Parkway Drive fires it up on the Monsters of Oz tour with support from fellow Aussies The Amity Affliction, Northlane, and Make Them Suffer.
Make Them Suffer gets the evening off to a great start with an intense set of metalcore. Their set may be short, consisting of just seven songs, but they hit hard and have the early fans going wild. They start with an oldie, “Ghost of Me” from 2103, which immediately has the fans amped up with a mosh pit opening up in the middle of the floor. They follow that with the slower-paced “Bones” and then take it back up a few notches with the blistering “Hallowed Heart” which has Jordan Mather pummeling the drums. “Ether” from the 2015 album Old Souls starts with a slow, airy vibe like Deftones, before cranking it up with ripping guitars and harsh vocals.
The non-album single “Contraband” features some awesome clean and harsh vocals by keyboardist Alex Reade. “Erase Me” starts with a soft keyboard intro by Alex and also features her on the clean backing vocals. They close out their set with “Doomswitch” which has guitarist Nick McLernon tearing it up while Sean lets out the screams. Alex pulls out the keytar and joins Sean, Nick, and bassist Jaya Jeffery on the platform at the front of the stage as they rock out together. The crowd pumps their fists and puts up their horns in appreciation. What a great start to this evening of Aussie hard rock and metal.
Keeping the evening rolling along, Northlane brings their unique mix of metal and electronic that takes it to another level. Leading with “Plenty,” lead singer Marcus Bridge works the platform from side to side and gets the crowd fired up. Drummer Nic Pettersen keeps driving the songs along with a solid pulse. Rhythm guitarist Josh Smith keeps the fans entertained with jumps and kicks. Things really take off with “Echo Chamber” which has the floor shaking with thunderous low notes featuring the programming by Jon Deiley. The crowd is now fully engaged as the mosh pit opens again and the crowd surfing ensues.They keep the energy high with “4D” which features a rapid-fire beat with Nic crushing the drums, and they keep it going with “Carbonized” which has the crowd waving their arms in unison. Marcus announces “Clockwork” during which the crowd surfing takes off like an assembly line, launching one person after another. Strobe lights add to the already cool vibe the music is providing. “Bloodline” appropriately has the stage lit in solid red lights. Wrapping up their set is “Talking Heads” from their 2019 album Alien which has the crowd still amped up with plenty of bouncing, moshing, and crowd surfing. Their set is brief but they killed it and the fans loved it.
The Amity Affliction hits the stage, and the venue is immediately flooded with strobes and other flashing lights. They start with “Death’s Hand” and follow that up with “All My Friends Are Dead” which gets the crowd singing along. Lead singer Joel Birch stalks the stage with an intense look as he delivers the harsh vocals and screams. One of their more popular songs, “Drag the Lake,” keeps the crowd singing and waving. Cranking it back up, “Like Love” gets a major mosh pit going, along with many crowd surfers. It also features some insanely fast drumbeats by Joe Longobardi. The next song, “Fade Away,” starts with some fast guitar lead-in by Dan Brown and features bassist Ahren Stringer on clean vocals.The fans are showing their love and keep it up by singing part of “Show Me Your God” without Joel or Ahren. Following “Pittsburgh,” they play “Don’t Lean on Me” which has the crowd once again waving and bouncing up and down. They start winding it down with “I See Dead People,” and then get a wild circle pit going during “It’s Hell Down Here.” There are a few people in the pit on other people’s shoulders and engaging in a chicken fight. Crazy! They wrap it up with “Soak Me in Bleach” which has the fans clapping overhead, along with another huge mosh pit.
The lights darken and some intro music plays and eventually Parkway Drive takes the stage and goes right into “The Glitch.” Towards the end of the song, multiple flames erupt several times from across the front of the stage. To say they are lighting it up tonight would be an understatement. They are on fire! What a great way to kick off their set. The fans show their appreciation with huge cheers and whistles. Next up is the upbeat “Prey” which has the fans bouncing, moshing, and crowd-surfing. They also continue the visual onslaught with lots of strobe light action. At one point, lead guitarist Jeff Ling and rhythm guitarist Luke Kilpatrick join forces mid-stage for some riffing and shredding. Following the ripping song “Idols and Anchors,” they play “Carrion” which has some rapid-fire drumming by Ben Gordon.Lead singer Winston McCall works the whole stage, frequently getting the fans engaged. They really get the fans going with a few of their most popular songs, “The Void” and “Vice Grip.” There is no shortage of fans singing along to these two songs, while many also pump their fists, bounce, and wave their arms. Following these songs, they play “Dedicated” which has a ton of pyro. Reaching back to the 2010 album Deep Blue, they play “Sleepwalker” and “Karma” which get many fans head banging, while a massive circle pit takes over the center of the floor. The fans tonight sure came to have fun. Towards the end of “Karma,” Jeff shows off his chops with some soaring leads.
Slowing things down, they play “Darker Still” which starts with some cool white beams from behind, while Luke plays acoustic guitar. “Bottom Feeder” has just about everyone bouncing with their hands in the air, while the mosh pit and crowd surfing continues. They wind down the main portion of their set with “Chronos” which has a cool guitar opening by Jeff before the rest of the band kicks in. The energy that the fans brought tonight is amazing and Winston lets them know it a few times.
Ben Gordon kicks off the encores with a killer drum solo. Located inside a circular cage, his drum set rotates, putting him completely upside down while he continues playing. Eventually the band returns to the stage with flames all over the stage. They plow through “Crushed” which finds additional flames erupting into the air in every direction, including some located high to the right and left that almost shoot to the middle of the stage. Hats off to the crew for pulling this off at an indoor venue. They wrap up their set with “Wild Eyes” which has the fans singing to the wailing guitar at the beginning. Before exiting, Winston thanks the fans again and that they will see them again soon.
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