blessthefall: So Glad You Made It

blessthefall, Asking Alexandria
El Corazon, Seattle, Wa
12.02.14

Originally intended to perform at SoDo, blessthefall and headliner Asking Alexandria rerouted their tour vans and headed for El Corazon on Tuesday. Aptly named The Moving On Tour, 17 dates sees these bands heading everywhere, from the east coast through Canada and back down through California. Feeding off the energy of their fourth studio album, Hollow Bodies, released in August of last year, blessthefall take their Phoenix metalcore on the road, handily keeping up with their counterparts and proving that miles do in fact make the band.

Claustrophobia set in quickly as walls of people made it impossible to move around inside El Corazon. Some people resorted to sitting on shoulders, while many found the less crazily packed bar area to be refreshing in more ways than one. A sign posted on the front door warned any would-be surfers or divers of immediate ejection; meanwhile, the moshing had started instantaneously with the strum of the first notes at 8:50. Red and white lights highlighted arms flailing everywhere, as blessthefall began their set with “Exodus.” Singer Beau Bokan spent little time with chatty niceties and focused solely on grinding out the music, playing 10 songs that concluded with their latest single, “Hollow Bodies.”

Asking Alexandria came on stage with their English version of metalcore just before 10:00, beginning their set with “Don’t Pray for Me.” Religiously speaking, this tour seems to have all the makings of a terrible Odd Couple episode, and any minute I expected to see crosses burning in the back by the merch booths, to then be put out by the kid carrying around holy water. Charged feelings aside, there wasn’t any room for shenanigans, as an image of sardines comes to mind as the evening wore on. Two large “A”‘s sat lit up on stage while Asking Alexandria churned through their set under red and blue strobes. They played for just over an hour, generating the kind of heat that can only be likened to hell itself.

blessthefall Set List:
Exodus
You Wear a Crown but You’re No King
2.0
What’s Left of Me
Déjà vu
See You on the Outside
Bottomfeeder
Promised Ones
Youngbloods
Hollow Bodies

Asking Alexandria Set List:
Don’t Pray for Me
Run Free
A Lesson Never Learned
Breathless
To the Stage
Break Down the Walls
Someone, Somewhere
Moving On
A Prophecy
Not the American Average
The Final Episode (Let’s Change the Channel)
Encore:
Killing You
The Death of Me
Poison