Both A Day To Remember (ADTR) and August Burns Red (ABR) are bands that we have featured numerous times on the site (here is a link to our A Day To Remember Review) and ADTR’s Homesick album gets constant plays on my iPod, so when I found out that they were coming reasonably close on their Tour Sick tour (how weird does that sound to say?) I knew I had to get tickets ASAP. Finding out that they were coming with ABR are Silverstein increased this feeling; as I figured that this show would end up selling out. That assumption was correct.

The show took place at the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio, which is a pretty decent venue. The entire place was packed by the time to show started, so much so that I wanted to go up to the merch tables and talk to the guys in the bands after they were done performing, but I knew that if I did I would lose my spot in about a 1.4 seconds. So I stayed put. You can see from the videos below that there was good reason for that since my angle and distance were spot on to take some awesome footage.

Veara was the first band to take the stage, and before the concert my buddy who I went with had said that they were listed on message boards as the next band in the scene that would make it big. I took that comment with a grain of salt, since Attack! Attack! also gets a lot of attention in the scene…God only knows why. Techno, electronica, screamo, and auto-tune all mixed into one. That’s a combination to make even a mortician lose his lunch.

Anyways, they definitely did not disappoint. If you are a fan of Set Your Goals, or any kind of pop-punk in that vain, definitely check them out. They have an album coming out on May 25th entitled What We Left Behind. The exposure they are getting from this tour should help them out tremendously. Most opening acts are extremely average – Veara is anything but. Check out the video of ‘Better Off Without You’ below for proof, and visit the Veara MySpace Page for more information on the band.

The next band, Enter Shikari, I honestly don’t have a lot to say about, simply because I know bands work their tails off and I don’t want to bash them. You saw my comments above about Attack! Attack!, so you know how I feel about that genre. When I saw the lead singer come out and approach a laptop, I knew I was in trouble. I’ll give them an A for effort and an A for their ability to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Just like any other genre, once a band or two make it big in any scene, duplicates pop up everywhere. Die, screamtronicatune, die. Yes, I just made that term up on the fly…add it to Urban Dictionary if you wish.

Third on the lineup was a band that anyone who has been listening to screamo for a while would know – Silverstein. The band came out and immediately made a made a splash by starting off their set with ‘My Sword vs. Your Dagger’ (video below). Shane Told, the lead singer, really puts his heart and soul into both his live performance and his lyrical content, and it shows when he performs. Their set included a good mix of tracks from all their albums excluding When Broken is Easily Fixed (correct me if I’m wrong there) which was fine by me, although hearing ‘Bleeds No More’ would have been kinda cool. At the end of their set, Shane told the crowd that they would be back to the venue in August, so I’m anxious to see A – where else they go and B – who they bring out with them. I’ve never seen Funeral For a Friend in concert, but I think those two co-headlining would be a great show regardless of who the supporting acts are (hint, hint).

Here are videos of both ‘Your Sword vs. My Dagger’ and a song that IMMEDIATELY caught my ear when I heard it on A Shipwreck in the Sand, ‘Vices.’

Next up was August Burns Red, a band that brings a ridiculous amount of energy with them every single time they take the stage. Jake Luhrs is a man possessed on stage and it is AWESOME. I saw them once before when they toured with blessthefall in the summer of 2009, and I was reasonably sure that at any given moment Jake might run through the crowd and rip my face off. I’d get over it. They played a good amount off their latest album, Constellations, and also played some songs off of Messengers, their 2007 release. In fact, they opened their set with ‘Back Burner’, which I probably don’t have to say made the crowd go completely insane. I filmed it but realized halfway through the song that my camera didn’t focus for whatever reason, so the entire video was blurry as could be, which is why it isn’t uploaded (insert massive string of curse words here).

I could try to go into detail about ABR’s stage show, but just watch the two videos below – they speak for themselves. I think the beginning of ‘White Washed’ says it all.

After the crowd had a chance to catch their breath – and attempt to cool down and stop sweating, depending on where you were in the venue – A Day To Remember’s entrance video came on (you’ll see the tail end of it in ‘The Downfall of Us All’ video below). Their video screen was very similar to what was in the actual music video for the aforementioned song. It would show different incarnations of the band name and/or album artwork, etc. throughout their set.

Before they took the stage, my buddy said to me “As long As A Day To Remember brings it onstage, this concert will be unbelievable overall.” True story, and bring it they did.

Every single person in the venue was waiting with anticipation for them to take the stage (except for the two people in front of us who left after ABR’s set was done…WTF?), and when they kicked off their set, the place went nuts – you could feel the floor moving beneath your feet.

The band catered to both fans new and old, as they played songs off everything from And Their Name Was Treason through Homesick. As expected, their crowd control was also awesome. Taking into account the lighting tricks, smoke, and the giant ‘lightbulb screen’ behind the stage, they also had the most complex stage show.

Their set list was as follows:

The Downfall Of Us All
Shot In The Dark
The Danger in Starting a Fire
You Already Know What You Are
My Life For Hire
Cable Car (The Fray Cover)
Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End
Welcome To My Family
Medley
You Should Have Killed Me When You Had The Chance
2012
Why Walk On Water When We’ve Got Boats
Monument
Homesick
Have Faith In Me
I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?
If It Means A Lot To You (Encore)
The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle (Encore)

Here are two videos I took of the performances:

Overall, a very sick concert – one you do not want to miss.

To see photos from the show, check out the Outsider Vocals Facebook Fan Page.

If you want to see this tour when it comes to your town, check out our post detailing the A Day To Remember Tour Sick 2010 Dates.

If you aren’t anywhere near a tour stop, you still have a chance to see the August Burns Red, Of Mice & Men, and blessthefall European Tour and if you are lucky enough to be near ABR’s hometown of Lancaster, PA, you can get tickets to the filming/recording of the August Burns Red Live CD/DVD Concert on June 4th.

Alternately, here is an Acoustic A Day To Remember Set at the AT&T Performance Studio.

If you plan on embedding any photos or videos I took from the show, please give credit where credit’s due.
04192010