The Chameleon opened its doors to the quiet chatter of an audience ready to get loud. Norma Jean and Haste The Day headlined a great set of metal bands Thursday night.

Oh Sleeper, a band from Fort Worth, Texas, started the night off. They screamed a few songs from their new CD When I Am God, while their lead singer head banged and jumped around the stage, surprisingly never smashing into any of his band mates.

My Children My Bride and The Showdown came up next. Both were good, but not great, and got a little boring to listen to after a while. Matt Hasting, of My Children My Bride, honestly had the biggest gauges this side of the Atlantic Ocean, which was kind of gross. However, once gauges go out of style he can always keep them as bracelets.

The Showdown made me happy because all four boys in the band had hair longer than most girls. Most Hard Core bands seem to have one or two band members who refuse to acknowledge the invention of the scissors, but The Showdown was the perfect band for head banging.

Though lead singer, David Bunton, managed to look like a stripper half the time, he definitely did know how to move. Haste The Day came on stage next. Not about to be the only one there rocking out, lead singer, Stephen Keech, said “Right here, right now. No excuses, everyone in this room will move!”

They mostly played old songs, which kind of made them seem like a cover band, since lead singer, Jimmy Ryan, left the band in 2005. Keech screams just as well as Ryan, but they are not really his songs. They still managed to put on a good show and did, in fact, let Keech sing some of their newer stuff. Between songs, Keech let his audience know what drove the band. He said, “The reason we get on stage is because of Jesus Christ.”

Finally, Norma Jean came on stage. Always a band to put on a great show, they played mostly songs off their new cd, The Anti Mother. They had possibly the coolest stage set up I have ever seen as far as metal bands go, with six, seven foot strobe lights brightening up the stage.

The show was over all amazing, just as I thought it would be, minus a few audience mishaps. Apparently, there was a girl on the first floor going around biting people, my one friend got vomited all over by an extremely drunk concert goer, and two guys got kicked out for fighting in the mosh pit. The question I wanted to ask is how do you know when two people are actually fighting in a mosh pit? I always figured that was kind of the point.

Anyway, insane audience members aside, Norma Jean and company screaming their little heads off for four hours made me happy, though a little deaf.