FILTER with Chevelle at Saltair, March 10, 7:30 p.m.; one performance only.Filter's Richard Patrick had already performed six or seven just average songs when somebody in the audience pegged him on the nose with a quarter.
He walked off the stage, only to return a short while later, posing threats to whoever did it. He even asked the crowd -- if they were "friends of Filter" -- to help point out the culprit.
If only he'd been a bit more cool-headed about it and offered a tongue-in-cheek joke instead. Honestly, would there have been any better time than that for the band to sing its screaming 1995 hit, "Hey Man Nice Shot?"
No such luck, however, in a night of music that started strong and then tapered off as it progressed. "Welcome to the Fold" opened the show with great promise. Red lights and fog were Filter's backdrop as Patrick penetrated a moshing crowd -- in a barely half-full Saltair -- with screaming lyrics, funky guitar riffs by Geno Lenardo and Frank Cavanagh and Steven Gillis' hard, driving beats. This was energy-filled, post-grunge rock at its finest, and the band looked to burn the night up with its brand of NIN-influenced angst.
Songs such as "The Best Things" and "It's Gonna Kill Me" were included in the sets that followed, providing a mosh-ready crowd an inconsistent soundtrack at best for bodysurfing. Patrick's throaty wail remained true and evident in most of the songs, but unnecessary, drawn-out jams in at least one song apparently confused the young crowd. Patrick picked up on it.
"We didn't mean to mellow you out. Are you all right?" Patrick asked after throwing opened water bottles into the audience and spraying anybody within a 25-foot radius of the stage.
Even the familiar "Take My Picture" was saved until close to the concert's end, after many had already walked out.
Chevelle, also from Chicago and on tour with Filter, opened, doing little to excite this tough-to-please crowd.