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Archive for the ‘Reading PA’ Category

Pierce the Veil (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023)

Posted in Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, Pierce the Veil, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] Pierce the Veil

My son and I saw Pierce the Veil this summer in Asbury Par–on a storm-filled evening in which the opening band was dropped entirely and every other band did a shortened set (PtV played 7 songs).

This tour was, technically, I think, part of that tour–all for the new album.  But instead of it being a double-headline bill, PtV was the main headliner.

They played like it.

And the crowd responded in kind.

I’ve been to a lot of shows where the audience is 100% into the band, but after my two PtV shows, I’d have to say their audiences have to be the most intense.  Everyone knows every word to every song.  The people behind me even brought their small children with them.

For this show they played more than twice as many songs as when we saw them last time–although they did not play “Bulls in the Bronx” a song that I love.  But that’s fine.

While this tour is for the new album (they played six songs from it), they did not shy away from older songs at all.

The set was mostly loud rockers.  Starting with the opener “Death of an Executioner.”  They followed it with a song from their debut album–with angry vocals, the kind of which they don’t really use anymore.

I don’t actually know a lot of their songs all that well, but I really enjoyed “Circles”–these guys know their way around a chorus. (more…)

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Dayseeker (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL]

Posted in Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, Pierce the Veil, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] Dayseeker

Dayseeker was the only band on this bill that I had never heard of.  I was rather surprised to find that they’d been around for almost ten years.

I’m always interested in finding out about new (to me) bands, and there were lots of people with Dayseeker T-shirts on in the crowd, but I really just couldn’t get into them.

They weren’t bad, they were just sort of generic emo.  I wanted to see if I was alone in thinking this, and I found this review from SputnikMusic which loved Rory Rodriguez’ voice, but found the album to be less challenging than their previous one:

Erase his voice from any track, and it instantly becomes mediocre at best, with toned down musicianship, unnecessary breakdowns, and borderline lazy guitar and drum work. To dismiss the record for those shortcomings though, while not entirely unjustified, would be a bit short-sighted.

So, I guess that’s what I was hearing.  And, because the sound at the Santander Arena isn’t great, I wasn’t that impressed by his voice either.

And again, none of it was bad, it was just sort of there.  I tapped my foot to some songs, kind of got into some others, but as I write this just a few days later, I can’t remember a thing about them.

Except that after every song, Rodriguez said “If you know our band, then you know…”  It was a pretty weird was to introduce every song.   He also pretty clearly lays his heart on his sleeve, talking about his father’s battle with cancer and about how the band almost gave up seven years ago (that was when I realized how long these guys had been around).

Their set was almost as short as Destroy Boys, though so all was good.

  1. Dreamstate ♣
  2. Burial Plot ¥
  3. Homesick ♣
  4. Without Me ♣
  5. Crying While You’re Dancing ♣
  6. Sleeptalk ¥
  7. Neon Grave ♣

¥ Sleeptalk (2019)
♣ Dark Sun (2022)

  • Rory Rodriguez – vocals
  • Gino Sgambelluri – guitar
  • Mike Karle – drums
  • Ramone Valerio – bass

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Destroy Boys (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL]

Posted in Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, Pierce the Veil, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] Destroy Boys

My son was listening to Destroy Boys a few months ago and I really dug their sound.  I imagined they’d be really fun to see live, so I made a note to see when they came near us.

Then it turned out that they were opening this show for Pierce the Veil.

I’d rather have seen them in a small venue, but seeing them at all is better than not seeing them.

Since we knew how long it took us to get to Reading after going on Wednesday, we planned our timing and had enough time to get some dinner (at a Bojangles!).  We still cut it a little closer than I liked but after we parked and scampered to the arena, we had a comfortable amount of time to find our seats before the lights dimmed and the band came out.

To virtual invisibility.

For some godawful reason, the venue decided to bathe the band in purple, which rendered them almost entirely invisible from where we were seated.   It stayed that way for a couple of songs and then they switched to a friendlier white/yellow schema so you could actually see how many people were on stage.  Although I feel like there were five sometimes, I only see 4 band members listed: Alexia Roditis vocals / guitar ; Violet Mayugba guitar ; Narsai Malik – drums ; David Orozco – bass.  But I’m also pretty sure there was some instrument switching going on.

The sound was also a little rough (arena shows, amiright?) but the band’s energy was undeniable.

When we finally could see them, they were jumping around stage and generally kicking butt.  (more…)

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Ice Nine Kills (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 22, 2023)

Posted in Avatar, Ice Nine Kills, In This Moment, New Years Day, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 22, 2023] Ice Nine Kills

This was my third time seeing Ice Nine Kills (and my son’s fifth time, I believe).  For this show, I specifically wanted to see them from above the crowd, rather than from the pit.  I assumed that the visuals would be even better if I could clearly see them.

This was true, except that the lighting was rather poor and I felt like things weren’t as clear as they could have been.

But that’s okay.  The band was still great and the performance was really enjoyable.

The last time we saw them, they were co-headlining with two other bands, so their set was only 50 minutes.  This show was longer, but not a lot longer (they played two more songs than last time).

The show was largely the same songs as the last time, but done in a different order and with a different stage setup.  There were two TV screens on either side of the stage and they showed commercials (real and fake) between songs as introductions to the movies the songs were about.

This time, they opened with “Hip to be Scared” and I enjoyed filming the scene where singer Spencer Charnas hacks up the hapless guy who wandered on stage.  (more…)

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In This Moment (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 22 2023) [ICE NINE KILLS]

Posted in Avatar, Ice Nine Kills, In This Moment, New Years Day, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 22, 2023] In This Moment

I had not heard of In This Moment before this show.  I looked them up and saw that they were very theatrical (which makes sense given this tour–Ice Nine Kills does horror movies on stage, Avatar is a circus).  But when I listened to them, I didn’t really love the music.  It was really simple and really angry.

