Crown The Empire hit the road, bringing heavy hitters with bands like Dark Divine, Capstan, and Oni. The tour set out with the intent to decimate crowds along the way. This Sunday night in Chicago wasn’t your average-sized House of Blues crowd. Of course, 2 miles down the road, 60k people were at a Metallica show at Soldier Field. Those of us die-hard fans showed up to support these great acts, and they gave us one hell of a night. Get Some Magazine was there to capture the chaos.

ONI

Canadian prog metalcore band ONI opened the night, and the crowd immediately entered it. The opening number, “Silhouette,” got the crowd moving, and the crowd was ready to go. Song two, “Walk Away,” an unreleased masterpiece of raw emotions, set the tone for their whole set. The crowd was moshing and headbanging and couldn’t seem to get enough. Adding Jared Dines to the lineup for this tour gave the band some extra firepower. For the first time seeing this band, they have that great prog/metalcore sound like ERRA or Wage War. Some of the songs on this setlist included “Aura” and “Cyanide,” and ending the set with “Spark.” We could see why this was the opening band; ONI was responsible for seriously warming the crowd.

CAPSTAN

Florida natives Capstan took the stage next and kicked the door open with their first song, “Final Words.” The crowd was jumping and moshing for this opening number. We finally got crowd surfers during the second song, “Shades of Us.” “Misery Scene” was another tremendous crowd-surfing song that pulled the crowd closer to the band. Another first was with Capstan, who put on another fantastic set. Other songs included in this set were, “Take My Breath Away/ Noose”, “Bete Noire” and “Wax Poetic”. It was safe to say that the crowd was in full “LET’S F**KING GO” mode after this set.

DARK DIVINE

Another Florida native, Dark Divine, has been on a huge upswing the last couple of years. The boys have been out touring with bands like Black Veil Brides, Catch Your Breath, and hosting multiple headlining shows in their home state to promote their new album “Deadly Fun”. Our “spooky” boys opened with “Hive Mind” and had the crowd in the palm of their hands as soon as this song started. The mosh pits opened immediately, and they had the barricade head banging. “Dancing Dead” brought a conga line mosh pit, yes conga line. “Digital Numb”, which by far in my opinion, is one of the bands heaviest numbers. The fans kicked it into high gear and the entire house went hard. Some of the other songs in the set list were, “Burn the Witch”, “Paper Crown”, “The Reaper” and ending the set with “Halloweentown”. Dark Divine is no joke, like I said the band is in full up-swing and taking no prisoners. If you want Motionless in White vibes or just want to see a live set that will leave you happily exhausted, this my friend is the band to see. After seeing this set, we were wondering if the crowd has enough in the tank to keep going.

CROWN THE EMPIRE

We caught the band on tour with Set it Off a couple of months ago; it was an album cycle set list with a couple of older songs mixed in, and this time around, the band brought a set list composed of a little something from albums that span a 14-year-old catalog and gave us some great Warped Tour vibes at times. Opening with “Initiation,” Crown had the crowd opening pits early, rocking the barricade, and headbanging, which included everyone in the house and, of course, myself. Andy had the crowd singing along with him during “In Another Life” and “Zero.” They went back to old school mid set with “Oh, Catastrophe”, “The Fallout” and “Johnny Ringo”. During “Dancing the Dead,” the pit took up the entire floor and went insane. Crown ended the set with another throwback, “Makeshift Chemistry,” with the crowd bouncing on the floor at the House of Blues for one last song. Other songs in the setlist were “Dogma”, “Superstar”, “Millenia”, and “Machines”. Throughout this whole set, fans went hard, which was expected of the die-hards who showed up to this show. Tonight, this small crowd and the mix of big bands made a recipe for a very up-close and personal experience for everyone there. This tour is a must-go-see. You’re probably missing out on one of the more fun tours of the year.

Now, from a photography point of view, lighting was, at the utmost, top-notch for this tour. We had no issues, and with the small crowd, we could maneuver through the crowd to get shots. All pictures were shot on a Canon R6 with a Sigma 24-70 lens. As usual, we’ll catch you all on the next one!!