August Burns Red

(Originally Published on South Florida Insider)

The “Ten Years of Constellations” Tour Brings Metalcore Madness to the Nearly Sold-Out Revolution Live – Review of the August Burns Red concert at the Revolution Live in Fl Lauderdale, FL

Photos and Article by Gleb Barabanov

When I first heard that Metalcore Masters August Burns Red were going to be taking their absolute banger of a album Constellations out on tour for a 10th Anniversary trek across the States, I could hardly contain my excitement. This is something fans of this band have been asking of them for as long as I could remember, and boy did the band deliver! It seems like the entire city of Fort Lauderdale made it a point of coming to the show, and the Revolution was as packed as I have ever seen with fans clamoring to hear one of their favorite records live.

This somewhat recent trend of bands playing their most popular albums in full as “Anniversary Tours” is honestly one of my absolute favorite touring setups. Not only are fans that saw the band back during the original release of the album getting a nostalgia packed night that reminds them not just of the concert they saw but also zeitgeist of their lives during the time of the album release, but new fans that have discovered a band in the time since release also get a chance to see an absolutely killer set featuring songs that they otherwise would not have gotten the chance to see live.

The first band to play was Silent Planet, and although I had not heard of them before tonight I was very surprised by how tight of a show they put on. Their sound reminded me of a more progressive (and harder) UnderOath. After performing a few songs from their albums The Night God Slept and When The End Began, they departed from the stage and Silverstein appeared, kicking off their set with Retrograde. The band was a perfect addition to the “straight out of 2009” theme of the concert, and they played quite a few older songs much to the delight of the crowd. Singer Shane Told suffered from a broken arm during the concert but soldiered on like a trooper, putting on an amazing show and even reciting an anecdote about having to travel back to Canada in the middle of a tour in order to get his arm fixed up without having to pay for American doctors. After playing their most famous songs My Heroine and The Afterglow, Silverstein finished their set and the long wait for August Burns Red to come on began.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting (the crowd was so desperate to mosh that they started making a circle pit to the System of a Down song playing on the speakers while the band was setting up), the lights finally dimmed and the main attraction was set to begin. Fog began to pour onto the stage and Jake Luhrs and the rest of August Burns Red entered the stage and began playing their first song, Thirty and Seven. The group delivered the most amazing production that I have ever seen them bring on tour, and as they expertly shredded through every song from the Constellations album, fog blasts, lasers, and even a lit up burning “U” entertained the crowd visually. Jake even took over bass duties for one of the songs to allow Dustin to play a third guitar part on the song. After finishing up the entire album, with the crowd going absolutely wild and screaming every lyric back to them, the band came out for an absolutely epic drum solo and followed up with an incredible four song encore featuring songs from their entire catalogue. August Burns Red always puts on an incredible show but this one was truly something special, and from the incredible production to the jam-packed venue full of die-hard fans this show will definitely be one to remember.