Photos / Review: Butcher Babies and Nonpoint in New Hampshire

Who: Kings & Queens Tour 2018: Butcher Babies, Nonpoint

Where: Wally’s, Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

When: May 8, 2018

The Kings & Queens tour rolled into Hampton Beach, New Hampshire on a nice, albeit slightly windy, Tuesday.

A couple of days before the New Hampshire stop, support band Cane Hill announced that they were dropping off of the tour, so Sumo Cyco was the only support band. Due to traffic on the way to the venue, I ended up missing Sumo Cyco’s set, so only caught the headlining sets.

On this particular night, Butcher Babies were the first band up (since it is a double headliner, the bands switch off who closes the show each night). Butcher Babies are known for having really fun, interactive shows, and the expectations did not disappoint. The second the band got on stage, they got right into it, with vocalists Heidi Sheperd and Carla Harvey leading the charge. Sheperd and Harvey were connecting with the audience, who loved the attention they were getting. Neither one stayed on one side of the stage for long; they constantly moved around and made sure to point their attention all the way to the back and sides of the room, as well. Sheperd jumped onto the barricade at one point and sang to the audience. Towards the end of the set, she even entered the pit and got a circle pit going, while standing in the middle of it, directing the participants. Their set included mostly songs off of their most recent album, Lilith, released in 2017, including the title track “Lilith,” “Headspin,” and “Burn The Straw Man.” “In Denial,” off of 2013’s Goliath, was also in the set and was really well-received by the audience. The audience absolutely loved Butcher Babies. Everyone felt like they got personal attention from the band and seemed to leave the set with really good spirits. Butcher Babies put on a hell of a show; if you are looking for a fun live band, make sure to put Butcher Babies at the top of your list.

Nonpoint closed out the night. Where Butcher Babies had a bigger setup, Nonpoint did not; the only interesting thing about their setup was that drummer Rob Rivera, instead of directly facing the audience like most drummers, sat facing the entrance to the stage, so his left side was completely open to the audience. This meant that you could actually see the drummer and he really felt like he was a part of the show. They came out on stage and launched right into “Bullet With A Name,” which the audience was screaming along with wholeheartedly. Nonpoint connected with the audience in a different way than Butcher Babies did, but was just as fantastic as Butcher Babies. Personally, I connected with Nonpoint’s music more than Butcher Babies’. Since the stage was so open, the band had a lot of room to move around, whether that meant play next to each other, or do some jumps and kicks. Every single band member connected with the audience and not one section of the audience was ignored. The rest of their set included “Victim,” off of 1997’s Separate Yourself, “Endure” from 2000’s Statement, and “Alive And Kicking” from 2005’s To The Pain; their set had a really good mix of songs from a variety of albums. Nonpoint put on an excellent performance and is a highly recommended band.

No matter if you were there for Nonpoint or for Butcher Babies, both bands did a great job. If you can catch these bands on tour together, it is very highly recommended. If not, just seeing them by themselves will be incredible enough.

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Post and photos by Karen Shalev

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