There are certain types of music that remind me of different times of the year. Something to do with my tendencies to gravitate towards the nostalgic. Some artists and songs just take me back to a simpler time, a time when things weren’t so complicated and messy. I like to drive around with the windows down, letting the scents of the seasons take me on the meandering backroads through the past. In the fall I tend to shuffle between punk, emo, goth, and metal. Bands like Sleeping with Sirens, Alkaline Trio, some old Asking Alexandria, Job For a Cowboy, Rise Against, Escape the Fate’s first album (that will always be a banger), Senses Fail, and Mayday Parade, just to name a few. These bands remind me of different friends and the moments we shared. Some of these memories are painful because some of those friends aren’t with us anymore, but the music makes it bearable…almost cathartic in a way.
On October 17th, 2022, I got the opportunity to satisfy my mind’s exigencies for that feeling. I drove through the Arizona desert on a mild fall day. My destination was The Nile Theater in Mesa, AZ. The Nile is a 100-year-old, red brick building that boasts two different venues in one, plus a coffee shop in the front portion that faces Main Street. The basement has a small venue for local bands and smaller touring bands to play. The main floor hosts some of the bigger bands that come through town, especially when these bands want a more “intimate” setting. The Nile is fairly small, but there are no barricades between you and the artist. You can quite literally reach out and touch them (although I highly suggest not doing so without their consent). The artist that I was there for that night? Sleeping With Sirens.
Sleeping with Sirens had just released their new album Complete Collapse and wanted to do an “intimate tour” for this release. Complete Collapse is an album fueled by discontent with the current state of society and the consequences of living under an authoritarian style, power-hungry system that leaves but crumbs for its people. This album is far heavier than anything they’ve released prior and boasts more collabs than any other Sleeping With Sirens albums. One thing I really love about SWS is their willingness to work with upcoming bands/artists and bring them to the forefront of the scene and give them the exposure they deserve. It’s a way for some of these bands to really bypass the politics of the music industry and get their foot in the door, so to speak.
On this tour, there is only one opening act, and it is a band by the name of True North. This band is fairly new, just releasing their first full-length album in July of this year. True North is a blend of pop-punk, emo, hard rock, and alternative stylings. Their sound is cohesive and flows with heavy emotion. Drifting between calm and beautifully written verses, power-packed and electrifying choruses that just pound those built-up emotions into your chest. Frontman Tim is a born showman, this man pours his heart into his music and the radiant energy from his performance is something that can be felt all the way from the back of the room. As I mentioned earlier, SWS (and Kellin Quinn) enjoy working with newer bands by doing collab songs to help boost these bands’ popularity, and at the end of True Norths set, Kellin Quinn joined the band on stage to perform his part in their song “Your Confession” at the end of their set. I really don’t think they could’ve closed out their set with a better song. A good model for a successful live performance is always leaving them wanting more, which is exactly what True North did.
Sleeping With Sirens went on about 20 minutes later and I really didn’t think this hundred-year-old venue was ready for a fanbase like this. I had never been so thankful for my earplugs as I was the second this band took the stage. Sleeping With Sirens opened with their banger “Break Me Down” off their 2020 album How It Feels to Be Lost. This song is packed with raw energy right from the start and they carried that on through the next six songs. Each one getting this crowd jumping, singing, and screaming along. After hyping this crowd to near epic proportions, the majority of the band left the stage, leaving only Kellin, and guitarist Nick Martin on the stage. Nick had switched from his handy Ernie Ball Music Man strat to a beautiful Taylor acoustic. Together this duo stole the hearts of everyone in that crowd. They played “Scene Five: With Ears to See and Eyes to hear”, “Scene Two: Roger Rabbit” and a cover of the Goo Goo Dolls massive acoustic hit “Iris”. This entire room was filled with voices belting these songs for the next 15 minutes. Crowd participation moments like this always give me the chills. I love the way everyone comes together in moments like these. Nothing else matters but being in that very moment…which is something you don’t experience too much these days.
The band went on to play some of their biggest hits after that. Like “Do it Now Remember it Later”, “If I’m James Dean, Your Audrey Hepburn”, and “If You Can’t Hang”. I never wanted the show to end, but I think part of me always feels that way at a concert. For one night I was able to get away from every day, let loose, and live in the moment. To put my phone down and be present in every way. They say that the way to live happily, without fear of the future or regret of the past, is to live in the moment. Live music has a way of drawing us into that moment and keeping us there until it’s over. Live music has a way of taking whatever we are dealing with and making it seem insignificant. This intimate tour was exactly what I needed, something that fed my need for escape in these unstable times. This show built back of a little bit of my ever-dwindling faith in humanity. There are quite a few dates left on this tour and I highly recommend getting your tickets if it’s not sold out already. Even if you can’t catch them on this tour, be sure you at least see them at some point in the future because our society needs bands like Sleeping With Sirens more than ever these days.
