Vans Off The Wall Music Night presents: Like Moths To Flames, Memphis May Fire, We Came As Romans and Parkway Drive

Music never fails to make my life at least a tiny bit better. I had a pretty crappy week but I made it through and as some sort of reward so to say, I went to see these four amazing bands. Unfortunately, I didn't have an interview though but it was still a blast. 

Like Moths To Flames started the insanity with the perfect performance to get the crowd into the mood to mosh, the first circle pit happened maybe two minutes after the guys from Columbus, OH started to play.

Memphis May Fire were up next and I'd really like to talk about Matty's Legacy-speech. I don't remember his exact words, but it went somehow like this: "each and everyone is so special in their own way, I love you all from the bottom of my heart, screw everyone who tries to bring you down! Chase your dreams because all of you are capable of making them come true. I belive in you!"

I actually got goosebumps because sometimes it's just nice to hear encouraging words like these, even if they come from a total stranger. I mean, these bands are the reason why you're reading this right now and I have no clue where I'd be without them.

Memphis May Fire played a good mix of their two albums, for example Alive In The Lights, The Sinner, Vices and The Victim. I'm pretty excited for new stuff though! 

My personal highlight was finally on stage after MMF: We Came As Romans. I was really excited and had certain expectations but these crazy guys exceeded those expectations by far. I'm still fascinated by Kyle's pleasant presence on stage - as soon as he started to perform, I stopped thinking about all the things that were bothering me and just paid attention to his voice. He has this very special sound which is a big part of the things that make this band so special. They mostly played songs from their current album Tracing Back Roots (for example Fade Away, Ghosts or Present, Future and Past) but when they played their version of Glad You Came (which is originally by The Wanted and if you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out), they got this party started. Instead of moshing, people were actually dancing and screaming along and that was a beautiful thing to experience. However, not only the crowd had fun, but also the band what was even more beautiful to watch. I really hope they'll be back in Germany soon because these guys totally cast a spell on me (is that a cheesy expression to use when it comes to a metalcore band?)

The final performance belonged to a bunch of guys from Australia: Parkway Drive. As aggressive as their music might sound, the people behind it are super nice. They were at least as excited to play as the crowd was to see them and what can I say? The Australians burned the place down. Crowdsurfers were literally flying around, basically the whole performance was one big circle pit and things got totally insane. I loved how the band interacted with the crowd, for example when they blew out these little white pieces of paper, and their vocalist was like "We don't have snow in Australia, so we thought we'd bring some for you."

Some people got a little mixed up in the pits (bleeding noses, black eyes, whatever you can imagine) but I'm pretty sure that every single person in this room had a fantastic night. 

That was my last concert for this year, so I'll focus on reviews for the last few weeks that still remain in 2013. If you have any wish or request, just drop a message and I'll have a listen!

Last Concert Of The Season!!

Hey guys, I'm just here to apologize for the lack of posts (business as usual) and to give you a quick update! Tomorrow I'll attend the last concert of my season, so to say, the Vans Off The Wall Music Night feat. Like Moths To Flames, Memphis May Fire, We Came As Romans and Parkway Drive!! I'm so so so so so excited for We Came As Romans, I gotta admit that I developed a thing for them during the last couple of months, so it's pretty cool that I'll get the chance to see them. I'm also very pleased to see Memphis May Fire again and I'm 100% sure that Parkway Drive will tear the place apart. Long story short: If you'll be there, come say hi! And if you won't be there, I'll provide you with some lovely pictures and a review on Sunday or on Monday. 

I also plan on doing a little summary of my concert season and a little foreshadowing for 2014 (yes, I already started planning concerts for next yea!), so yeah, stay tuned! 

Concert Review: Sights & Sounds, Pierce The Veil and Bring Me The Horizon in Stuttgart, Germany

This was the best concert I've attended since Rock am Ring, not even kidding. I expected it to be great but last night completely blew me away. 

I had an interview with Andrew from Sights & Sounds but I didn't know when, so we arrived at the venue pretty early. I asked somebody with a laminate about Sights & Sounds and he said he'd send them outside (what never happened but oh well). We waited next to the backstage entrance and waited and waited and waited until a girl who stood next to me looked to the main entrance and said: "Hold on a second, they're taking pics, there's somebody...THAT'S OLI!!" Of course we wanted to take a glimpse at him so we walked to the entrance but couldn't get close because Oli was already crowded by fans. We went back to the busses, still waiting for Sights & Sounds, when Saskia suddenly got super nervous, so I twirled and saw Oli standing right next to me. We didn't hesitate a second, of course. 

