WAGE WAR’S STIGMA TOUR STEAMROLLS CHICAGO’S RADIUS
Night 2 of our run with Get Some Magazine takes us to Chicago at the Radius for the Stigma Tour. The third night of this tour rolled into Chicago with Wage War, bringing some heavy-hitting supporting acts like Erra, Thrown, and Fame on Fire. From what we have seen from the first two nights of this tour, fans have been enjoying and getting crazy at these shows. With what looked like an energetic crowd tonight in Chicago, we were ready to get right into the action.
FAME ON FIRE
The guys from Fame on Fire have been on a tear lately, coming off some festival runs and dropping a new album earlier this September called THE DEATH CARD, and the band was eager to get out and give us some of their new music on this run. Getting right into the new stuff, the band opened with “No Tomorrow (The Death Card)”, and we were off and running. With this open number and a small mosh pit, the crowd jumped right into the action, and there were already a few crowd surfers. Next up was “Nothing Left (The Fool),” which kept the die-hard fans signing along for this one. “Welcome to the Chaos” was a fan favorite, and it has always had the fans singing along and headbanging in the crowd. This is another one of those bands we’ve had opportunities to shoot over the last couple of years, and I will tell you that this band has come so far in those years with their music and stage shows. This set was filled with new songs that showcased the new album. From what we saw live from The Death Card album, there are some heavy-hitting songs on this album, and it’s worth the listen. With this crowd warmed up, let’s keep the energy going for the next band, Thrown.
THROWN
Swedish hardcore/metalcore band Thrown was up next, and this was one of those bands that we have been listening to for a while. We’ve heard that Thrown shows can get crazy, which sounds like it was right in our wheelhouse the first time we saw this band. Opening with “guilt,” we felt we were in for a beat down of epic proportions, and a monster pit opened up right behind the barricade. The band dropped their second song, “dwell”, and the mayhem continued with this number. The pit behind us doubled in size; it wasn’t just one of the typical mosh pits but one you get to see at hardcore shows. Arms were flying, feet were kicking, and some people lost their shoes, yeah, one of those pits. The onslaught of chaos continued with Thrown’s third song, “backfire”, and we got a group of crowd surfers during this song. Thrown played a quick but brutal 10-song set, leaving many of us feeling beaten and bruised. The crowd went hard during this set, and we were just getting warmed up.
ERRA
Fresh off their CURE TOUR, ERRA hit the stage next to take this crowd to the next level. The band opened their set with “Cure”, of their newly released album from April this year. We knew this crowd was ready to explode, and the opening number was what it took to pull the pin on this grenade. “Crawl Backwards Out of Heaven” was next, and lead singer J.T. Cavey called out to the crowd to “Bang your fucking heads!!”. The crowd gave him what he wanted; it was like almost everyone in the house was banging their heads in perfect unison. J.T. again asked for the crowd to start sending crowd surfers, and this is when barricade security (which had pretty it easy) got a taste of multiple crowd surfers through the entire song. The entire set from this point on went completely insane, multitudes of crowd surfers were seen everywhere, and some of the biggest pits of the night were going on during this set. With an amazing 1-2 punch coming from J.T.’s brutal lows and guitarist/singer Jesse Cash’s epic cleans; the entire band obliterated the crowd for this set. The crowd gets to see Jesse play from their view, but to see this man play from an up close and personal view is mesmerizing to say the least. Will this crowd have the energy to give Wage War what they want? We’re going to find out next!
WAGE WAR
Wage is another band that has continuously evolved through the years but still sticks with their trademark sounds. This tour was going to showcase the new album STIGMA, which was released this June. Opening up with new music, “THE SHOW’S ABOUT TO START,” lead singer Brit Bond strolls out to take a seat front and center on the stage riser for the opening part of this number; as soon as the song kicks in, confetti canons and smoke canons went off, and the crowd erupted into a frenzy. The next song, “SELF SACRIFICE,” gave us another new one. Mosh pits opened up again, and the fans were ready for this one. “Low” was next, and holy hell, the fans went off during this one. 3 songs in and multitudes of crowd surfers were coming over the barricade. You could see Brit's epic smirk of satisfaction as he watched the droves coming towards the stage on a sea of arms. We even appeared in many mosh pits and crowd-surfed during this set. Wage War destroyed this venue and the fans from the opening note of the first song until the end of this 18-song setlist. So, did the fans find the energy to keep going through this set? Absolutely they did! The entire set, they were going nonstop; mosh pits didn’t even stop during the slower songs. Crowd surfing was pretty much going on throughout the whole set, too. It was a perfect mix of songs across the Wage catalog, with many older stuff in the middle of the set. We have had many opportunities to work with this band over the last 3 years, and I will tell you now that the stage production has improved so much that this band's stage production can compete with many of the top-tier touring metal bands. From a photographer’s point of view, this is the best scenario to shoot in. This tour is just getting started, so if you want to see a show with some fantastic music that you can let out some aggression to, this is the tour for you. We will catch you in the pit on the following one, peeps.
