I've
listened to a couple of August Burns Red songs
before but I've never had the opportunity to see
them live so i was more than happy when i was
asked to photograph them. I went to the Birmingham
show on a miserable and cold january evening to
see the first date of their 2014 headline UK tour
with Hundredth and The Catharsis, which played
instead of Being As An Ocean just for this date.
When i first arrived there wasn't many people
in the venue, but you could see the place was
gradually getting busier as the night went on.
First
on was The Chatharsis who played at this date
only instead of Being As An Ocean.
The band burst out on stage like a jack in a box,
full of energy and ready to please the crowd with
their ruthless riffs and hardcore screaming. With
the band coming from Birmingham them selves, they
were the only English band on the tour so they
had to out do themselves with this one.
The Lead singer, Morgan definitely got the emerging
crowd going and warmed up for the Headline,
on the last song he even jumped off stage and
sang the last half in the crowd with fans.
Next up was Hundredth, I was quite excited to
see what they had in store for the crowd because
I've never actually heard any of their songs for
some reason. Originated from South Carolina, Hundredth
have been around since 2008 with their Melodic
Hardcore style of music and they came all the
way from America to support August Burns Red on
their UK tour.
The
band were already on stage preparing and tuning
their instruments before the lights suddenly went
dim and Howard Beale's monologue from the film
' NetWork' was used as an intro. After the intro,
the Lead singer, Chadwick really got the crowd
stirring as he was screaming along to the lyrics
of the first song along with the ambient riffs
of the guitarists.
All throughout their performance they had people
going nuts, they didn't even have to ask anyone
to create any mosh pits because they didn't have
to, the crowd were way ahead of them.
Last
but not least August Burns Red were up, at this
point of the night the venue was packed which
was great as there wasn't many people there at
the start of the night, maybe because of the bad
weather the UK has had.
Before the band even took to the stage their fans
were going mental, chanting ABR over and over
again until they finally walked on stage from
the back in Darkness to their screaming fans.
They kicked things off with the song 'Fault Line',
which is one of the tracks off their new album
'Rescue & Restore'.
Seeing
this band for the first time, i can definitely
tell they have a great stage presence, The lead
singer, ' Jake Luhrs' was roaring into his microphone
whilst Guitarists were standing on front stage
speakers blasting out their hardcore riffs, and
the fans were loving it.
During the song ' Marina's Trench', Lead singer
'Jake' told the crowd to take out lighters and
hold them up high as this song was "Dedicated
to anyone that has ever lost a loved one".
As you can see from the video below the crowds
response was unbelievable and the room shone bright,
it kinda looked like stars in the midnight sky
whilst the band was playing the song.
After a few more songs, at the end of what we
all thought was the last song, the band walked
off stage thanking and waving to all their fans.
Little did we know it wasn't over yet and soon
after the band walked back on stage for an encore
and played two more songs, the crowd went nuts!
I rate this show 4/5 because you don't see many
gigs these days where they tell the crowd to hold
up lighters and think its a great way for bands
to interact with their fans on a different level,
plus it looks pretty!
The Catharsis 3/5
Hundredth 3/5
August Burns Red 4/5
August Burns Red
- Video
Review By Jazza Wallace
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