Lamb shines through Hatebreed debacle in AC

I got a call around 4:00PM Friday, “Dude I can’t go see Hatebreed and Lamb of God in AC, you wanna go?”… Of course I said yes. I laced up my driving shoes and floored it to AC hydroplaning, dodging deer and running over cones for shits and giggles. I had every intention of this being an Atlantic City funfest.
For starters, House of Blues Atlantic City is one of the most gorgeous venues I have ever seen. The place would be perfect aside from 9 dollar beers. The sound quality was fantastic; the lighting was perfect, ample room and very little obstructed viewing.
Thy Will be Done got the part started. Really heavy, tight live band who covered a little raining blood. So the curtain draws and everyone starts dispersing to smoke or buy more booze and the curtain opens again. TWbD comes out and plays 3 more songs. Then 35 minutes go by. Between sets 30 minutes is an ETERNITY.
So finally a head pops out from a curtain and two dudes are standing there, neither of whom are Jamie Jasta, and Hatebreed starts their set. People are furious. Water was thrown at the band, dozens of people stormed out and the pit was more violent than other Hatebreed pits I have traversed. The two guys were apparently the Hatebreed roadies, one kinda shouted the lyrics, the other threw in the occasional scream. To be fair to them, it was a bad situation to be in and they handled it as well as anyone not named Jamie Jasta could handle singing a Hatebreed set.
Three songs go by, four, five, six and finally Jamie appears. The venue erupts, the set continues. They play two songs twice and about six songs later it is ballgame over. The crowd is stunned.
Thank goodness for Lamb of God. They killed it per usual. With the entire lineup intact (Doc from God Forbid has been filling in on guitar) they played six songs off of Wrath and some old favorites like Ruin and Black Label. But it was the no show that stole the show. To put it in perspective, I saw Ekotren at Championship Bar and Grill in Trenton the next night and people there heard about it.
It was a debacle for sure, taking what could have been one of the best shows of the year and turning it into a bust. However, it could have been worse if they decided not to play so cudos for the roadies for trying and Thy Will Be Done for preventing a sure fire riot.