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August Burns Red and Silverstein Kick off Holiday at Pop’s Wednesday With a Bang

Silverstein performing at Pops Nightclub near Saint Louis, Thursday. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

 

–By Valerie Helton

–Photos by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography

On Wednesday July 3rd, metalcore band August Burns Red started Fourth of July with a bang by making a stop at Pop’s for their “10 Years of Constellations Tour” with Silverstein and Silent Planet. ABR celebrated their 10-year anniversary of the album Constellations by playing it in its’ entirety.

 

Silent Planet was the first band to perform. The band grew up with Silverstein and asked the crowd multiple times if they were excited to see them play. When Silent Planet played “Panic Room” about a friend of theirs with PTSD from serving in Afghanistan, you could tell they were performing with every emotion they had.

Silent Planet performing at Pops Nightclub opening for August Burns Red and Silverstein. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

 

The bassist, Thomas Freckleton, had crisp clean vocals, and sang loud to make sure the crowd could hear him. The lead vocalist, Garrett Russell had strong screams, but I was not the biggest fan of his clean singing. It basically just sounded like he was talking and didn’t resonate well live.

 

Silent Planet interacted well with the crowd by thanking them multiple times for coming to watch them, starting mosh pits, and jumping into the crowd during the last song.

 

Next up was Silverstein. I have been a fan of Silverstein since I was in high school, so I was extremely excited to see them again (the first time was at Warped Tour a few years ago). They always sound SO GOOD live (as if you were listening to their songs right off the CD), so I knew they were going to put on an awesome show.

Silverstein performing at Pops Nightclub near Saint Louis, Thursday. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

 

Silverstein played a mixture of older and newer songs. When playing the older ones, it brought a lot of high school nostalgia for myself and most people in the crowd. The entire crowd seemed to be singing along and bobbing their head. Silverstein played a brand-new song called “Burn It Down” that had just come out a week prior to this show, which I loved and can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.

 

Shane Told had strong vocals as usual. He really got the crowd going when he said Congrats to the Blues on winning the Stanley Cup and “Fuck the Bruins”. He also switched some of the lyrics to say “Sauget” when mentioning another city, which the crowd loved.

Silverstein performing at Pops Nightclub near Saint Louis, Thursday. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

 

Silverstein ended their set with “The Afterglow”, which had the entire crowd, including myself, singing loudly.  It was a great setup to ABR.

 

Silverstein Setlist:

  1. Retrograde
  2. Whiplash
  3. Smashed Into Pieces 4. Vices
  4. Smile In Your Sleep
  5. Burn It Down
  6. Ghost
  7. Massachusetts
  8. I Will Illuminate
  9. My Heroine
  10. The Afterglow

 

While waiting for August Burns Red to come on stage, music was playing over the speakers. The song that played right before ABR came on was “Chop Suey” by System of a Down, which made the crowd sing loudly and jump around. I’m not sure if this was planned, but it really got everyone pumped. The crowd even started chanting “ABR!”.

August Burns Red performing at Pops Nightclub near Saint Louis, Thursday. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

 

This wasn’t the only time ABR got the crowd going, they started multiple mosh pits (and even “parted” the crowd to start a pit in the middle) and crowd surfing, even more than you would normally see at Warped Tour. You could tell the security guards were getting exhausted. Jake Luhrs even pissed the crowd off a bit when he said he was a Bruins fan but made up for it by saying it was one hell of a series and he was happy for the Blues.

 

August Burns Red opened with “Thirty and Seven” which is the first song on the Constellations album. Not only did they play all the songs off the album, but they even played them in order. Each song had a hard-hitting double bass and strong deep screams. I will say, it was hard to hear the higher screams, which was disappointing.

August Burns Red performing at Pops Nightclub near Saint Louis, Thursday. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

 

I was really impressed with some of the transitions between songs when vocalist Jake Luhrs used his hand to “shut off” the music, abruptly ending the song.

 

The lights for the show were extremely colorful and included lasers and a lot of fog poofs. This isn’t something you usually see during a metal show at a smaller venue.

August Burns Red performing at Pops Nightclub near Saint Louis, Thursday. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

ABR came out and played 5 encore songs. they started with a drum solo and ended with a song called “Composure” from their Messengers album that came out in 2007, which was extremely nostalgic for everyone.

Overall, this concert was nostalgic for everyone that came, even the members of all three bands. I think Silverstein was my favorite to watch, and I cannot wait for their next album to drop.

August Burns Red performing at Pops Nightclub near Saint Louis, Thursday. Photo by Sean Derrick/Thyrd Eye Photography.

 

Be sure to check out the images from the show after ABR’s setlist.

 

August Burns Red Setlist:

  1. Thirty and Seven
  2. Existence
  3. Ocean of Apathy
  4. White Washed
  5. Marianas Trench
  6. The Escape Artist
  7. Indonesia
  8. Paradox
  9. Meridian
  10. Rationalist
  11. Meddler
  12. Crusades

Encore:

  1. Drum Solo
  2. Ghosts
  3. Invisible Enemy
  4. Empire
  5. Composure

 

 

 

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