As It Is brings The Great Depression Tour to Las Vegas with support from Sharptooth, Hold Close, Points North and Mother Mercury.
It is the second to last night of the tour on a night where a rare snowfall has occurred in Las Vegas but that is not keeping the devoted fans away. The show has an early start so it is unfortunate that many people who had to work, added to the bad weather missed the first bands. Due to this, the first band that many people saw was Sharptooth, an American hardcore band from Baltimore Maryland. This band is intense, with singer Lauren Kashan delivering a powerful growling vocal that matches the message of the songs. This band uses their music as a platform to speak out about important and sensitive topics like politics and rape. Kashan provides a strong and powerful voice for women in the hardcore and metal scene that resonates to any fan of heavy music. The music is hard, aggressive and fast and the rest of the band perform with an intensity to match. Keith Higgins (guitar), Lance Donati (guitar) and Phil Rasinski (bass) are all over the stage and there are too many leaps to count. Drummer Connor Mac is fierce in his playing. The intensity of the performance is almost exhausting to the crowd but exhilarating at the same time. Throughout the set, they are joined by friends to sing portions of the songs and the crowd loves this. Kashen comments that this is not the pop-punk the crowd came to see but thanks them for listening to something different for a while band allowing them to use their platform to speak about issues that are important to them. While this performance may not be what the crowd expected they definitely earned a few new fans with it.
After a short break As It Is take to the stage. The Great Depression Tour is in support of their 2018 third studio album of the same name and frontman Patty Walters states near the beginning of the set that they are going to play a lot of new stuff tonight which does not disappoint the crowd. They open the night with “The Reaper,” “The Handwritten Letter,” and “No Way Out.” Walters is out front on the small bump out of the stage as close to the crowd as he can get while jumping and throwing the microphone into the air. The pop-punk songs have the crowd singing along and they know every word even for the new album. The title track “The Great Depression” comes next and really gets the crowd excited. From there they move through the set blending the older songs with the new including “Austin,” “Hey Rachel,” “The Truth I’ll Never Tell,” and “The Sigma (Boys Don’t Cry).” The 17-song set keeps the crowd involved from start to finish before ending with “The Wounded World.”The performance is electric, Walters commands the attention of the crowd but the music is played sounding exactly like the records. Benjamin Langford-Biss (guitar), Alistair Testo (bass), Ronnie Ish (guitar) and Patrick Foley (drums) play perfectly and all interact with the crowd in their own way. The overall visual they create as a unit captures the attention of the crowd and compliments their sound.
This is the second to last night of the tour so there really isn’t a chance to catch them again this time, but this performance leaves the crowd anxious for their return. Five bands warmed up the frozen Las Vegas crowd and delivered an excellent night of music.
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