Fri Apr 29th - Celebrating a 20-year Anniversary, August Burns Red decided to run a 2 leg nationwide tour this year. Also dropping a new album back in March called “Death Below”, a 12 brutal song masterpiece. What’s the best way to celebrate…TOUR!!! Starting in mid-February, the 46-date tour is leaving a path of destruction across the country. Numerous sold-out shows, added dates due to high demand, and a phenomenal line up including The Devil Wears Prada and Bleed From Within, this one was going to leave its mark. I had the opportunity to catch the sold-out show at Chicago’s Concord Music Hall on April 29th.
Courtesy of Concord Music Hall
First time to tour stateside, Glasgow’s Bleed From Within opened the night, and set the tone for what was going to be one heavy night. As the fans still crowding into an already tightly packed floor, Bleed From Within played their opening song “I am Damnation” and the crowd went right into a frenzy. Numerous mosh pits started, and the crowd made the floor bounce. Rolling into their second song “Stand Down”, the crowd surfers began to flow over the barricade into the photo pit like a majestic waterfall of bodies. The band played a brutal 6 song set which included “Pathfinder”, “Into Nothing”, “Levitate”, and closing out with “The End of All We Know”. Bleed From Within went hard and the crowd came back harder.
The Devil Wears Prada are a band whose reputation precedes them. With a hard-hitting and intense live reputation, this was definitely the right band to add to an already great tour line up. Releasing their 8th studio album (“Color Decay”) last September, and releasing a deluxe edition on May 5 th , TDWP has established themselves as metalcore bar raisers. As the crowd regrouped and was ready for round two, TDWP opened with “Watchtower”, and you could just feel an energy shift with the crowd into high gear. During “Danger: Wildman”, you could see the crowd starting to get into this set, with them singing, and making the floor bounce again, this set was going to be epic. During TDWP 4th song of the set “Salt” the fans began to take over and overwhelmed the venue security with crowd surfers, I lost count at around 65, it started out lightly, and turned into a flash flood of bodies. The Devil Wears Prada played a blistering 10 song set, which included “Born to Lose”, “Dez Moines”, “Chemical”, “Noise”, “Broken”, “Cancer”, and “Sacrifice”.
With August Burns Red coming up next, I made my way to the photo pit with other photographers, to be turned around by venue security. We were all notified that some security staff were injured during the last set, and for our safety we were not allowed to enter and photograph. We had to enjoy this one from the other side of the barricade. With a band that’s gone hard for the last 20 years, we knew the night was about to hit its heaviest and hardest of the evening. August Burns Red had an obliterating 19 song set list prepared for this hungry crowd. They opened with “Fault Line” and the crowd immediately got into it. Mosh pits ensued, and crowd surfing began again. At one time, during this set, it looked like the entire floor was a raging ocean swallowing crowd member after crowd member. ABR has always came into a venue and destroyed crowds, leaving them hungry for more, with their elaborate light shows, JB Brubaker’s shredding guitar solos, Jake Luhrs's monster vocals, and Matt Greiner’s epic drums, this band can definitely bring a house down. Since the days of Lancaster, PA, doing small shows and and increasing a fan base, you can see why August Burns Red has had a sustainability for the last 20 yrs. Songs included in this set were “Martyr”, “Bloodletter”, “Backfire”, “Ancestry”, “White Washed”, and “Marianas Trench”. It was definitely a set list full of old school ABR, and some new bangers. Chicago went hard for this one!
Review & Photography By: Jim Helmecy Jr.
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