The beef between Emmure and The Acacia Strain has been squashed. Both bands are now on The Eternal Enemies Tour. Emmure Vs. The Acacia Strain is on the tour poster along with support from: Fit for a King, Kublai Khan and Sylar.
With headliners Emmure at the helm, this show was no doubt going to be visceral and violent. The show made its stop at the OC Observatory in Santa Ana on Friday to a packed house.
As soon as Emmure took the stage to close out the show, the place wet nuts. The New York natives’ vulgar lyrics, along with an aggressive set would make anyone set off on onslaught of fury and rage.
The band played songs spanning their entire six album discography, all released the last seven years. They had plenty of songs to choose from and all 18 they chose had fans singing and bobbing their heads in succession.
Lead singer Frankie Palmeri, wearing his trademark windbreaker, screamed and growled his way to another unforgettable performance. He sounds so close to his recordings, its scary. The band sped through an hour long performance with little to impede them. The performance provided quantity and quality.
One wouldn’t expect The Acacia Strain’s performance to have bubble machines blowing soapy circles in the crowd for their entire performance, but they did. Vincent Bennett even acknowledged that the band had large “Sesame Street” letters behind them. A “T,” “A” and “S” stood largely behind the band.
Similar to Emmure, the band had aggressive lyrics and breakdowns throughout to send shockwaves and move anyone who set their eyes and ears on the band.
Bennett also did something that he says he never does while on stage, he smiled. It was pretty awkward seeing this large man-beast smile, but it was also a rare and worth-while thing to witness.
Fan-favorite “JFC” set off an eruption of excitement and crowd participation including their most notable lyrics, “I am the end of the world.”
Even though their set seemed to speed by, Fit for a King played a solid set. Lead singer Ryan Kirby was sick, but it was hard to tell with his pitch-perfect lyrics. Kirby showcased his talent when he held growls and screams for an extended period of time.
The band only played two songs from their new album, “Slave to Nothing.” But what they lacked in newer material, they made up for with five songs off of “Creation/Destruction,” that included many breakdowns and audience participation.
Kublai Khan was probably the oddball band of the tour, but they played their set like they wanted to be on the tour. The hardcore band’s set was just that, hardcore. Circle pits, moshing, crowd jumping and hardcore dancing was present on the floor during their entire set.
Stray from the Path was originally announced for the tour but backed out just before it started so they could put a hold on their constant touring and begin on their next album. Sylar replaced them. It was difficult to replace a band as good as SFTP but Sylar prevailed. Even though only a handful of fans knew the words to many songs, all were able to get into their quick opening set.
Local band Modern Color opened the show this evening.
All photos by Corey Kleinsasser
Fit for a King
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Kublai Khan
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Sylar
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Emmure
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The Acacia Strain
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The Kublai Khan song at the end is Ghost PAINS, not Ghost Piñatas (albeit funnier this way).