Audio Arsenal has the sole purpose of sharing music in the form of photos, interviews, and reviews.  It is the goal of this magazine to spread the word about up and coming bands and also some more well known groups.  It is an embrace of this art that brings Audio Arsenal to the world and allows it to grow.  Check us out on the following sites: Facebook  Twitter   
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BaebleMusic just did a great video of Graffiti6's set at The Launch Pad.  Check out the band's six song set below and be sure to go to BabeleMusic's site to see some more great coverage of some amazing artists.

Last Tuesday, May 15th, the Used made the Philadelphia, PA stop of their tour at the Theater of the Living Arts with support from Stars in Stereo and Dead Sara.  The show as a whole was fantastic and made me remember just what it is about live music that I love.
   Up first was Stars in Stereo.  I was surprised when this band came out since they have a female singer, I just wasn't expecting that.  They were pretty good in their own right, though nothing about them really stuck out to me.
   Next came Dead Sara.  I can't say what exactly I was expecting Dead Sara to sound like, but I can tell you it was nothing like what they were.  The only words to describe them would be astounding.  The voice on singer Emily Armstrong is absolutely incredible and jaw dropping.  While I was photographing them all I kept thinking was 'holy crap, these guys rock'.  Dead Sara really deserves more recognition then what they have.  The band as a whole is incredibly well put together and they all work together fantastically.  Between their singer, Emily, and their guitarist, Siouxsie Medley, they are really proving that women can rock just as hard as the boys and rock and roll is no longer a boys game.
   I don't think words can describe just how excited I was to see the Used.  It had been a couple of years since I had actively listened to them and I was unable to see them live at that time.  Needless to say, this show was a good five or six years coming and I was more than happy with the performance.  While I haven't really listened to their latest two albums, I have to say that they pulled those songs off wonderfully.  It was the older songs that really had me, and the rest of the crowd going crazy.  They played a lot of my favorites including 'The Taste of Ink", "All That I've Got", "Box of Sharp Objects", "I Caught Fire", and "Take It Away".  In all the entire night was a fantastic blast from my past and I'm going to definitely have to make sure that I see them again soon. ~Alicia Brown

Check out some photos of Stars in Stereo, Dead Sara, and The Used!

       Look Out World! Philly just produced yet another phenomenal band that goes by the name NarK. I have the pleasure of attending school with these guys and have nothing but good things to say about them.  You can check out a review of their latest EP Old Crows, New Angles here.
     Their live show is simply awesome. It was one of the most entertaining, sweaty, fantastic house shows I’ve ever been to. The crowd was completely into them and showed their fast-growing affection for NarK in the only way a pop-punk/rock (drunk) crowd knows how; push anyone and everyone in your immediate area… including the photographer. Yes, that was me, but it didn’t even matter because NarK put on a hell of a show.  Check out some photos from this crazy show here.

To sum everything up…Go download their album here, go check out their next gig online, and go get sweaty.  -Doug Chesnulovitch

   This past Sunday, May 13th, Philadelphia's Radio 104.5 celebrated its 5th birthday with a show at Festival Pier.  To celebrate this event Flogging Molly, Civil Twilight, Cake, and Incubus played, leaving no wonder that the show was sold out. 
    Seeing that Flogging Molly's annual St. Patrick's day tour would not be coming through Philadelphia originally had me very upset.  I look forward to March every year just so that I can go to see Flogging Molly so needless to say I was very disappointment.  That disappointment soon disappeared when I found out that they would be playing this Radio 104.5 show and I knew that I just had to cover it.  I waited quite patiently as the local opener's broke down their equipment and as Flogging Molly's crew set up their equipment.  Right as the crowd began to get restless, Flogging Molly too to the stage in an explosion of energy.  If there is anything that would ever make me wish that I was intoxicated and Irish it would be Flogging Molly, and I mean that in the best way possible.  Flogging Molly is just such a fantastic band with incredible energy that just really makes me want to swing a pint around with some friends and just have an all around great time.
    Basically, if you have yet to see Flogging Molly I highly suggest you do so.  They really are an act that puts on a great live show that makes their music even better.  While they are great on record, Flogging Molly is a live band and on stage is where they thrive. -Alicia Brown

Check out some photos of Flogging Molly's set here.

