Last night was one of those shows where I was actually excited to go. It’s not that I don’t love every show I go to, because I do, but when you go to a show night after night after night, it gets a little exhausting and it’s hard to really get excited.
The line-up last night was something made by the Gods. It had one of my old school favorite bands, Every Time I Die, one of my newer favorite bands, Beartooth, one of my favorite live bands, Fit For A King, and a band that I’ve been wanting to hear more from, Old Wounds. It was perfection as far as line-ups go and I was surrounded by some of the best of friends… yeah, it was next to a perfect night.
Old Wounds opened up the show last night as the crowd was trickling in. They definitely were a great start to the night with their powerful music and energy-filled stage show. Zak, the singer, did a great job of trying to get the crowd moving which is definitely a hard thing for an opener to do. About half way through their set, he jumped from the stage into the crowd and started pushing people around in the pit just to get them going. Sure, it didn’t work as well as it should have and people still seemed reluctant to use up any energy on the opening act but it was a good try.
I’ve been a fan of Old Wounds for awhile now. I’ve seen them open up other shows and I’ve always been impressed with them. I feel like this is the biggest show I’ve seen them on to date and it made me so happy to see how much they have grown.
Second on the bill was Fit For A King. I typically love these guys but something seemed off last night. The music was fine and the crowd was going nuts for them but it just wasn’t doing it for me. I don’t know if it’s that I just wasn’t in the mood for their music or if it was because I knew who was coming on stage next and I was just anxious, but something just wasn’t right and their short set left me a bit disappointed. I will, of course, go see them the next time they come to town and chalk last night up to “I just wasn’t in the mood”.
Every Time I Die was next and the reason majority of my friends were at this show. These guys have one of the most high energy live shows I’ve ever seen and they always sounds amazing when I see them live… last night was no different.
These guys have been a staple in my life’s playlist for years. Their sound is heavy, southern, and loud. It has elements in it that, when you hear them, you know damn well it’s ETID and I love that about them. I love the fact that ever since their first release in 2001, they have been able to keep up with the scene, stay relevant, and keep my interested and in love. It’s hard for a band to stay in my playlists for five years, let alone damn near 15 years now but ETID has somehow figured out how to do so.
Jordan Buckley, guitarist, is my favorite part of ETID’s live show. This guy just can not stand still and seems to have a problem with keeping his feet planted on the stage. He has a habit of jumping in the crowd and surfing through it, climbing to the highest point of the speaker stacks and just chilling there for a bit, and literally just running around in circles on stage. He did all of these things last night and, even though by the last song you could tell he was tired, it was nothing short of amusing. I wish I could say that ETID stole the show but they didn’t.
Last to play last night was Beartooth. Some people think that they are “too cool” to support this band. The singer, Caleb, is also the singer of the defunct band Attack Attack which was one of the most known “scene” bands back when Myspace was a thing and that seems to be a bit of a turn off for the “cool kids”. My friends don’t like the fact that the choruses of Beartooth’s songs have a very whiny element to them. I love it because it’s a flashback to all of those emo bands I used to listen to growing up. I begged my friends to stay for at least a couple songs and to give it a chance but they didn’t last through more than two songs and I was left to my own devices for majority of the set.
I love shows like this where you have one super classic band paired with a much newer band. I love comparing how the crowds are, old vs. young. Of course, I find myself relating more to the older crowd and the classic bands, but it’s almost refreshing in a way to hear these newer bands and watch the younger kids go at it in the pit. It’s hard not to have flash backs of the beginning of my concert going days where I would be right up in there, in the pit, fighting for every breath. These days, I tend to stick to the outskirts of the pit where there is still a lot of adrenaline but less injuries. During Beartooth’s set last night, I remembered how it felt to be in the middle of a pit and how the hits and kicks felt. Something came over me and for the last couple of songs, I wound up in the middle of that pit with a giant smile on my face as I took every hit and kick.
Beartooth was super high energy as they played through new and old songs. Last time I saw them it seemed like Caleb was having a hard time keeping up but he must have gotten enough complaints or a switch flipped because last night the vocals were on point throughout the show. These guys were the only band of the night to have an actual light show and helped make these guys stand out. It was bright, intense, and bigger than life. Regardless of if you like Beartooth or not, there’s no denying the power they have when it comes to their live show.
Walking into the show last night, I would have put money on the fact that Every Time I Die was going to steal the show away from Beartooth… that’s not what happened at all and Beartooth proved that they are more than worthy of headlining this tour. If you didn’t stay for their set because you thought you were “too cool”, you truly missed out.
Line Up:
Venue: Mill City Nights
Sausage Fest Meter- 7 out of 10
Average Age of the Crowd- 17
Crowd Surfers- 23
Stage Divers-1
Broken Bones- I didn’t see any but I’m sure people are hurting today
Drunkards Taken Out By Security- None– Nobody was old enough to drink
Celebrity Sightings-DJ of Buried Above Ground
Overall Score- 8 out of 10
Show on Deck- Suicide Silence/ Whitechapel
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