April 30, 2012
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.
April 27, 2012
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.
April 24, 2012
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
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
April 23, 2012
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.
April 19, 2012
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.
April 18, 2012
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.
April 16, 2012
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.
April 12, 2012
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!!
April 10, 2012
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!
April 4, 2012
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.
April 3, 2012
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.
