When you think of a night at the orchestra, you may conjure images of being dressed up in a music hall listening to a a full orchestra playing selections from classic music. If you were at Marathon Music Works in Nashville on Thursday night September 28, 2023, you got a version of that. Hawthorne Heights is teaming up with Emo Orchestra to bring you orchestra music with a twist on a 7 week tour across the United States with Nashville being the second date being played. This unique tour is not only bringing a selection of Hawthorne Heights‘ hits, but hits from all across the genre and a variety of artists performed by the guys in the band backed by an orchestra joining them on stage. This combination brings an exciting mix that refreshes and adds volume to songs that we already know and love.
Marathon Music works is not normally a seated venue, but for this special night, the floor was lined with red backed chairs facing a stage. You were greeted upon entering the doors with a stood up emo skeleton in his best tuxedo that fans were encouraged to take selfies with and post on social media. The stage itself was set for the night being lined with white string lights and an assortment of lanterns with candles and flowers snaking through out the stage and up the mic stands and even into the drum kit. On either side, were two large screens that were displaying Hawthorne Height‘s logo at the opening, but would serve a very important purpose through the night. Before each song that was played, the song title and artist of the original was displayed before the musicians embarked on their rendition. We heard songs from Story of the Year, The Used, Paramore and Death Cab for Cutie just to name a few. All of the songs were expertly arranged to where neither portion was overpowering the other creating beautiful renditions of songs we all grew up singing along to in our earlier years. Speaking of singing along, it was encouraged. Although most patrons were seated, J.T. (lead singer for Hawthorne Heights) encouraged everyone to sing along and sway in their seats as he explained that this was meant to be fusion of music, blending together the best elements in both. I spied a little girl dancing and jumping in the center aisle as the band played in front of her. There was even an Act I and Act II with an intermission in between like you would find at other orchestral performances.
J.T. took moments between songs to talk about the meanings of the pieces they were about to perform and explain why they had chosen those particular selections for this tour. Normally, I would spell out the entire set list for you in this article, but because of the nature of the tour, I don’t want to spoil the specialness that can only be captured from watching it unfold naturally in front of you. I will speak on two highlights though. Hawthorne Heights is running a contest for each city that the show stops in to have a guest vocalist come up and sing lead vocals for Misery Business by Paramore. On this night, that honor belonged to the tour’s own photographer/videographer K, who brought down the house with their blistering rendition of the hit. Another very special moment was listening to the Emo Orchestra play Welcome to Black Parade by My Chemical Romance alone on stage as the words to the song displayed on the video scenes for an epic karaoke session with the entire crowd. I had chills listening to that song being played on the strings with that audience singing along, including myself.
This tour is special. It is a special concept, and the execution is flawless. You rock, you sing, you feel. I didn’t know what to expect when I went, but I was blown away by what I found. If you have the opportunity to catch it near you, you won’t be sorry that you did.
