Date: Tuesday, August 8, 2017
City: St. Louis, MO
Venue: The Pageant
Opening act(s): Wage War
Headlining act: A Day To Remember
Wage War Setlist:
Stitch
Witness
Gravity
The River
Alive
Don’t Let Me Fade Away
Twenty One
A Day To Remember Setlist:
All I Want
I’m Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?
2nd Sucks
Right Back At It Again
Paranoia
Exposed
We Got This
Have Faith In Me
Naivety
End Of Me
Mr. Highway’s Thinking About The End
The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle
———————
If It Means A Lot To You
All Signs Point To Lauderdale
The Downfall Of Us All
Notes:
- First time seeing A Day To Remember.
- Show #6 at this venue; first since December 11, 2016.
Videos:
Review:
The last year or so has been jam packed with concerts. Well, that’s true of the last three years really. My previous record for concerts seen in a year was 10, which was set in 2012. I broke that record in both 2015 and 2016, when I saw 12 concerts each year.
With this concert, I was breaking that record as I was attending my thirteenth show of the year. And I’m not done, as I have at least one more confirmed show, one very likely show, and whatever is yet to be announced for the later part of this year.
Hell, my total for this year would have been even higher if I hadn’t missed the first concert of the year thanks to a flat tire. That show would have been Tesla at this very venue, The Pageant in St. Louis, MO way back in February.
But here I was, six months later, tagging along with Brittany for a show she wanted to see for a change. She loves going to concerts as much as I do and has been a trooper with all the shows I’ve wanted to see, and there are a bunch that we mutually want to see too. But this was the second one that she really pushed for, and the first that I had literally zero interest in. She suggested see see Korn in Peoria last year, but they were coheadlining with Breaking Benjamin, who is one of my favorite bands. Between that and moderate interest in seeing Korn, it wasn’t strictly a ‘Brittany’ show.
This one is very much a strict ‘Brittany’ show, as A Day To Remember is one of her favorite bands and they reside way, way outside of the music I listen to. I have no idea how old any of the guys in the band are, but they have a very… How do I put this… Young, I guess, sound. It hasn’t resonated with me at all despite the fact that I would have been 22 years old the first time I heard them (when I first started dating Brittany) and I’m now 30. The singer’s phrasing has a way of grating every last nerve of mine, as do some of the weird backing vocals. And worst of all, ADTR often goes into screamy territory, which I flat out hate.
With all that in mind, I was not excited for the show. But I was there for Britt and my only concern was that she enjoy the show.
Despite the fact that the venue (and tickets) said doors opened at 7:00, a shitload of people were already in the venue when we arrived. We, as older folks, used our over 21 status to go upstairs to get seats instead of dealing with the standing room only mob that was downstairs. Looking at the crowd on the floor really put my age into perspective as many things do these days. Especially as I sat there talking to Brittany about wedding plans since we’re in the early stages of that, having gotten engaged less than two weeks ago (just two days after the epic Guns N’ Roses concert).
Tonight’s opening band was called Wage War. I’d never heard of them, but samples Brittany had played on the car ride down to St. Louis told me all I needed to know… In fact she played two different songs and I couldn’t tell them apart.
They hit the stage at 8:00 and opened with… Well, I don’t know. I have no knowledge of any of their shit and couldn’t make out what the ‘singer’ was saying during or between songs.
Their set only ran 30 minutes and featured a handful of songs, but for all I know, they may have played a single song that lasted 30 consecutive minutes. Everything sounded the same and the screaming was flat out awful. Everything was, really.
Watching and listening to them made me understand why there are some people that claim rock is dead. If this is what the current rock scene has to offer, it should be put down immediately. When I think back to the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s, I can pick out how music evolved in each decade. No decade was without its share of crap, but when the next evolution came, it had a positive effect on the overall genre of rock. These days, music from all of those decades can be heard side by side on classic rock radio.
