While every concert has the same fundamental elements, there are very few shows that stand out above the rest. Fueled by the dumpster fire that was COVID-19, Beartooth’s magnificent performance at The Below Tour shook the House of Blues Chicago.

Dragged Under opened The Below Tour with their heavy-hitting song “Instability,” which I would highly recommend listening to right now. The crowd immediately began to move and pulse to the hard punk rock music. The third song Dragged Under played was their recent single “Brainwash Broadcast (feat. Spencer Chamberlain)” which solidified that the crowd was going to be very tired once the show was over. The majority of the songs were from their epic debut album The World Is In Your Way. From there, head-banging, devil horns, and jumping ensued for the remainder of their set as the crowd anxiously waited to see Wage War and Beartooth. The crowd cheered as the man doing mic checks said hilarious and mildly controversial things into the mics, the final one being “Check, check, Die Hard is a Christmas movie.” 

Red lights enveloped the crowd as Wage War opened with “Stitch” and immediately the crowd could be felt through the venue. The floor shook so hard it felt like being on a small boat in a massive storm.  Wage War continued with “Who I Am” and “Prison,” the first two songs off of their 2019 release Pressure. Caleb Shomo came out at the end of Wage War’s new single “High Horse” and the crowd instantly began screaming and jumping. Two songs off of their first record Blueprints were played next and were followed by their other two singles from their new album Manic which comes out October 1, 2021. A creative and flashy light show stunned the crowd and added intensity throughout the show. After the wall of death during “The River,” the crowd kept the energy high for the rest of the set. The whole crowd sang along during “Gravity” and subsequently moshed hard for the final song “Low.”

The floor felt like it would collapse as Beartooth began with The Below Tour with their hit song “Below.” As the last indoor show of The Below Tour, the crowd had festival-level energy from start to finish despite the small pit at the House of Blues Chicago. A tidal wave of crowd surfers flooded the photo pit for the first three songs as Beartooth continued with “Devastation” and “Hated.” A few 10-year-old children were crowd surfing throughout what would become the greatest Beartooth show I have seen. The setlist was stacked with hit songs off each record grouped in twos and threes. Caleb put every last drop of energy into his performance and the crowd gave it all back. Everyone screamed until their throats were sore and moved until every muscle ached. After 10 songs of wild energy, an exhausted crowd settled down a bit for the song “Skin.” Caleb told the crowd to put their hands up and the security guard standing in front of Caleb raised his hands as high as they could go. A few moments later, Wage War’s vocalist Britton was featured on “Bad Listener.” Chaos ensued once again when Caleb led the crowd in screaming, “I’ll be banging my head til my brain rots.” After doing some research on the House of Blues Chicago, Caleb shared that it’s the venue he has played the most shows at and he is “proud to call this House of Blues home.” With Beartooth’s colorful lighting rig, smoke cannons, and LED walls playing awesome graphics, the overall show became a 10/10. “The Last Riff” was the perfect end to Beartooth’s unbelievable set. Laptops and monitors shook at the sound booth as the band rocked as hard as humanly possible. It might just be my favorite moment of 2021. I was on my death bed and I could time travel, I might go back and witness “The Last Riff” one last time. 

Dragged Under

Wage War

Beartooth

Pictures and words by Jason Walton