We made our way to the Opera House Tuesday night amidst a sea of Bane and FATA hoodies. My lady friend apparently needed coffee, so suffice to say we were near the back of the line to enter the venue when we arrived around 7. Standing next to a hulking bro in a With Honor hoodie, I got smirked for my AtDi hoodie. Anyways, we made our way into the venue with my friend getting her camera taken away in the process.
Due to the aforementioned coffee run, we missed about half of Silverstein's set. I did like what I heard though. I had listened to their latest album, When Broken is Easily Fixed and I wasn't impressed. But live these fellow Canadians were much better, with a small little fan base that screamed every word. To me, they seemed like a harder version of your typical Used clone (i.e. Story of the Year) with their clean vocals and perfectly timed screams. The crowd was appreciative though and I saw quite a few people grab some of their merch once their short set finished. Also, the lead singer looked a lot like Dustin from Thrice and my friend thought he was hot if that makes any difference.
Most Precious Blood was up next. I had never heard any of their material before tonight, so I wasn't expecting too much. I was blown away. These guys (and girl, Rachel is one of their guitarists) had tons of energy and really knew how to work the crowd. I couldn't help but get into their songs, which they played around 7 of. The one gripe I had, was that I wasn't that big on their screamer. He wasn't as loud as I would have liked and was often drowned out by the music. Overall though, a great set and MPB gained a fan in me that night.
Hopesfall. These are the guys I came to see. After the short introduction of "Hi, we're hopesfall" they immediately burst into "Only the clouds." With no break at all in between, they went into "Waitress." The lead singer (whose name I actually don't know) apologized for being a little sick. I didn't notice his ailment at all, he hit almost every scream perfectly and had great crowd interaction, leaping into the crowd and singing every word with them. They played my favorite, "The Bending", and even threw in a new song (which admittedly, I didn't think was too spectacular but I'm still optimistic about the upcoming album). They utilized material from both The Satellite Years and the No Wings To Speak Of EP. While the other bands were a lot of fun to listen to, at times Hopesfall was just awe-inspiring. Melodic hardcore at its finest. They also played "Decoys Like Curves," "The End Of An Era" and closed with "April Left With Silence."An amazing set from the North Carolina boys.
Finally, the headliners From Autumn to Ashes took the stage. They actually played some AtDi during their setup so I looked around for the gargantuan fool to exact a revenge smirk, but alas I couldn't find him. Anyways, FATA played roughly the same amount of songs off both Too Bad You're Beautiful and the weaker The Fiction We Live. I enjoyed a few songs from their set, but never really got into them. Honestly, the singing parts just ruin most of the songs for me. Both "Capeside Rock" and "Cherry Kiss" from Too Bad You're Beautiful were well played though, as was "The After Dinner Playback" off their latest album. At one point the drummer and singer, Fran, came out front to sing a song alone which wasn't completely terrible, but they are definately weaker without the screaming. My friend thought they were amazing, but I went off to buy another Hopesfall shirt near the end of their set.
Overall it was a great show and well worth the price of admission. Silverstein were better than I expected. Most Precious Blood was an awesome suprise. Hopesfall was as amazing as I expected and FATA had their moments.