At the turn of the century, rock shifted into post-grunge and nu-metal. And while I like a handful of bands from the early part of that era, nothing has changed in the modern day rock scene in at least 15 years. The market for rock is shrinking because the product that is being presented on the largest platforms is shit. Wage War was the perfect example of that. There isn’t a single universe where their material will some day be played on classic rock radio alongside The Doors, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, Queen, Nirvana, etc. And that goes for the majority of bands you hear in constant rotation on modern rock radio these days.
Sitting through Wage War left me with little patience for headliners A Day To Remember, but I was trying to keep an open mind if for no other reason, for Brittany. The set up of the stage took about 20 minutes, and the young crowd was singing along to the music that was playing over the PA system (such hits as Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” a couple of Rage songs, and System Of A Down’s “Chop Suey” among others). And at one point, they were singing Linkin Park’s “In The End” even though it wasn’t even playing.
A Day To Remember released their debut full length album in 2005, and their most recent (their sixth) was released just last year. Judging by the crowd, they seem to have a strong, almost cult following. The show had sold out and it was extremely packed in the venue. It’s hard for me to say if it was more packed than the sold out Steel Panther shows I’ve seen there, as this was my first time sitting in the balcony instead of being down on the first level and the vantage point is quite different.
ADTR hit the stage around 9:10 with “All I Want,” a track I actually recognized from hearing it during my time with Brittany. The energy in the crowd was quite the spectacle, and it didn’t take long for people to start crowd surfing and/or moshing.
I also recognized the second song, the very oddly titled “I’m Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?” That one got heavy into the screaming and annoying vocal inflection, which was as grating as I remembered it.
I filmed song three for Britt, which was titled “2nd Sucks,” though the vantage point we had was shit.
The show carried on, with the crowd singing along to every song. Including new ones, which further established the cult following this band has.
Speaking of which, the singer acknowledged the crowd by saying this was the first sold out show of their tour… Despite the fact that they posted on Facebook about their Vegas show selling out last Thursday. Perhaps he borrowed that bit from the Bret Michaels Book of Crowd Ass Kissing & Lies (foreword by Donald Trump), but whatever.
At points, the band was overshadowed by the crowd itself. A bunch of beach balls of various sizes were tossed to the crowd, which bounded them all over the damn place. Later, there was crowd surfing surfing… Meaning a dude was laying down crowd surfing while a girl was standing on him like a surfboard. Few were successful in their attempts to pull that off, but it was entertaining to watch.
Again, I can’t really do any song-by-song notes since I don’t know them and many of them run together due to the similarity of certain parts. Wage War had me worried about the entire night, and neither of these bands are going to go down in history as a great rock band. But there was a clear difference in Wage War’s material (and stage presence) and A Day To Remember’s. The latter was light years ahead of the former in both categories. For Wage War, all of every song sounded exactly the same. For ADTR, it was just bits that would be virtually the same, but other parts of the songs were different enough to at least stand out from one another. It was only when it got into the double-bass-drummy chuga-chuga-chuga shit that they began to run together.
One song later in the set stood out though, which was “End Of Me.” The song was the second single from their 2013 album Common Courtesy, and my actual thought as I watched and listened was “wow… this sounds like an actual song.” I was taken aback by how much it stood out from everything else they had played. The song had clear guitar riffs, the singer was actually SINGING, and the bassist and drummer were both playing like musicians rather than just seeing how many beats/notes they could play in a short amount of time.
If they had more songs like that, where they allow the songs to be songs instead of screaming or speed-playing all over them, I might actually like them. The opener “All I Want” is another decent song that isn’t far off from more mainstream stuff I would enjoy these days. And less of the Blink 182-inflection-ripoff vocals would benefit them too.
It goes without saying that they are not my thing, and they certainly didn’t win me over as a fan after seeing them. I definitely won’t go on a listening binge after this, because it’s still not my type of music, and I still don’t get why they have the following they do strictly based on the music. But I give credit where it is due, and they sounded really good live. They put on a great show, were really good about interacting with the crowd (and giving the security guards their due for assisting with the crowd surfers), and each band member was solid at his craft.
Having said that, the entire evening felt like I was watching opening bands for a headliner that never came. It was a strange experience, but I’m glad I saw the show. It was something different and I know Brittany enjoyed the hell out of it.
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