    Last Saturday Regina Spektor played a one-off show at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia, PA to a crowd full of adoring fans. I was among those long-time fans, although this was my first Regina show after missing her concerts in Philly so many times before. I have to say she certainly did not disappoint. She delivered each song with such a unique style and insane vocal control. I have to admit that I got a bit emotional during a few of the songs because her performance was so moving. I was truly impressed by her live performance and now I can cross one more thing off my bucket list.
    Regina opened with an a capella version of the song “Ain’t No Cover” in true Regina style, with crazy vocal riffs and sounds. The rest of the 23 song set was filled with old and new songs alike. She played all but 3 songs from her upcoming album, What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, including first single “All The Rowboats”. Even though most of these songs were new to the crowd, everyone was still captured by her humble stage presence and incredible vocals. Hearing these songs live has made me even more excited to buy the new album. The setlist was also sprinkled with old favorites, such as “Better” and “Laughing With”. It was a perfect mix of older songs to please the crowd and newer songs to create buzz about the new CD.
       Regina ended the show with a spectacular encore, playing the three fan-favorites “Us,” “Fidelity,” and “Samson”. The whole audience was singing and dancing along in their seats with great enthusiasm. As someone who is used to going to standing room shows, I enjoyed the change of pace to a seated show with a less rambunctious audience (although there was certainly not an absence of cheers from the crowd- each break between songs was filled with numerous requests and fans shouting “We love you Regina!”) It was truly a magical night, with a great crowd and the twinkling star lights in the ceiling of the Tower Theater. I highly recommend you make it out to one of Regina’s shows next time she is in town- it’s an experience that everyone should get to see (and hear) at least once. Make sure you check out Regina Spektor’s new album What We Saw from the Cheap Seats when it drops on May 29th and catch her live performance when she comes around. -Tori Powers

Check out some photos of Regina Spektor at the Tower Theater here.

Check out some photos of Attack Attack! and Escape the Fate from the Philadelphia, PA stop of the This World Is Ours tour.

    Last Friday the This World Is Ours tour made it's stop in Philadelphia, PA at the Theater of the Living Arts.  The crowd was stoked and the bands were just as energetic. 
    Up first was Secrets.  They clearly enjoyed what they were doing and I give them great credit for that.  I don't know if one of their guitars was out of tune or the part that was being played just didn't really go but either way, I found my self very distracted with the unbearably minor guitar.  They probably sound much better recorded, but I don't know that I would go through the effort to check them out.
    Following Secrets was Mest.  Mest was definitely what I expected, and I mean that in the best way possible.  They were more on the pop-punk, punk-rock side and were definitely more along the lines of the kind of music that I listen to usually.  Their music had me moving around and dancing and they certainly provided a breath of fresh air after Secrets.
     When The Word Alive took to the stage, the TLA absolutely exploded.  I could hardly keep track of the guys in the band let alone watch out for the large amount of crowd surfers that kept coming over the barricade.  The Word Alive as a whole put on a fantastic performance and really left everything that they had on the stage.  It's no wonder that the crowd went absolutely insane for this band, they have a commanding stage presence.  If you get a chance to see this band live, I highly suggest it. ~Alicia Brown

Check out some photos of Secrets,  Mest, and The Word Alive and stay tuned for photos of Attack Attack and Escape the Fate in the coming days!

  Moving Mountains released an acoustic EP entitled New Light on April 24th.  Check out what our writer Doug had to say about this release here.

Upstate New York melodic rockers Underwater Tiger, released their debut album Where Miles Become Meaning, on March 27th of this year.  Check out what our writer Doug had to say about this release here.

        Need another festival to add to your list of events to go to this summer?  Live in the NYC area? Then the Catalpa festival may be just the thing for you. The Catalpa Festival is striving to be a pioneering New York Festival, unique in its programming, atmosphere and aesthetic.  With the line up that has been announced so far, it looks like Catalpa is headed in the right direction.  Among the artists performing are City and Colour, Snoop Dogg, Girl Talk, Cold War Kids, and the Black Keys.  It looks like there will be a little something for everyone at this festival.  With as much an emphasis on site artistry, interactive experiences and experimentation as the musical entertainment itself, Catalpa is filling what we see as a gap for an event quite beyond the ordinary in New York City.
       A meeting point for creativity, Catalpa will feature over 40 performers from many musical genres including Blues, Rock, Hip-Hop, Electronic, Reggae and Indie. Art installations of all scales, bespoke event structures and enough unique elements will be present to transform people out of their ordinary setting and into an environment more fantastic.
     Catalpa will be held on Randalls Island NYC from 1pm to 11pm over July 28th/29th weekend, 2012.  Find out more about this unique event on the festival's website here.

