Chaos and Metalcore Mayhem Engulfed the Rialto Theatre

Tour Press Force (TPF) took a jaunt down south to the Rialto Theatre in Tucson on February 25 to review Attila’s Let’s Get Abducted Winter Tour 2017, with New Years Day, Bad Omens, Cane Hill, and local opening support band Before I Die rounding out the bill with strident Metal mayhem. Earlier that day, we did an interview with Cane Hill and that is when we discovered that due to a pre-tour injury, New Years Day had to drop from the lineup to heal for their run with The Van’s Warped Tour this summer. Vesta Collide joined the bill a few days following the Arizona date.

The nostalgic atmosphere of the Rialto Theatre hails back to the Roaring Twenties and provides an excellent venue for live entertainment with its open ground floor baiting the audience to press forward for an intimate concert experience. The upstairs balcony confers itself a whole ‘nother perspective from the repose of theatre-style seating.

The Dia de Muertos Skull marked the exterior theatre wall in which we rendezvoused with Before I Die, the local opening support band from Douglas, AZ, before the show to do an interview. During the interview, Gus Enriquez (vocals) and Dustin Mason (guitar and vocals) seemed chill and almost shy, but once they hit the stage the chill turned into an inferno and they came blazing out with energy. It was their drummer Raymond Alvarez that reflected a hint of the tenacious ferocity that was to come... Quite a contrast! Joe Morales (bass) and Aaron Dorame (stand-in guitarist) together with Alvarez, Enrique, and Mason manned the dark stage and riled the early-bird show comers with high-intensity delivery of their Metalcore/Post-Hardcore dashing tempos, chord progressions and riffs swathed with maniacal vocals. Check out the video for their single “Commander Cool and the World of Tomorrow,” directed by Jacob Reynolds.

YouTube | Commander Cool and the World of Tomorrow – Before I Die (Official Music Video)

Before I Die had the growing audience primed and ready for the NuMetal band Cane Hill, hailing from New Orleans. Within seconds of Cane Hill’s opening song, lead guitarist James Barnett, rolled his ankle and dropped to the floor, without missing a riff! After he stepped off stage for a few minutes, the crowd became restless and ornery as they castigating-ly jabbed at the band, but Elijah Witt (vocals), Ryan Henriquez (bass), and Devin Clark (drums) stood up for their bandmate while keeping the crowd entertained, at bay until Barnett returned to the stage. The band played songs from their latest full-length album Smile released via Rise Records July 2016, as well as some of their older fan favorites such as “Gemini” and with “Time Bomb” finishing the set. While at first the crowd was diffident, as the set went on they began to rouse with singing along, moshing, and banging their heads. Before Cane Hill closed their set, frontman Witt devoted their song “St. Veronica” to women everywhere saying, “this song is written for women, by a woman,” because he strove to empathize and write the song’s lyrics as if he were a woman. “I struggle with the morality of this decision a lot because I’m aware I can never truly understand what a woman goes through in their life from objectification to sexual violence, emotional manipulation, and more. But I always come to the conclusion that it was the right decision to make.”* See our in-depth interview with the band as they elaborate more on “St. Veronica” and other experiences, coming soon!

Strokes to Barnett for enduring the set as if nothing had happened at all; even with the temporary ankle-roll-setback, the overall drive from the band never dipped. The guys in Cane Hill delivered with vigorous potency and obviously embodied the force of their music. If anything, that night, the band killed it while the Tucson crowd itself was doltishly ho hum.

YouTube | You're So Wonderful – Cane Hill (Official Music Video)

Up next was the Los Angeles-based Metalcore band, Bad Omens. Many in the crowd were ‘Bad Omen Cult,’ as they sang along to every song of the band’s self-titled EP—several in which frontman Noah Sebastian (vocals) did not even vocalize until reaching the songs’ chorus, such as “Glass Houses.” Sebastian, together with the other band members Nicholas Ryan (guitar), Joakim Karlsson (guitar), Vincent Requier (bass), and Nick Folio (drums) cranked out their tunes and continued to raise the excitement in the crowd. Bad Omens’ stage presence seemed to lurk in and out of the shadows, much like their sporadic music videos that hit view counts high as established acts**, no wonder why Sumerian Records signed the band in December 2015. Having been a late teen during the 90’s Industrial Rock rage of NIN, this reviewer held deep appreciation for the Industrial-edge that Bad Omen brings to their unique brand of Metalcore, especially as heard in their single “Crawl.” Bad Omens did not disappoint! Get out to see them this summer during Vans Warped Tour, July 4-24.

YouTube | The Fountain – Bad Omens (Official Music Video)

Ensuing forth came the crowd full of ‘villains,’ otherwise known as Attila fans, who flocked to the stage chanting “Attila,” “Suck my F-k,” “666 Party with the Devil B-tch,” and “Let’s Get Abducted” as they tarried for Attila to hit the stage. A parental advisory warning sprawled across the backdrop indicative of frontman Chris “Fronzilla” Fronzack’s notoriety for explicit hedonism.

Atlanta Metalcore giants Attila band comprises Fronzack (vocals), Christopher Linck (guitar), Kalan Adam Blehm (bass, vocals), and newest member Bryan McClure (drums) recently signed to SharpTone Records and released Chaos their sixth full-length album on November 4, 2016. It is the last Attila album to feature Sean Heenan on drums.

“Let’s Get Abducted” piloted the set railing forth to the final encore “Proving Ground” – hit the back button, repeat this song. Fronzilla addressed the crowd saying, “We’re all one big fucked-up family,” and as always, he said, “there are no rules,” as he invited the villains to thrash, rage, and dive from the stage. The Rialto must have anticipated stage divers and crowd surfers as the pit barricades had a much heftier girth than usual. The theatre ground floor was maybe filled at two-thirds capacity so there was ample room for an expansive mosh pit that engulfed near-half of the villain crowd. Those villains moshed and thrashed wildly, but this reviewer questions if they really get “About That Life”; do they feel emboldened by the “Suck my F-K” chant? Ha-ha-ha, oh yeah I am so sorry, psych. Presently the band is in the U.K. kicking off their European Chaos Tour with The Word Alive and Cancer City. Back home here in the states roll out to Vans Warped Tour to catch Attila playing June 16 – July 2, July 6 – August 6. You can find their tour details here.