(heck yeah, my friends!!)

We were still waiting for my interview to happen; in the meantime we met Jordan and Matt from Bring Me The Horizon: 

(Matt looks really confused, and I'm confused because "fans" don't seem to recognize him unless he's on stage)

Things got a little chaotic when Andrew from Sights & Sounds contacted me. Usually interviews happen before they let people inside the venue, this time we had to get in line, it took us 20 minutes to get inside and of course then it was too late for the interview. We got a spot in the 4th row what would be fine if I was tall but since I'm not, I couldn't even see the stage properly. 
Sights & Sounds opened the show with a mixed set: They played songs from their full length album and their new EP which came out last week. It was a good way of preparing the crowd for Pierce The Veil. The mexicans were my highlight of the night; I've been looking forward to this moment since I saw them play at Rock am Ring for 15 minutes and let me tell you - the wait was so worth it. 
They started their set with Hell Above and when everyone around me sang along with Vic "this is a wasteland, my only retreat", I felt like I belonged somewhere, you know what I mean? Like, I wasn't the weirdo anymore, I wasn't the outcast or the freak and that felt amazing. 

This is the setlist from London (November 7th) and last night they played the same songs, just in a different order.(taken from here)

My personal highlight was Hold On Till May. I didn't even expect them to play it but when Vic said "This song goes out to all of you who need music to survive" I got goosebumps and became slightly emotional. When this particular line ("Darling, you'll be okay") was up, Jaime pointed at the whole crowd and I think that was a really beautiful gesture. 
Another thing I noticed in particular was how passionate Tony was. He sang along to almost every song, sometimes he looked at us and just smiled so happily it gave me this warm, fuzzy feeling. It always makes me so happy to see how much band members love what they do. 

By the way: We should start a petition to get Jaime to sing more because in my opinion, he's an incredibly talented vocalist and more people should appreciate this. 

I didn't take any pictures because I was busy not getting crushed by the people around me. However, I saw Adam Elmakias sneaking around, so as soon as he uploads the pics he took, I might add them here. 

If you saw BMTH before, you know how wild it can be. I saw a girl getting dragged out of the pit with a bleeding nose, Oli asked crowd surfers to make their way to him, so he could give them a high five (shoutout to the security for doing a fantastic job) and I bruised my knee when everybody had to sit down only to jump up again when Oli told us to do so. 

All in all, I had a fantastic night and I can't wait to see BMTH and PTV again!

Impericon Never Say Die Tour: Northlane, Hundredth, Hand Of Mercy, Betraying The Martyrs, I Killed The Prom Queen, Carnifex and Emmure

Hey guys, in case you were wondering: I'm still alive, university is going good and I was at the Impericon Never Say Die tour last sunday! It was one of my best concert experiences so far, but let's start at the beginning. 

We arrived at the venue around 5pm, my interview with Northlane was scheduled for 5.30 so we walked around the venue for a while until somebody who looked like he belonged to one of the bands, sent us backstage to look for the guys. That's what we did and we ran into Nic from Northlane right away. He took us inside to look for Adrian and Alex who were up for the interview but we couldn't find Alex, so Nic jumped in:

Originally, the interview was longer but due to some technical issues, I had to cut out some parts. However, Northlane will hopefully be back in Germany next year, so we'll be able to catch up.

Thanks to Nic and Adrian for having us!

My interview with Hand Of Mercy was scheduled for 7.30pm, so we had almost 2 hours to kill and went inside again. HOM also opened the show and we didn't want to miss that, so we got a spot in the first row and waited until it started. 

The boys from Sydney kicked ass and were the perfect opening act. They had so much energy which they easily transferred to the crowd - they were exactly what you'd expect at a gig like that.

Northlane were up next and unfortunately we only managed to see half of their set because of the next interview. However, these guys exceeded my expectations. Adrian might not look like it, but he can sound very angry and combined with the rest of the band supporting him, Northlane showed why they belong in this genre.

As I said, we had to leave their set earlier for the interview with Hand Of Mercy. I had no idea how their tour manager looked like, so we decided to wait at their merch table until Dawson showed up and I asked him about the interview. A few minutes later Dawson, Josh, Saskia (who filmed) and I were on the way to the band's tourbus, what was the highlight of my career as a journalist so far. 

The quality is terrible because the only lighting we had were two little lights on the bus but the sound is alright so just concentrate on that. 

