The label given to Taste Of Chaos by a lot of people is ‘emo fest’ and it’s a well earned label when you look around at the show and at the poster emo boy headliners, Taking Back Sunday.

With less hype than last year, and a different venue, the crowd outside Sydney Entertainment was buzzing with excitement and anticipation of the night to come.

When doors opened at 6pm, Parkway Drive blasted onto the stage with their explosive set. They were full of energy, and came out with all the predictable banter about how happy they are to finally be back in Australia. But they did their job well. They got the crowd worked up for the acts to come. Too bad the next act was the relatively unknown act by the name of Beretta Justice.

The Five Venoms were only noticable at first because of their hairstyles  – which looked like they belonged in the 80s, but once they got started it was hard to ignore their talent on the guitar. In fact, the Senses Fail guitarist was leaning over to watch as they helped each other play their guitars. Not a bad support, but the solos got a bit much after 10 minutes and the crowd just wanted the next act; Senses Fail.

Senses Fail got the younger members of the crowd going, but couldn’t bring the punk fans to enjoy their set. They handled themselves well as they got bottles thrown at them occasionally, and still managed to belt out their best known song Cute When You Scream as memorably as the members of the Five Venoms haircuts.

As Silence Breaks were the second support act to play. They produced a set that made the girls in the front of the pit reach for the singer’s hand (and other areas) as he stood near the crowd. However disturbing, it’s still impressive when a band that sounds just like every other screamo band can get girls going like that.

The next act proved that Taste Of Chaos isn’t just an ‘emo fest’. Anti-Flag came on to the stage with the intention of leaving an impression on the crowd, and they did so. Instead of the rock sign, they got the crowd to make a peace sign and had them screaming chants of ‘the people united will never be divided’. They grabbed the attention of the entire audience with their positive energy and hard-hitting statements.

Bagster, winners of Triple J Unearthed were next on the side stage. As they walked on, people were leaving. They exclaimed ‘what? do people have a problem with horn sections these days?!’ before starting their set. Unlike the other support acts, Bagster had some loyal fans in the crowd singing along to every word of their songs and managed to be, in my humble opinion, the most impressive support act of the night.

Underoath hit the stage next, proving themselves louder, and more annoying than the other acts so far. They caused a stir at the end of their set when they stated that they’re a Christian band, and if anyone doesn’t like it, they don’t care. But apart from that, their set wasn’t all that memorable.Thursday were so good that I left during their set to get a drink and food. There’s always that part of the show, and they were mine.

Saosin played on the side stage where all the support acts did, which was a shock to a lot of people, but they put on a great set. For a band with only one EP out, as everyone says, they have an amazing following in a lot of places and if for no other reason, they deserve respect for that.

Finally, the lights went down and the crowd was left to wait for Taking Back Sunday. The floor was slippery from sweat, alcohol and whatever else had hit the ground during the night, and some were too tired to be excited about the headliners. At least until the lights came back up and they could see Adam Lazarra, the charismatic frontman of Taking Back Sunday, standing at the front of the stage with a gun holster on as an accesory. It didn’t make much sense, but they played the set everyone expected with plenty of throwing with the microphone, not-so-witty banter and a lot of screaming girls wanting to take off Adam’s skinny leg jeans.

Taste Of Chaos ‘06 was a success, but with the predictability of Taking Back Sunday and mediocrity of most other acts, Anti-Flag stole the show easily and hopefully we’ll all see more of Bagster in the coming months.

Check out the photos from Taste of Chaos here