The Orlando stop on the August Burns Red tour starts with a completely packed out venue and a crowd charged with excitement.
Crystal Lake the first of three amazing supporting acts, kicked things off at 6:30 PM. Before starting their set, their drummer, Gaku Taura, began by hyping up the crowd with a quick but powerful drum solo. He rises and the crowd goes nuts. Suddenly, he gives the sound engineer the signal it’s time to start. The lights dim and the entire crowd breaks into screams. They begin their set with “Lost In Forever” from the album Helix and the crowd created a circle pit from the fast-paced drums and upbeat guitar riffs. They played a combination of songs from their early albums such as “Prometheus” from the album The Sign to their newer release, the title track from the album Watch Me Burn.
Ten minutes after the changeover began, the banner for Brand of Sacrifice was illuminated by purple stage lights. The banner consisted of aggressive deathcore text. The stage goes completely black and members walk onto the stage one by one, followed by vocalist Kyle Anderson whose all-black attire topped with a bulletproof vest sets the mood of how aggressive the set is going to be. They tell the crowd to split the room in two while ominous sound effects from their intro song “Dawn” begin to play. The crowd immediately erupted into a huge mosh pit of movement once the music dropped into a heavy breakdown, followed by the first crowd surfers of the night flying up to the front of the crowd.
Following the changeover, Spite has their banner placed up with white outlined letters filled with etched red. The stage was lit with red lights and engulfed in fog. Starting the set with “Lord of the Upside Down” from Dedication To Flesh, the eerie bass riff and guitar feedback cause the crowd to scream with excitement. The set comprised of songs from all their albums, except their first self-titled release. Songs like “IED” and “The Root of All Evil” filled the heavy set. They ended the set with the song “Crumble,” which contained what seemed to be the biggest drop of the night.
“Chop Suey” by System of a Down played as the final changeover finished up, exciting the crowd beyond belief. Everyone in the audience sang along and jumped up and down as this apparent hype song played. The lights go dark as the song comes to an end. The room filled with screams and cheers as the stage began to light up with white pulses of light. The pulses got faster and faster as drummer Matt Greiner entered the stage, followed by the rest of the band until the pulsing white light became a constant white.
Vocalist Jake Luhrs walked onto the stage and the crowd erupted, to which “Provision” from Rescue & Restore kicked off the 90-minute set. Within seconds of the song starting, crowd surfers made their way to the front of the stage. The mosh pit opens up almost immediately, filled with movement. Jake explained how happy he was to see so much energy in the room and how the entire show would be the album Rescue & Restore from front to back. They performed songs they’ve never played live before. CO2 blasters fired as the crowd went nuts when they launched into the song “Treatment.” The entire energetic set was comprised of constant movement from the band.
There were microphone swings from Jake, solos from guitarist JD, and dancing from seemingly salsa-styled bridges within the songs. Once the set ended and the band left the stage, the chanting for “one more song” began. Jake Luhrs walked back on stage with the rest of the band, saying since the crowd had been so amazing, they were not going to play just one song but five more songs. To this, the band broke into their Christmas cover of “Carol of The Bells,” followed by “Bloodletter,” “Revival,” and “Composure,” and ended the night with the cherry on top of an amazing performance of “White Washed.” Once the band walked off the stage for the final time of the night, the crowd screamed the loudest they had all night. As everyone walked towards the exit, conversations of audience members’ favorite part of the night began and everyone seemed to leave more than satisfied with the performances of the night.
AUGUST BURNS RED
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SPITE
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BRAND OF SACRIFICE
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