Senses Fail and Reggie & the Full Effect at Saint Andrew’s Hall.
Household started the evening off, only playing songs from their incredible new album, Everything A River Should Be. Household was the band I was most excited to watch. My current band, Conveyer, has played with these guys for years in the same Midwest DIY music scene. It’s extremely heart-warming to see them on a tour like this promoting a new album backed by Equal Vision Records.
They absolutely nailed their set. I was interested to see how the harmonies and key changes on their new record would translate live and I was fully satisfied. I actually had trouble getting all the photos I wanted because I couldn’t stop singing every single song/just enjoying the band. They finished off with “Don’t Listen To Me,” the fourth track on their new record (and my favorite song, personally).
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Next up was Have Mercy, an indie-rock/emo band from Baltimore, Maryland. I’ve listened to them for quite a while and they did not disappoint. Brian Swindle is a solid vocalist who does a fantastic job of conveying the emotion in Have Mercy’s music live. The set was relatively peaceful with a ton of singalongs from the crowd.
The band finished off their set with their most popular song at over five million Spotify plays, “Let’s Talk About Your Hair,” and it was clear that many people in the room were waiting patiently to hear this specific track, myself included. Although I’ve been a fan of the band for a long time, seeing them live further strengthened my appreciation.
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Third on the bill was Reggie & The Full Effect. Admittedly, this is a band I had never listened to but was excited to see what they were all about. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to a show as popular as this one, and didn’t know every band playing. It ended up being really cool, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching/listening to them. It was obviously clear that they’ve been professional touring musicians for quite some time; the entire set was 100% solid and spot on.
After I went home I did some follow up research and discovered the singer, James Dewees, was the keyboardist for The Get Up Kids and has been involved with some of my other favorite bands such as New Found Glory and My Chemical Romance. Learning these simple facts may have created a bias in my mind that made me like them more than I would have otherwise (oh well).
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Finally, Senses Fail. This is a band I had never seen before, but I’ve loved since I was in high school first getting into alternative music. I knew that I’d enjoy them live because everyone who’d seen them would continuously tell me how insane they were. I’ve also noticed from following them on Instagram that they’re fans of some of my favorite 90’s hardcore bands like Snapcase.
Touring in support of their new record, If There Is Light, It Will Find You, the band started off with intense energy. The light show was wicked and made for some fun shots. The stage presence of singer Buddy Nielsen was considerably spirited. The dude just doesn’t stop jumping around. I looked like a bobble-head trying to get shots of him from the pit, but it was awesome.
After playing a few songs from the new record, Nielsen opened up to the crowd about how an almost tragic situation with his wife side-stepping death during childbirth being a driving factor in the music. He talked about the idea of raising a new child alone, without the help and support of his wife, and how that would potentially feel. I can’t imagine dealing with something like that, but it was cool to see some context behind the album’s purpose.
The new album is remarkable and has been on repeat with Household’s new album, as well as Feel Something by Movements. I love this band and always will, it was such an incredible treat to see them live.
