Saliva keeps it old-school during show at Eastwood

Opening act Ligion had a Youngstown connection.
By GUY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
NILES -- Never let it be said that Saliva is afraid of change.
The hard-rock band from Memphis, Tenn., has tried on a few styles over the course of its five-album career.
Songs like "Click Click Boom" and "Dope Ride" put the quintet in the rap-metal category in their early days. Top 40 ballads like "Rest In Pieces" occasionally shut off the testosterone gusher.
With its latest album, "Blood Stained Love Story," Saliva continues its zig-zag trek and winds up in the musical land of ... the All-American Rejects?
It's only on one song, but "Twister" sure echoes "Swing Swing."
Throughout the album, Saliva reworks some of the coolest riffs on the radio (Seether is another obvious influence) into something new. Sort of.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, either. "Love Story" is textured and embellished and will probably spawn four singles, including "Ladies and Gentlemen," which hit No. 1 on the Active Rock chart last week.
The CD also moves the chameleonic quintet closer to the 3 Doors Down-Nickelback mainstream than ever. You know it's true, because hard-core Saliva-heads are already starting to call their heroes sellouts.
All of which brings us to Sunday's concert at Eastwood Expo Center.
Which Saliva would show up: the raging rockers? Or the band that now pens introspective lyrics such as "Why can't I become something more than myself? I reach and I'm trying to believe in me, but it's just too hard to see" (from "Going Under" on "Love Story")?
The old-school Saliva won out, although it did toss in "Starting Over" and "Broken Sunday" from the new album. The hard stuff just went over better with the crowd, so lead singer Josey Scott kept it coming.
Saliva led off with "Black Sheep," a pounding rocker from "Love Story," and followed it up with a song whose title can't be printed here.
Also on the rather short set list -- Saliva was on stage for just 60 minutes, including encore -- were "Superstar," "Rest In Pieces," "Click Click Boom," "Ladies and Gentlemen," "Always" and "Your Disease."
Support acts
Crossfade, a perennial warm-up band from South Carolina, delivered a solid 30-minute set that was heavy on material from their soon-to-be-released CD "Falling Away."
The headbanger "Drive You Out" set the stage for "Cold," the group's biggest hit, in which lead vocalist Ed Sloan turned over singing duties to the crowd, which numbered no more than 1,500.
Opening the evening was Ligion, a five-piece group out of Nashville, Tenn., with a tenuous local connection. The band's frontman and co-founder, Ligion (he goes by the same name as the band) was born in Youngstown.
Backstage after the show, Ligion (the singer, not the band) said his family moved to Ashtabula when he was a baby, and later to Kent, where he spent most of his childhood. And no, he wouldn't reveal his real name.
"The band was formed in Cleveland, but our single ['Reality'] got picked up by a radio station in Nashville, so we moved there," said Ligion. He founded the band with lead guitarist June, of Chicago.
Ligion (the band) put on a furious show that featured songs off its debut disc, "External Affairs," which drops March 20.
Musically, Ligion bears a resemblance to another band with regional roots: Alliance's Lovedrug. It has a driving sound that it boosts to a higher level with harmonies and hooks. Onstage, lead singer Lig conveyed the tension in each song with his anguished delivery.