As 2022 came around, artists were starting to get back out on the road and concerts were truly in full swing once more. One of those tours that were announced right before the end of 2021 was The Below Tour Part 2. Headlined by Beartooth, the tour was the second leg supporting their most recent album Below that released in June 2021. Coming along for this leg of the tour was a fantastic group of artists in Silverstein, The Devil Wears Prada, and ERRA. The tour was stopping at the beautiful St. Augustine Amphitheatre in St. Augustine, FL on April 19, 2022, and I was fortunate to be there to cover the show.
It was a perfect day for a show with nice 75-degree weather over in St. Augustine that day. It was also an early start for the show at 6 PM ET as the city has a noise ordinance where they needed to end by 10 PM ET during the week. When I arrived there was a good crowd raring to go. The merch lines were long (I waited to pick up a killer purple and black Beartooth shirt), the pit was getting full early, and the rest of the crowd was filling out the seats. The St. Augustine Amphitheatre is a great location for concerts with its low stage and amazing acoustics. I truly enjoy photographing and watching shows here.
Opening up the evening was ERRA the metalcore band out of Birmingham, AL. The band formed in 2009 and started gaining fans right away with their heavy sound with their mix of melodic and crushing vocals. They released their first album Impusle in 2011 and their next 3 albums would hit #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. Their latest self-titled studio album was released on March 19, 2021. ERRA is J.T. Cavey (lead vocals), Jesse Cash (guitars/vocals), Conor Hesse (bass), Alex Ballew (drums), and joining them touring guitarist Clint Tustin.
The moment ERRA stepped out onto the stage the crowd roared for them. J.T. loved it and immediately gestured to the crowd to get up and get crazy. They opened with “Gungrave” from their self-titled album. Immediately hitting the crowd with the heavy the crowd was eating it up and the circle pits started up fast. J.T.’s guttural vocals were on point and Jesse followed in clean right behind. They followed with “Divisionary” also from the self-titled album. Jesse delivers such a beautiful clean vocal in this and that bass from Conor just grips you into the song. They followed that with “Night Silence”. I really enjoy the guitar riff and accompanying drumbeats to this song.
ERRA was truly showing why they’re getting noticed during this show. I did feel bad for J.T. though as the sun was coming down, it falls on the left side of the amphitheatre and was literally in his eyes for half the set. ERRA is a band that I see getting bigger fast. J.T. is a great frontman with powerful vocals. Jesse is an excellent guitarist and has awesome vocals. Conor also has great bass work and you can tell loves being on the stage. Alex’s drum work is heavy and doesn’t hold back. Clint was a nice addition to their sound with his great guitar work as well. As a whole, ERRA brings heavy and melodic so well together and it’s music that gets you moving. I loved they wrapped up their set with “Snowblood” which had that circle pit going crazy. Excellent performance from them that night.
You can find their music and merch HERE. Their setlist that night was:
- Gungrave
- Divisionary
- Night Silence
- Scorpion Hymn
- Skyline
- Snowblood
Next up was The Devil Wears Prada out of Dayton, OH. They got together in 2005 and named themselves after the book of the same name. They released their first album in 2006 titled Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord. They released 6 more studio albums with their latest titled The Act in 2019. They also have EPs titled Zombie (2010) and ZII (2021). The Devil Wears Prada is Mike Hranica (vocals), Kyle Sipress (lead guitar), Jeremy DePoyster (rhythm guitar), Mason Nagy (bass), Giuseppe Capolupo (drums), and Jonathan Gering (keyboards).
As they came out on stage, the crowd that was bigger now, screamed in approval. You can absolutely tell there were The Devil Wears Prada fans there. They opened with Watchtower a new single they released in February 2022. This single digs deep into your soul and tries to rip it out with that heavy guitar, bass, and drums. And Mike’s vocals are absolutely intense. They followed that with “Danger: Wildman” from their 2009 With Roots Above and Branches Below. The song is heavy, melodic, and absolutely intense. The Devil Wears Prada was going for broke tonight and not taking prisoners. They wanted this crowd to move hard and giving them a reason to do so. Next was “Termination” from 2021 EP ZII. It’s a solid song with some killer drumwork.
