Local favorites, Back Drop Bomb got the juices flowing early when they kicked of the Magic Rock Out festivities with a set full of crunchy hooks and spattered rhymes. The seven-piece Tokyo nu-metal troupe flung themselves on stage with a set permeated by the interplay of their twin vocalists alternating raps and harmonic bridges (think 311, but from the other side of the Pacific). The two-drummer rhythm section set the pace at a gallop, while the bassist and lead guitar laid out crunchy riffs for the already-packed crowd to stomp into the ground.

The set list swooped through metal guitar solos and skank-friendly bass lines, with the raps and wails of BDB' s two frontmen sending the pit into a sea of grins and elbows. Their sax player's chunky blasts should have been higher in the mix, but they still added the right touch when the feedback subsided.

Near the end, the riffs got looser, as did the crowd who switched to swaying instead of the mad pogo of earlier songs. Most of the crowd around me sang along, so I felt a bit out of the loop, but the reverb-laden hooks that came with the final numbers were enough to have me howling, as well. Back Drop seemed to be the Bomb, indeed. by Jason Jenkins 8th Feb 2003