After interview #2, we went back to the venue because the interview with I Killed The Prom Queen was up next. Again we went to their merch table and when Jona wasn't surrounded by a gazillion of people anymore, I went to talk to him and that's the outcome of it: 

Huge shoutout to all the band members for being so easy-going and uncomplicated and thanks to all of them for having us!

Now that all the interviews were done, we went back inside to watch Betraying The Martyrs. It was my second time that I saw them and they tore the place apart just like I thought they would. It's a little sad that their drummer couldn't make it to this tour because he's stuck in Russia but nevertheless the band had the best show of the evening. Furthermore, Aaron reminds me so much of Mitch Lucker, I don't know why but I keep thinking about this. 

The last band we watched was I Killed The Prom Queen, of course. They absolutely convinced me with fantastic guitar solos and an amazing show. As Jona said, their album will be released next year, so keep an eye on that, it'll be worth it!

We couldn't stay for Carnifex and Emmure but nevertheless I had a terrific night! If you haven't already done it, I highly recommend you go and check out these bands, you won't regret it!

NEW RELEASE: A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy

It's here! The long awaited album of the five-piece hardcore/metalcore band from Florida was released almost a week ago and proved the whole music industry that A Day To Remember know how to make music and how to surprise people. First of all it's important to say that Common Courtesy is self-released because the band has some serious trouble with their (ex-) record label Victory Records (yes, this is a hint for all of you to go and buy this record in order to show your support).

Common Courtesy only hits a small part of my expectations and that's something I'm very happy about. I thought it would be just like What Separates Me From You but I couldn't have been wronger. In fact, it's fresh, it's energetic and it brings out all the great aspects of every band member, especially of Jeremy. It's really good to see (or hear) how there's a perfect mix of aggressive hardcore sounds (for example in Violence) and slower songs which even contain acoustic guitars (for example I'm Already Gone). It's also very good to hear how Jeremy performs the clean vocals, for example in I Surrender. It doesn't really sound like the A Day To Remember we all know but most changes are for good because they show how a band develops and improves and that's definitely something they did. 
My favourite song on the album is I Remember and I suggest every band to do a song like this one. Why? Because it's a great way for the band to share their craziest, best, most memorable experiences of their life in a band with us fans. We're all interested in these stories! There's this part at the end of the song where they talk about how they saw snow for the very first time and when I heard that I was a little confused until I realised that not everybody is used to snow like we Europeans are. It's just so great to hear these stories because band guys experience so much on their way around the world!

All in all, Common Courtesy turned out to be my favourite album of A Day To Remember ever and it's ranked very high on my list of albums released in 2013. All the hard work the band put into this record was definitely worth it.

New Discovery: Those Who Seek

Between all the preparation for university and writing for The Wellz Street Journal, I sometimes forget that I have a blog to run, too. In other news: Sorry for the lack of posts, it shall get better soon! 

Today I got some free music by a band from Manchester, UK called Those Who Seek. They released their debut EP Because Really, We're Just Animals on July 12th 2013 and will tour the UK this month (so, if you can go to see them, do it!)

Those Who Seek classify themselves as "progressive heavy pop punk" band what couldn't be more accurate. The record contains breakdowns and screaming (e.g. in Look To The Skies), acoustic guitars and clean vocals. It offers passion, emotions, stories and experiences we all have to make sooner or later, for example in Run From Me. It's a pity that there are only four songs on the record, I'd love to hear more! 

Now it's your turn: go listen to Because Really, We're Just Animals on bandcamp and give the band a like on facebook!

Thanks for the music, guys!

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New Discovery: Double Lined Minority

Today I've got something for the lovers of pop punk: Double Lined Minority from Gold Coast, Australia. Founded in 2009, the four guys released their debut EP "Calling All Liars" on June 18th 2013 and I highly recommend you go check it out. 

The record kicks off with Stop Me, a song which already makes you want to mosh around your room because it has everything a good song of this genre needs. 

Song number two, I Hate This Song And So Should You, could easily be by Fall Out Boy before they came back to save Rock and Roll (and I'm not just saying that because of the title). I like how catchy it is and Eddie, Double Lined Minority's vocalist, has a very pleasant voice which fits perfectly with the sound of the band's music. 

Loved, song number three, is my favourite on the whole album. It contains some very accurate lyrics combined with an amazing guitar part at the end, and who doesn't "just wanna be loved"?

The next song has the most accurate title ever: Facebook Likes Don't Make You Famous (I'd suggest the band gets this printed on shirts and adds them to their merch, I'd wear one!)
Smoke And Mirrors is the end of a promising record. Double Lined Minority definitely is a talented band with much to come in the future and "Calling All Liars" is just the beginning of something great!

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