Beartooth brought down the house and sold out the Wildhorse Saloon with their Below II tour this past Sunday.
The band announced part two of their The Below Tour in December of 2021. But this time their support acts would include progressive metalcore band Erra, melodic metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada and post-hardcore emo rockers, Silverstien.
Frontman for Beartooth, Caleb Shomo, has been absolutely no stranger to speaking up about mental health and his own struggles. He has even attributed the bands origins as his outlet and way of coping. Given our mission here at KMC, of mental health advocacy, we knew this was a tour we couldn’t miss. As I arrived at the Wildhorse Saloon, I was taken back by how long the line was, especially considering doors had been open for nearly 30 minutes already. Come to find out fans showed up to sell out the 2,500 capacity venue. Once inside the 66,000 square foot, 3 story building, I was immediately greeted by an intense amount of energy from the crowd, they were about to show how hard Tennessee fans go for their favorite bands.
Up first was our Alabama neighbors, named after the god of war and plague, Erra. The band was originally formed in 2009 by high school friends, and their current lineup consists of, J.T. Cavey – lead vocals, Alex Ballew – drums, Jesse Cash – guitars, clean vocals, Conor Hesse – bass and Clint Tustin serving as touring guitarist. The build up for this tour was intense and Erra did not disappoint fans that showed up early to catch their set. They kicked things off with Gungrave, from their self titled album, and before the song concluded a massive pit had already been constructed and the crowd surfing had commenced. Not a single inch of the stage was left uncovered by the Birmingham rockers, their energy was electric and entrancing. Cavey’s screams and Cash’s cleans set the crowd on fire, and the band as a whole made their 30 minute set look completely effortless. When they ended with Snowblood they had the crowd screaming for more.
After everyone had a chance to cool down and grab another drink it was time for The Devil Wears Prada to set the stage ablaze. Hailing from Ohio, TDWP‘s current line up is, Mike Hranica -lead vocals, Kyle Sipress -lead guitar, backing vocals, Jeremy DePoyster – rhythm guitar, vocals, Jonathan Gering– keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals, Mason Nagy– bass and Giuseppe Capolupo – drums. The six-piece opened with their latest hit, Watchtower and the crowd didn’t hold back their excitement. The crowd surfers waited no time to start again and the pit was now bigger than before. Fans screamed along to every word and headbanged like their life depended on it. TDWP absolutely dominated the stage. They spent their entire set interacting with and smiling at adoring fans. If you want a flawless heavy hitting set then you need to unreservedly see them live!
One more band to go before it was Beartooth’s turn to rock the stage. Canadian screamo kings, Silverstein, are no strangers to touring. These guys have been gracing stages across the world for the last 20 years. With Shane Told on lead vocals, Josh Bradford – rhythm guitar Paul Koehler – drums, Billy Hamilton – bass guitar, backing vocals Paul Marc Rousseau – lead guitar, backing vocals, these dudes know how to have a good time. Their stage presence was impeccable and it took no time for their infectious energy to over take the Tennessee audience. Caleb Shomo himself even surprised the crowd when he made an early appearance to help sing Vices, he even dove off stage and crowd surfed for a bit before disappearing backstage. I found myself captivated by nostalgia when they played some of their older hits like My Heroine, Smashed into Pieces and Smile in Your Sleep. By the end of their set my elder emo heart couldn’t help but to give in and scream along. They brought a whole new kind of energy to the stage and had fans pleading for an encore.
After almost three hours of nonstop crowd surfing, moshing and screaming along to every song you’d think the crowd was ready to call it quits, well you’d be wrong. Fans were more amped than ever to see Beartooth take the stage. Around 10 PM a white curtain with the bands logo affront is raised to cover the stage. As soon as the curtain drops you can see vocalist, Caleb Shomo energetically thrashing about on stage to their title track Below. At the heels of the frontman; Oshie Bichar, Zach Huston, and Will Deely, can been spotted flawlessly away strumming at their guitars, while Connor Denis was pure percussion perfection as he towered above his bandmates.
The Ohio native five-piece tirelessly powered through their set list that was a favorable mix of old and new songs. Skin, The Past is Dead, Afterall, Beaten in Lips and Body Bag were just a few of the the 17 tracks the band performed for the massive crowd. After going rocking our faves off for a solid 30 minutes, Caleb impressively quieted the sold out venue. He proceeded to take us all to the church of Beartooth, with an aggressively wholesome speech that tugged on the heartstrings of everyone in the room. He chatted with the crowd about how hard the past couple of years have been for everyone and shared that it was his four month sober anniversary from alcohol. The rowdy crowd looked on in admiration as Shomo continued a superb 15-minute keynote that clearly came straight from the heart. I even caught a few with tears in their eyes as his words hit closer to home for them.
Once the crowd dried their eyes and hugged their mosh partner it was time to get back to rocking out. It only took 9 simple words, “You say my vision’s not a vision at all“, for the whole crowd to be “bangin’ [their] head[s] ’til [their] brain rots.” Shomo even started a little game of call and response with fans so they could scream the lyrics back to them. The Nashville crowd didn’t disappoint and their responses vociferously echoed throughout the three story venue. Sadly the night was coming to end and they closed with the ever so fitting Last Riff. By now the pit had consumed almost the entirety of the bottom level of the venue. Bichar, Huston, and Deely gave us some final killer guitar shreds and Denis left us with an insane drum solo while sporting a cowboy hat.
Beartooth has been one of my favorites for a while, for many reasons, but their performance far exceeded my expectations. I didn’t think the show could get any better since their energy started out at 100, but their performance only elevated throughout the night, ending at solid 200. If you are looking to have a good time, referee a mosh pit, make new friends, get a sermon in self love and headbang ’til your head rots then get out and see this tour now!
