I saw Temple 8 last night at the Phantasy in Lakewood, Oh. They were one of four bands on the bill and played third. The first two bands were tearing it up but they had some serious meter problems, their stage amps were too loud and you couldn't even begin to hear the vocals. I could see the bass players playing a ton of notes but I actually couldn't hear one note they were playing. Whenever I hear this in bands, to me, it just means no one is playing in time with each other. After the first two bands played, I was really thinking and hoping Temple 8 would come out and be massively better in order for me to actually like the band. I am pleased to say they were massively better and there was no comparison. Temple's guitarist first off knows how to set the level of his amp where he gave an opportunity for the sound man to actually have some control of the way the mix was coming out of the mains. When Temple was playing, I could only hear the guitar out of the mains and in my opinion, that's the way it should be. ( the guitar amps the first two bands were way too loud on stage the whole time. I would think they should know better.) temple 8 knows how to play softer when the singing starts and that results in a more dynamic sounding and interesting band. Temple 8 knows how to write some songs too and the drummer and bass player were fabulous. I could hear every note the bass player played and with great tone. The guitarist, Kurt Tischer, doesn't need to play a million notes a second (boy do I usually dislike that) in a guitar solo and actually writes his solos to fit the song. The different tones he used were all too cool. Temple 8 has a trick up their sleeve as they play along with a synth track on some of their songs and that alone added depth and variety to their overall sound. Temple 8 is a good prog rock band that knows how to write good tunes so why aren't they on the Rock on the Range bill this summer in Columbus?

-- Jim Belanger, via Songkick.com