  Last week, our photographer Alicia caught up with Polar Bear Club's lead singer, Jimmy Stadt, in a truly entertaining interview.  Check out what he had to say about the Glamour Kills Tour, new music, and zombie crowds here.

Southern New Jersey's Coming Clean has released their new EP, Drive Safe, on Bandcamp for free download.  The band will be releasing a counterpart EP this summer entitled "Sing Loud." Until then check out what our writer Ian had to say about this EP here.

    The third annual Glamour Kills tour ended with a bang last Friday, April 20th, at the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA.  This was the second night of the tour's two night stand in Philly and while Into It. Over It. was missing from this second night the rest of the bands truly closed out this tour the right way.  WIth all of the bands sporting shirts that read "I Played the GK Tour and All I Got Was This Stupid Shirt", there was no way that the good vibes at this show weren't contagious.  Each band that performed had a member of another band come out and do guest vocals on a song, which really showed how close the bands on this tour became through the course of the tour.  
  The first band, The Story So Far, was honestly a bit of a let down to me.  The crowd was super into it but the guys in band themselves didn't really seem all that in to performing.  I don't know, it's just that when I think of pop-punk I think of guys going crazy on stage and putting all of their energy into their performance.  I just really expected a lot more from these guys after hearing such great things about their music.
   Everything really picked up though when A Loss For Words took too the stage.  These guys reminded me that I was at a mostly pop-punk show and demonstrated the energy that I would expect them too.  They played quite a few songs off of their latest full length record, including their latest single Pirouette. 
   After having seen Transit a couple of times live, I knew that when they took to the stage they would really put on a show.  Transit is just a really solid band and that has been proven to me time and time again.  They certainly had the crowd going crazy and wanting more.
  I was probably most excited to see Polar Bear Club out of all of the bands on this tour.  I've just had the best memories driving around listening to them with the windows down.  They of course did not disappoint in the least.  The energy that the guys in Polar Bear Club is just absolutely incredible and makes me wonder where they come up with it.  There are seriously not enough good things that I can say about this band and I cannot wait to go see them again.
    Seeing as this was a hometown show for The Wonder Years it was expected that the crowd would be absolutely insane and I was not disappointed.  The crowd surfers started a couple seconds into the first song and continued throughout the band's entire set.  The bands energy was only matched by that of the crowd.  If you have never seen the Wonder Years live before, I highly suggest it.  Their recorded music does not do their live show justice, they really are a fantastic live band.
    This year's Glamour Kills tour probably had one of the best line ups that I have seen in quite some time.  Each band is solid in their own right and, if the crowds at the other shows were anything like how they were at this show, there were probably a lot of unforgettable nights made. ~Alicia Brown

Check out our photo galleries of The Story So Far, A Loss For Words, Transit, Polar Bear Club, and The Wonder Years

A review of Routines, the new record from UK band Failsafe, which was released April 3rd on Hawthorne Heights ’ Cardboard Empire Records is now up.  You can see what Ian has to say about this release here.

  On April 24th Balance and Composure with by releasing their self titled 7" featuring three acoustic versions of songs off of their full length, Separation.  Check out what our writer Doug had to say about this release here.

Last Wednesday, April 11th, the Fire and Ice Tour made its stop in Philadelphia, PA.  The entire venue had an incredible energy that made this tour worth going to.  Check out some photos that our photographer Alicia took of Woe, Is Me, blessthefall, and We Came As Romans and be sure to make it out to one of the remaining dates.

Post-hardcore band Hands Like Houses released their Rise Records debut, Ground Dweller, last week (April 13th to be exact).  Check out what Doug had to say about this release here.

Australian progressive pop-rockers Awaken I Am recently released their EP Resonance.  Check out what our writer Doug has to say about this release here.

