Senses Fail and The Amity Affliction wrapped up their co-headliner ‘Misery Will Find You North American Tour’ at the Regent in Los Angeles this past Saturday.
While the final 3 bands were metalcore bands, the opening act Belmont started the night with their pop-punk sound that captivated the audience. Their clean vocals stood out from the typical screaming, but the syncopation in their music reminded me of their metalcore counterparts on the tour. Belmont played 4 songs off of their most recent self titled album and 2 songs off of 2016 album ‘Between You & Me‘.
The night really took off once California natives, Silent Planet, began their set. While their albums typically have more screaming in their verses, vocalist Garrett Russell went with a less heavy approach that felt closer to talking than singing. The slam poetry feel to their songs died once Silent Planet went into their deep and brutal breakdowns filled with screams. Despite their sound, Silent Planet tackles a vast amount of topics in their songs. “Panic Room” is about soldiers struggling with PTSD, “In Absence” is about losing someone to dementia/altzheimers, and “Native Blood” which talks about Native American history. Their heavy sound created some moshing in the crowd and Garrett Russell jumped off stage to sing with the crowd on several occasions.
Senses Fail came next on the co-headline tour with The Amity Affliction because of the bands alternate set times throughout the tour. Frontman James “Buddy” Nielsen was extremely energetic on stage. He was constantly moving around, jumping, and dancing in a leopard print suit.
At one point in the show, he said, “I never had a relationship with my father which is why I’m in a cat suit in front of a million people.” The enthusiastic crowd danced and sang along to the lyrics as a disco ball glittered the room with streams of light. Buddy also led the crowd in a “Fuck the New England Patriots” chant. In case you live in a hole somewhere, the Patriots won the Super Bowl the previous week. All in all, it was a great set with about 15 songs. The final song was a medley between “Bite to Break Skin, Chop Suey, Bodies, Break Stuff, and Bulls on Parade.”
The Amity Affliction began by playing, “Drag The Lake” off of their most recent album “Misery.” The crowd had thinned out after Senses Fail, but the energy was just as wild. The Amity Affliction played 14 songs, the near majority of them were off of “Misery.” My favorite song of the night was “Feels Like I’m Dying” where the crowd was jumping and singing during the choruses. For one section, part of the band cut out and let the crowd sing the chorus. Then they came back in and the crowd went nuts. The Amity Affliction concluded their set with their hit song “Pittsburgh” followed by an encore of “All Fucked Up” to conclude the wildly successful Misery Will Find You North American Tour.