But I was curious to see them, mostly for their stage show.

But the kids wanted to get some merch.  And we wound up on the merch line for a REALLY long time–we missed half of the In This Moment set.

I was able to see them as they opened to the strains of Don’t Stop Believin’ (!) and their stage set was revealed (glowing lights giant crosses).

I looked again during the second song and I really liked their stage setup.  It was very cool.

We missed some of the middle here and then walked in as they were playing Björk’s Army of Me.  I didn’t recognize it as we were heading to our seats but once I sat down, I realized what it was and wished I had heard more of it.

They followed it with a cover of her “favorite” song, Nine Inch Nails “Something I Can Never Have.”  It was quite pretty (especially compared to the loud noisy music of the other songs) but it went on for a pretty long time and I was a little bored by the end.

The show was quite the spectacle–Maria Brink is the ringleader of the bunch.  She was wearing diaphanous robes (I couldn’t see her all that well, so I don’t know what else was going on).   She also had a bunch of background dancers who did very nice choreographed routines, including one where they stood behind her and put their arms out like Vishnu.  Since we were straight on, we could really see the effect and it was great.

I did really like Big Bad Wolf with  the empowering, screamed vocals: “even in these chains you can’t stop me.”  In fact, Brink is a great feminist icon, telling women and girls not to be held back.  I really liked her voice, which sounded almost like  soul singer as she spoke–she sounded like someone, although I couldn’t place it.

It wasn’t until somewhere near the last song that I realize she had a band on stage with her.  The lighting was such that it was hard to see them.  Her guitarists Chris Howorth and Randy Weitzel were somewhere on the stage, kind of lost in the lighting that focused all attention in Brink.  In fact, I only ever saw two guys on stage, so maybe one of them was Travis Johnson on bass.  Her drummer Kent Diimmel was off to the side with a pretty large set-strange that I missed it earlier.

For the final song, the band left the stage and did a kind of encore (INK did NOT do an encore).  It may have just been more of an opportunity to set up the proper for the final song–a lifeguard’s chair (or something like it) with the word WHORE in big red letters on it.

She set the song up with some powerful words to all the young women out there and then sang

You probably thought I wouldn’t get this farYou thought I’d end up in the back of a carYou probably thought that I’d never escapeI’d be a rat in a cage, I’d be a slave to this placeYou don’t know how hard I fought to surviveWaking up alone when I was left to dieYou don’t know about this life I’ve livedAll these roads I’ve walkedAll these tears I’ve bled
So how can this be?You’re praying to meThere’s a look in your eyesI know just what that meansI can be, I can be your everything
I didn’t really love the tone of the music.  It was a little too….something.  Processed maybe?   I don’t know.  But I enjoyed the visuals and the power that Brink exuded.  They’d be very fun to see in a small club too.

SETLIST

Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey recording)
Salvation (recording)

    1. The Purge ≠
    2. The In-Between ω
    3. SANCTIFY ME ≠
    4. Blood ♥
    5. Sacrifice ≠
      The Infection [recording]
    6. Army of Me (Björk cover)
    7. Something I Can Never Have (Nine Inch Nails cover)
    8. Adrenalize ♥
    9. Big Bad Wolf ⊗
      encore
    10. Whore ♥

♥ Blood (2012)
⊗ Black Widow (2014)
ω Mother (2020)
≠ GODMODE (2023)

 

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Avatar (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 22, 2023) [ICE NINE KILLS]

Posted in Avatar, Ice Nine Kills, New Years Day, Reading PA, Santander Arena on November 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 22, 2023] Avatar

I  had never been to the Santander Arena in Reading.  I don’t think I’d ever been to Reading.  It was an hour and forty-five minutes away which is just abut my limit for concerts. But I knew that this show (and Pierce the Veil in a couple of days) would be worth the drive and would be a fun treat for my son who was home from college.

This show (on Thanksgiving Eve) started at 6:15,which is an insane time of day to start a show on the busiest travel day of the year.

New Years Day had opened for Ice Nine Kills on two shows that we did not go to back in 2019.  I thought they were a heavy screamo band, but listening to them now, I find them to be quite interesting, with a heavy edge and an almost dancey vibe.   Ash Costello is the only constant member and she had a cool vocal and visual style.  Although I instantly bristle at a bad with members named Nikki Misery and Trixx Daniel.

They are surprisingly poppy for an Ice Nine Kills opener.  But I have to say I’m impressed that Ice Nine Kills had two female-fronted bands open for them. It’s nice that metal isn’t a boys club only.

At any rate, the traffic was pretty heavy (on the busiest travel day of the year) and we arrived just before 7.  Which was just in time to see Avatar.

My son and I were supposed to see Avatar, but we bailed on the show.  So this was our chance to see them.

When I saw them the first time I blown away by them (even as an opening act).

For this show I was glad that my son and his friend liked them because I was disappointed.  Not in them but in the venue.  The sound wasn’t great and the lighting sucked.  Avatar is a massively visual band–their whole schtick is like a satanic circus.  Between singer Johannes Eckerström–dressed like a ringmaster, his face covered in white paint with (scary) clown makeup, the three guitarists swirling their heads in moshing style and drummer John Alfredsson using his robotic visual style to hit the drums, there’s always something to see.  But not when the lights obscure everything in a miasma of purple.

Eckerström did drink out of his black gas can but even that was hard to see.

When they opened last time, they played eight songs.  This time they only played seven.  [When they played the TLA, the show we missed, they played 18!]  But the audience seemed to be really into it and I think there were a lot of Avatar fans there. (more…)

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