On July 9th, 2024- Hawthorne Heights performed at The Masquerade on their 20 Years of Tears Tour with special guests; I See Stars, Anberlin, Armor For Sleep, Emery, and This Wild Life. The Masquerade was the best venue for this tour because I’ve always experienced only positive things everytime I photographed here! Get ready for all the emotions in this article!
Opening the night was; This Wild Life! I’ve never listened to this band before, but their name sounded very familiar when I saw the lineup. Of course on the way to the venue I had to listen to some of their music! I didn’t really like the music on Spotify, but in person it was totally different. I think lately I’ve been all about listening to new musicians live instead of their music on Spotify because 90% of the time in my opinion; the band sounds way better during a live performance. This Wild Life is an acoustic rock band formed in 2010 from Long Beach, California consisting of; Kevin Jordan (Lead vocals/Rhythm Guitar) and Anthony Del Grasso (Lead guitar/Backing vocals) Their performance was INSANE and I couldn’t stop watching at all. Between Kevin doing vocals and playing the guitar at the same time and Grasso playing keyboards; I couldn’t stop watching even though at the time I had to use the restroom BADLY. That’s how engaging their set was. Grasso also went from performing on guitar to the drums, then to the keyboard and then BACK to the guitar. Every song was so different with instruments. Highly recommend seeing this band live if you haven't before! The ending when Kevin went crazy on these little bongo drums; I couldn’t stop laughing because he was going insanely fast and making these funny facial expressions. Amazing performance and I can’t wait to see them again!
Next up with; Emery! I saw this band once I believe and it was at Capulet Fest 2023 and I personally never listened to this band either, but they do give a good live performance! The band is actually from Rockhill, South Carolina which is like almost 3 hours from me which is really cool, but they did relocate to Seattle in the early years for a better music scene! The currently consists of; Toby Morell (Lead Vocals) , Devin Shelton (Bass/Back Vocals) , Josh Head (Unclean Vocals/Keyboards) , Matt Carter (Lead Guitar/Back Vocals) , Dave Powell (Drums) , and Chris Keene (Lead Guitar) I was not prepared for Head’s unclean vocals and I’m not going to lie; His vocals blew me away between him doing the vocals and swishing his long hair all over the place; It was amazing! Between him and Morell; the whole performance was so engaging and with the duo doing vocals together; it was so intense. I would see this band again in a heartbeat. This Wildlife and their band set the tone for the rest of the night because This Wildlife was softer and I was not ready for how heavy and energetic Emery was. Explosive energy the whole time and not once did that energy stop even when they switched songs. Another band to add to my list of top live bands of 2024!
Armor For Sleep was next! I believe this was my 3rd time photographing this band and I honestly can’t get enough of them. Their live performance is always top tier and I’ve always enjoyed every minute of it.The band consists of; Ben Jergensen (Lead vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Piano) , PJ DeCicco (Lead Guitar) , Anthony Dilonno (Bass/Back Vocals) , Nash Breen (Drums) , and touring member Nate Novarro (Drums/Percussion). They performed songs such as “Dream To Make Believe” , “Smile For The Camera” , and “Car Underwater” . I still can’t believe it was my 3rd time photographing them and being able to have these opportunities is such a blessing. Jergensen has a very calming singing voice that just has you memorized the whole time. I can’t wait to see what other tours they go on this year because I can’t miss them!
Next up was one of my favorite bands from my teenage years; Anberlin! I’ve been listening to this band since “The Feel Good Drag” was released back in 2005 and that has been my personal anthem since then! That is the song that made me fall in love with the band as well as “Paperthin Hymn” which both songs were on the album “Never Take Friendship Personal” I remember listening to “The Feel Good Drag” on MTV in the morning or the HBO channel where you could watch music videos. I remember watching the video being very young and not realizing what it actually meant, but as I got older, I look back at the video and realize that we can relate a lot to the lyrics. Matty Mullins is currently filling in for vocals for this band and he did every song absolutely amazing! Mullins is such a personable vocalist on stage and that’s why we love him. Always smiling and engaging with the crowd. When they performed “Paperthin Hymn”; I lost it in the crowd because that is also one of the songs that got me through hard times growing up. What a beautiful performance!
IT WAS TIME FOR MY FAVORITE BAND! I SEE STARS! Being able to finally see this band live healed my inner teenager because I’ve been listening to this band since 2009 when “3-D” was released with “The Common Hours” and “The Big Bad Wolf” being my top favorite songs that made me fall in love with this band. The reason why this band caught my attention is because of the electronic aspect with the mixture of the clean vocals. They were one of the first bands to be known as “electronicore” and they are the reason why I love this type of music. It makes my heart hurt because I never got a chance to see this band perform at past Vans Warped Tours, but I’m glad I was able to finally see them after 15 years! The band formed in Warren, Michigan in 2006 currently consisting; Devin Oliver (Lead Vocals) , Andrew Oliver (Keyboards/Programming) , Brent Allen (Guitar) , and Jeff Valentine (Drums) with touring musician Dakota Sammons (Drums) I will not lie; I fangirled a bit when they went on stage and I think the attendees at the barricade felt that excitement radiate off me because several of them went “You go girl! You got this!” We love when attendees hype the photographers because sometimes I’m not going to lie; I get really nervous at shows and especially since this was my first time seeing one of my favorite bands; I tried my best to hold my excitement. After the 3 songs in the pit; I went to the crowd and yes; I cried my eyes out during the whole set and sang to every single song.
It was finally time to see one of my favorite bands that shaped me into who I am today; Hawthorne Heights! I can’t believe I was finally able to see this band 20 years later and having the opportunity to photograph them was something I didn’t see coming at all. I’ve been listening to this band since 2004 when “The Silence In Black and White” was released with “Niki Fm” , “Ohio Is For Lovers” , and “Wake Up Call” being my top favorite songs from that album. This is one of the main bands I listened to constantly in middle and high school because I felt I could relate to the sadness of their music and honestly forget everything going around me. I was heavily bullied in school and this band got me through a lot when I was younger and now being 30 years old; I can relate to their music even more now.
The band right consists of; James Thomas "JT" Woodruff (Lead Vocals) , Matt Ridenour (Bass/Back Vocals) , Mark McMillon (Lead Guitar/Unclean Vocals) , and Chris Popadak (Drums) and in 2007 the band did lose Casey Calvert due to a mixture of certain medication he was on sadly. He was found dead in the band’s van before the show that night. There has been for many years people constantly talking about how he was a drug addict and he died of an overdose, but everyone should understand that sometimes medication should not be taken together and can easily cause death. Their set had me crying almost instantly because this band shaped me into who I am today. I still couldn’t believe I was literally standing a few feet away from them in the photopit to capture their set and this amazing tour. Like what James stated “We've been around for so long. We been around when you guys use to give your parents viruses on the computer for getting our songs off of Limewire” That’s how old I am. I remember downloading their songs to my lPOD and breaking my family's computer because of how many viruses I gave them. It was worth all the arguments. This whole tour reminded me that we all went through the same phase in our younger years and we all came together to celebrate the 20th anniversary! Thank you Hawthorne Heights for giving us the show that we all needed!
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