Concert Review-AP Fall Tour

Who: Bring Me the Horizon, August Burns Red, Emarosa, Polar Bear Club and This is Hell
When: November 19, 2010
Where: House of Blues in Boston, MA

   The House of Blues in Boston has to be my favorite venue of all times.  I love how it is a smaller venue, providing a more intimate experience.  It is well maintained and almost caters to the fans, offering free water mid-show to prevent dehydration.  I have seen four concerts this year alone, and will definitely see more in my life.  I came to the HoB on November 19th to catch the AP Fall Tour, which is an annual tour put on each year by Alternative press magazine.  This year featured an interesting lineup, co-headlining Bring Me the Horizon and August Burns Red.  They received support from Emarosa, Polar Bear Cub and This is Hell.  Although I was there primarily for BMTH, i also looked forward to seeing the other bands. 
   After spending only an hour in line, my girlfriend and I quickly made it through bag/body check to get front row standing room for the concert.  We talked and waited patiently for an hour and then the lights suddenly cut out as well as the music playing.  We knew it was time. 
 This is Hell was up first.  Out of all the bands I was least excited to see this one, and they didn't impress me much.  There music is a poor mash up of hardcore punk and thrash metal and it just didn't fit well with the show.  Many of the songs felt too similar, and the singer seemed to be simply yelling vocals and not getting much of a crowd reaction back.  The highlight of TiH was their lead guitarist, Rick Jimenez, who not only played well, but added the only energy to the performance. Jimenez frantically hopped about the stage jumping about and doing mid-air kicks.  And even though Jimenez did add a much needed energy kick to their performance, I was still happy when they exited the stage.
   Up next was Polar Bear Club.  I was excited to see what they could do live even though I only liked a few of their songs.  Pushing out a mediocre performance, the post-hardcore punk band powered through their set saving their best songs for first and last.  The thing I liked the most about PBC was their lead singer, Jimmy Stadt.  Stadt has an awkwardly rough vocal style, which works really well with the cleaner style of the bands sound.  Stadt used the full stage to his advantage, running, jumping and spinning around everywhere while singing.Although the band had a couple technical difficulties with the amps, they still managed to out on a pretty good show.
   Everybody knew who was up next.  Fans were instantly going crazy for lead singer of Emarosa, Jonny Craig, and it was just sound check.  Craig has been considered by many to have one of the best singing voices in the industry.  His control of his highs and lows and his soulful shrills are almost unrivaled.  And to my surprise, his vocals translated well live.  I just didn't think he could sing so well live and it really added to the performance.  Back by a band that plays either faster paced punkish music or a lighter blend of almost spacey sounding punk, Emarosa really knows how to enhance their front man.  The band as a whole was great, playing hits from both of their CDsand hyping the crowd up for the headliners. 
   The first of the two headliners to play was August Burns Red.  Having already seen them before, I was anticipating a good showing but they really add to their show when they headline.  Entering to techno and strobelights, the band casually walked on stage and then began to tear the roof off the HoB.  Full of screams, breakdowns, great riffs and amazing drums, ABR ignited the HoB.  Not only are the members of ABR great musicians, but they are also great people.  When they stopped to take breaks, they thanks the fans and the other bands they were with and talked about how blessed they were to be on this tour.  ABR was really good at keeping their energy up through the entire set and capped their performance off with a drum solo by Matt Greiner. 
   Last up was the band I was anticipating throughout the show, Bring Me the Horizon.  Hailing from England, it is always special to know they are coming to the states. Unfortunately this is the first time I have made it out to one of their shows, but at least I finally got to see them.  BMTH had the best stage presense among the bands, constantly engaging the crowd.  Initiating things like crowd surfing, cicle pits and even a wall of death, intensified the crowd and kept the shows energy up.  The tuned down guitars and breakdowns matched lead singer, Oli Sykes, screams perfectly and allowed the crowd to really get into the music.  For the last song, guitarist, Jona Weinhoffen, climbed on top of his amp and then climbed on to the second floor balcony and performed part of the song there. Then just before the breakdown, he climbed back to the top of his amp and jumped off to start the breakdown.  At the end of the song the bass player, Matt Kean, threw his bass across the stage and the band exited.  Then to top it off, the drummer, Matt Nicholls ran back out and jumped into the crowd.
   All in all, the AP Fall Tour was a great concert to go to.  The show featured a bunch of varying acts that gradually got better with each band.  I would love to see all of the bands again (even This is Hell, to give them a second chance) and always love coming to the HoB.  If you would like to see pictures from the show, check out my facebook page.  They are kind of blurry, but I don't have the best of cameras.