Honestly, I’ve enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada’s music since I first heard it a few years ago. Though, I wasn’t a fan of their live performance. But, that night there was something about the band that was perfectly on-point. Between the guitar work from Kyle and Jeremy to the bass work of Mason, it was so technically tight and sounded awesome. Giuseppe was masterful on the drums and was doing some cool drumstick flips during his playing. Jonathan was crazy on the keyboards. I absolutely loved the passion he showed while playing and reminded me a lot of the way Christopher Dudley of Underoath plays keys. But, Mike, WOW! His vocals are incredible. I have no idea how he keeps that vocal level the whole time. His intensity though is off the chain. He moves around as intense as he sings. And he is absolutely a crowd pleaser with the way he speaks and engages the crowd. And he wants that crowd MOVING. Very impressive performance that night. I’m definitely a fan of their live performance now.
You can find their music and merch HERE. Their setlist that night was:
- Watchtower
- Danger: Wildman
- Termination
- Chemical
- Dez Moines
- Sacrifice
- Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over
Next up was the Canadian rock band from Burlington, ON Silverstein. The band chose their name from children’s author Shel Silverstein who they all read as kids. They released their first album in 2003 titled When Broken Is Easily Fixed. They would go on to release 8 more studio albums, 7 EPs, and 1 live album. The band announced their 10th studio album Misery Made Me will come out on May 6, 2022. Silverstein is Shane Told (vocals), Paul Marc Rousseau (lead guitar), Josh Bradford (rhythm guitar), Billy Hamilton (bass), and Paul Koehler (drums).
The moment they came to the stage the crowd erupted into cheers. Silverstein did waste any time getting the crowd rocking with “Bad Habits” from their 2020 A Beautiful Place to Drown. It’s a great opening song to get you moving and bouncing and Shane was giving it all through those screaming lyrics. I was ready to start bouncing around the photo pit with the crowd it was so energizing and Paul delivered that quick guitar solo feverishly. They followed with “Vices” from the 2009 album A Shipwreck in the Sand. The song delivered that hard and heavy to keep the crowd going. Shane then asked the crowd if they wanted to hear some new music from their upcoming album Misery Made Me, which of course the crowd cheered to hear it. So they played “Bankrupt” off the new album that comes out May 6th. That song was absolutely awesome and the crowd loved it too.
This was the first time I got to see Silverstein and really enjoyed their performance. Paul and Josh work so well together delivering the guitar riffs. Billy drops those bass notes as deep and heavy as they can go complimenting the guitar riffs so well. Paul delivers some truly awesome drumbeats during their songs and keeps the rhythm flowing through their songs. Shane is such a truly talented vocalist. He can switch ranges in a heartbeat and maintain a higher vocal or those screaming vocals effortlessly. They also played some additional tracks from the new album “Ultraviolet” and “It’s Over”. I really liked “Ultraviolet” a lot. It has a great catchy rhythm and lyrics.
The crowd absolutely loved Silverstein’s performance that night and it was well deserved. They delivered a phenomenal show. You can find their music and merch HERE. Their setlist that night was:
- Bad Habits
- Vices
- Bankrupt
- My Heroine
- The Afterglow
- Retrograde
- Ultraviolet
- Smashed Into Pieces
- Massachusetts
- It’s Over
- Infinite
- Smile In Your Sleep
Finally, we came to our headliners out of Columbus, OH, the metalcore or hardcore punk or hard rock, depending on how you view them, but the ever-powerful Beartooth. The band formed together in 2012 and released their first album Disgusting in 2014. Since then they’ve released 3 additional studio albums with their most recent, Below, in 2021. The most recent album was received well by fans and critics and peaked at #30 on the Billboard 200 and at #2 on both the Billboard U.S. Independent Albums chart and the Billboard U.S. Top Hard Rock Albums chart. Beartooth is known for its high energy and savage music that blows away the “catchy hooks” you hear in music today. Beartooth is Caleb Shomo (vocals), Zach Huston (lead guitar), Will Deely (rhythm guitars), Oshie Bichar (bass), and Connor Denis (drums).
