the finale. The four instrumentalists ably delivered the songs’ tricky, sometimes suite-like arrangements, with guitarist Blake Hardman ripping through solos and guitarist-keyboardist Mitchell Rogers adding “dirty” vocals to complement Owens, who was filled with coiled energy as twirled his microphone and, at one point, “collapsed” into a white, throne-like chair positioned by the drum riser.
The fans responded with mosh pits and plenty of crowd surfing, and they were certainly delighted to hear songs such as “Who’s Sandie Jenkins,” “We’re Gonna Have Us a Champagne Jam” and “To Trixie and Reptile, Thanks for Everything,” played live again for the first time in 15 or more years. Before “No Hardcore Dancing in the Living Room” Owens thanked his mother, who was watching from the side of the stage, “for letting us play these songs in your basement over and over,” and also offered gratitude to fans who had hosted Chiodos in their basements and in VFW Halls and other locales during its early years.
The rest of the show drew primarily from Chiodos’ second album, “Bone Palace Ballet,” which was a surprise Top 5 debut on the Billboard 200 chart in 2007. “The Undertaker’s Thirst for Revenge is Unquenchable (The Final Battle),” “Teeth the Size of Piano Keys” and a particularly solid “Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered” were as potent as ever, and “Two Birds Stoned at Once” from the “Grand Coda” addition of the album was a welcome inclusion.
Whether this resumption of Chiodos leads to new music remains to be seen. There’s no question fans would welcome that, but on Thursday it was quite clear, too, that they’re well-satisfied with the band’s existing body of work.