A Flash Flood Of Colour North American Tour- April 5, 2012      Ok….. uuuummm… well…. about that. It has been almost a week since seeing Enter Shikari here in Philadelphia and I’m still trying to process some of the events that happened at this show. This is Enter Shikari’s first American tour since “A Flash Flood of Colour” was released and sad to say this is my first time seeing them live. I know I know blasphemy right? For this tour they decided to bring along At The Skylines and letlive. with them and frankly these two were not my cup of tea.

     First up for the night was At The Skylines. I had only heard one of their songs before, “The Amazing Atom”, primarily because Kellin Quinn was featured in it and I am such a Sleeping With Sirens fan boy. At The Skylines didn’t impress me much with their cookie cutter hardcore routine. As I watched them from the side of the crowd, I could just see them morphing into a more hardcore version of Dance Gavin Dance with less intelligible lyrics. Faint amounts of high note lead guitar could be heard but was drowned out by more overbearing rhythm power cords and drums. The lyrics, both clean and screamed, couldn’t be discerned to save my life and I was right next to the speakers! Sound check please. I did have a good laugh when they had a little interlude before a song to tell people to “get sexy” and then coming in with a breakdown to start it off. Yes, a breakdown and people flailing their fists in front of me has me feeling my sexiest.

     Next up we have letlive. Now I seriously don’t know what was up with this band, if they are normally mentally insane on stage or not, but oh my god the things that happened. Most of the band came out all normal jumping and getting hyped and so on but the lead singer was just being still and normal. All of a sudden the first song comes in and the lead singer starts flailing EVERYWHERE. I’ve never seen anything like what this man did. He must have been fighting some imaginary people while singing on stage and then decides to try a handspring into a back tuck that ended with him on his face. Now on to the highlight, the lead singer just finished singing a verse or chorus and proceeds to steal one of the guitarists bongos, yes bongos. He walks offstage to appear again almost right behind me at the bar area playing the bongo. The song fades out but he continues to pick up the bongo and continue through the crowd till he disappears. He doesn’t return for so long that the band plays a one and a half minute interlude song that I don’t think was planned until their stage tech finds the singer and gets him back to the stage. I actually got so amused with this display he was putting on that the music didn’t seem to affect me except for the little parts that had this Coheed and Cambria soft-spoken mood.

      Ok after that little rant of ridiculousness we come to what most of the crowd has been waiting for: ENTER SHIKARI. The lights shut off to a robot voice ranting about the system, the band comes creeping out to start off with “System…” and the “… Meltdown” occurs. Almost the entire crowd becomes a giant mosh pit within seconds, myself included. The set continues in an amazing fashion of mixing their own song with some of their favorite remixes that it seems natural. Around the middle of the set I had to miss a small amount of time as our photographer Doug got socked so hard in the face I thought he broke his nose. The rest of the set continued with mostly new songs some goodies thrown in: “Sorry You’re Not A Winner”, “Mothership w/ Motherstep”, “Havoc B”, and “Juggernauts w/ the Blue Bear Remix”. These guys did an amazing job of making sure they sound as good live as you would be hearing them recorded but also making sure that major fans will always be surprised at the freshness of each performance. I came out of this show so satisfied and pleased that I finally got to see Enter Shikari along with them getting most of their new album suck in my head.

      Ok so I know this was a lot of randomness with this review but lets recap. At The Skylines was a worse version of Dance Gavin Dance, letlive. was going mentally insane on stage and Enter Shikari was amazing. Okay enough said. -Ian DeOrio

Check out some photos of At The Skylines and Enter Shikari and be sure to make it out to a date of this tour if you can!!

  Enter Shikari are currently on their first North American headlining tour with At the Skylines and Letlive.  Rory and Chris of the band were kind enough to sit down with Doug and Alicia for what turned out to be a great interview.  Check out the interview here and try to make it out to a show near you!

  On March 26th, post-hardcore band Before Their Eyes released their latest full length album, Redemption.  Check out what our writer Ian DeOrio had to say about this release here.

At the Skylines are currently on tour with Enter Shikari.  Vocalist, Mark, took the time to answer some questions for Audio Arsenal.  Check out what he has to say about their upcoming album and their musical inspiration here.