Local grunge rock band Double Jack, late additions to the bill, because of health issues in the Latency camp, warmed up the audience with their energetic ’90s style detuned rock. Guitarist/singer Mark Belisle showed he could sing glass shattering high notes like Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell as well as he could hit Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder’s growling midrange, especially on a song called ’Rise’ which also featuring some big guitar work.
They played tight and had the audience completely warmed up and ready by the time State of Shock took the stage around 10:30 p.m. State of Shock singer Cam Melnyk observed the audience was ripe with attractive women, then launched into a loud hit filled set which had the audience singing along with most of the songs, the band bounded all over the stage through the riff filled numbers.
Guitarist Jesse Wainwright brought out a double necked Gibson for “Best I Ever Had,” as a taped keyboard accompaniment blasted through the Blarney Stone for the first in what seemed like an endless stream of nauseating power ballads. They were well done , if rock ballads are your thing. Melnyk had the voice for it in a Creed/ Pearl Jam way. They redeemed themselves by rocking it with an uptempo rocker which sounded like it was called “Day After Day,” then another rocker called ‘Stupid’
They wound up their set with a version of Papa Roach’s ‘Last Resort‘ before ending the show with, of course, their big hit, ‘Money Honey’ and had most of the crowd singing the whole thing.
— By Richard Amery, L..A.Beat editor