Every now and then a record label/band stirs up and assembles a lineup that requires a double take when viewing the tour poster (The Departed of concerts, if you will). Sleeping With Sirens’ End The Madness! tour is just that. Along with Warped Tour sidekicks Waterparks, Tonight Alive and State Champs - each of whom could attract a sizable crowd on their own - the quartet constructed punk-rock paradise that’s rarely mimicked outside the renowned, yearly summer festival. Filled with high energy, laughs and plenty of emo, the End The Madness! tour easily booked itself as one of the most unique and wondrous shows of the year.
Commencing with Waterparks, the trio hailing from Houston set night’s tone with their upbeat next-gen pop-punk influenced by the likes of Blink-182, Fall Out Boy and Saves The Day. Since releasing their debut record Double Dare earlier this month, the band’s catalog of songs has grown tremendously and the new, added variety positively affected their performance (as it should). Instead of hammering through the same old songs performed on Warped Tour, Waterparks unveiled a handful of fresh tracks including “Stupid For You,” “Royal” and “Hawaii (Stay Awake)” - all of which enticed an audience that arrived early for obvious reasons.
Tonight Alive slightly shifted gears with their punk-rock fueled tunes and inspired movement among a crowd that continued to grow. With a setlist majorly consisting of tracks from the band’s third album Limitless, the Aussie’s anthem “Lonely Girl” and “The Edge,” a song pegged for one of The Amazing Spider-Man movies, Tonight Alive didn’t struggle to please their dedicated fanbase. Between front-woman Jenna McDougall’s edgy yet entrancing command and guitarist Whakaio Taahi’s showmanship, the Sydney native’s proved why their one of the preeminent acts hailing from the land Down Under.
After touring religiously for years off their sophomore album The Finer Things, State Champs has said that having new content has revitalized the band and their fans during live shows. As it turns out, they weren’t lying. Led by energetic frontman Derek Discanio, the quintet from upstate New York hammered out an 11-song set that pulled quite a few numbers from Around the World and Back, the band’s third album. With crowd-pleasers such as “Secrets,” “All You Are Is History” and “Perfect Score,” State Champs found it difficult to present a performance that was anything but spectacular for their devoted crowd. Midway through the set, Raleigh revealed, through their dedication to shout the lyrics back at the band, that this particular show on Saturday night was the only thing that mattered in the world.
The main attraction, though, is of course Sleeping With Sirens, who delivered a quintessential SWS performance - stuffed with Kellin Quinn’s high-pitched, opera-like vocals and Jack Fowler’s “Guitarist of the Year” worthy strumming.
Their 16-song setlist delighted both fans of old and new, blending the favorites from their recent release Madness with the oldies from With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear that catapulted the band’s career into the stratosphere six years ago. However, Sleeping With Sirens settled somewhere in the middle and launched their performance with the sparkler-pyro driven “Do It Now Remember It Later.” The upbeat opener set the tone and inspired crowd surfing in a barely-old-enough-to-drink audience. The Orlando natives didn’t leave much time for a breather before jumping into “The Bomb Dot Com V2.0,” “We Like It Loud” and the Matty Mullins-less “Congratulations.”
Much like the fellow superstars in the genre, Sleeping With Sirens raised the bar with their both prepared and unprepared excitement. On stage, fireworks lit the venue an assortment of colors and large LED boards that flanked drummer Gabe Barham displayed amusing visuals (images of Chuck Norris and Nosferatu) during “Dead Walker Texas Ranger.” Prior to performing “The Strays,” Kellin invited a lucky fan onto stage who ultimately stole the show with her choreographed dance routine that even guitarist and birthday boy Justin Hills couldn’t resist from watching.
Sleeping With Sirens didn’t leave much to be desired and struck each note with heart that their fans have come to expect. However, unlike the message that that their tour title conveys, SWS did everything but end the madness in Raleigh - in fact, they enticed a bit of their own welcomed madness.
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