The band put up a sheet over the stage with the Beartooth logo over it. A recorded track started with a deep voice speaking as the band stepped out onto the stage and took their places (we could see them from the side as we had to wait for the curtain to come down before we could go into the photo pit). Caleb delivered the first line of “Below”, the title track from the new album, and then the curtain dropped and the crowd went insane. The whole band was banging their heads as Caleb ran back and forth on an elevated platform than ran the length of the stage. The music was heavy and the energy output was out of this world. They followed with “Devastation” also from Below. The crowd surfers were started to come over hard and heavy and then BOOM went the pyro! And the display was very impressive! And it was also very hot that we could clearly feel it in the photo pit. They followed up with “Aggressive” the title track from their 2016 album. And it’s exactly what it was, aggressive. The circle pits were going wild as they played it.
The rest of the show was that same energy and aggression you expect from Beartooth. Caleb directed the crowd like a master conductor guiding them through the night. If he wanted the crowd to jump, they jumped. If he wanted them to sing, they sang. If he wanted to mosh pits to get heavy, they were happy to oblige. It was a masterful piece of work. Zach ripped away on the guitars through songs never missing a beat. Will kept the songs on track through his riffs and both he and Zach looked like they were loving every minute of the crowd’s energy. Oshie was crazy on the bass headbanging away and strumming out those notes as fast as he could. And Connor provided the backbone of the songs making them keep on tempo and making sure they were hard and heavy. Beartooth was simply incredible. And their song selection was great with tracks like “Fed Up”, “Body Bag”, and “Phantom Pain”.
One of the things I have to call out that I truly love about Beartooth is their emotion on stage. Everything you see and hear from them is real. The music is emotionally driven. It’s a way for them to help sort out the demons they carry and to help their fans work through it too. And Caleb is very upfront about how he feels and shoots straight with his fans. During their livestream they held during the pandemic, he talked to the virtual audience about how badly he missed being on stage and you could see how emotional he became when he discussed it. That night, he did the same when talking about Connor’s father. Caleb and Connor’s father, Ellio, formed a relationship over the years. Connor is from South Florida and his father was at the show. Caleb pointed him out to the crowd and had everyone say hello. He then spoke on how much he appreciated the relationship he has with Ellio and how much he loves and appreciates him. It’s that emotional rawness that you see from him which makes me truly love this band so much. Beartooth wears their heart on their sleeve and delivers that feel into their music.
At the end of the night, Caleb finished off “In Between” from their debut album Disgusting and started singing vocal sounds and waited for the crowd to mimic him. After doing a bunch of these especially some very complex ones he said “Goodnight!”, dropped the mic, and walked off-stage. A few moments later Beartooth came back out to encore with “The Past Is Dead” and “The Last Riff” from Below. It was an amazing performance from Beartooth and one that would leave people wanting more. You can find their music and merch HERE. Their setlist that night was:
- Below
- Devastation
- Aggressive
- Hated
- Fed Up
- Body Bag
- The Lines
- Beaten In Lips
- Afterall
- Skin
- Phantom Pain
- You Never Know
- Bad Listener
- Disease
- In Between
Encore:
- The Past Is Dead
- The Last Riff
The Below Tour Part 2 was a fantastic experience with 4 awesome bands. This may be a contender for Tour of the Year 2022. I look forward to the next time Beartooth comes down to the Central Florida area. I wouldn’t miss it and neither should you.
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