Last night as a part of the music events of the Tribeca Film Festival, Hinder and Gym Class Heroes performed at Webster Hall in Manhattan, NYC and they kicked ass. Budweiser Select presented the concert and were on hand giving out plenty of free ice cold Budweiser Select beer in awesome new black and red "skinny" cans that resembled energy drink cans.
Gym Class Heroes took the stage at about 8:30 pm and Travis & company rocked the house. Especially notable were their performances of "Shoot Down the Stars", "Viva la White Girl", and the radio and MTV hit "Cupid's Chokehold". They also did great with "The Queen and I" and "Clothes Off" as well. But Travis singing "how sexy we are...how sexy we are, we just don't know it" was hypnotizing. Travis and his Geneva, NY based group are one of the best new artists out there in the industry.
Hinder and their lead singer, the great Austin Winkler of Oklahoma City, OK took the stage about 30 minutes after GCH's departure. They wowed the crowd and kept their attention steadily throughout their performance on stage. "Bliss (I Don't Want to Know)" is the best new rock song I have heard since "It's Not Over" by Daughtry. They performed that song with raw emotion. Of course their MTV/VH1 and radio hits "Better Than Me" and "Lips of an Angel" were the best performances of the entire concert. Austin sounded even better live on these tracks than on the CD. He has a unique voice built for Rock. His movements while singing reminded me strongly of Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses. Which is a good thing because Axl is a legend in his own right. Hinder rocks! The concert was excellent and a great way to kickoff the summer which is right around the corner.
