It’s nothing out of the ordinary to see a band going crazy on stage while playing in front of hundreds of people, but imagine that same energy emanating from a band standing practically face to face with their fans. That’s exactly what I saw at the Wolves at the Gate show in Nashville’s Rocketown, featuring Phinehas, The Orphan, The Poet, and Burn the Bridges.
The opening band, Burn the Bridges, were a group of guys from Kentucky who did an awesome job getting the night started. While they did have some technical difficulties, it was nothing they didn’t bounce back from with a sense of humor and great music. As a local band opening a show, it’s your job to put your all into every show. Not merely for the entertainment of the fans, but for the off chance that someone very important could be standing in the crowd. Countless times, bands have been signed because a rep from some label got curious and decided to check out a local band. Burn the Bridges definitely put their all into that show. Great guitar work and overall musicality accompanied by aggressive vocals, topped off with constant crowd interaction. I’ll be on the lookout for when I can catch their show again.
Next up was The Orphan, The Poet. I don’t think I have ever seen a more energetic performance. These guys put everything they had into their set. Not only were they entertaining to watch, but it was virtually impossible to look away. You could feel the emotion and passion that they put into every second of every song. The music was great and the performance was even better.
Phinehas followed and did not disappoint. Ty, of The Orphan, The Poet, was filling in on guitar and did a great job. The guitar work is what initially caught my attention. A heavy sound with beautiful melodies in not only the instrumentals but the vocals as well. The crowd was pretty insane during their performance which is a good reflection of what the band was doing on stage.
Headlining, of course, was Wolves at the Gate, who recently released the album VxV. From my first listen of the album I was hooked. It has become one of my favorite albums of all time. Everything about this album is perfect. Once they hit the stage I was floored by the fact that they sounded exactly as the recording except for a bit of added aggression that is expected when doing a live performance. Nick and Steve are an amazing team of vocalists. Such a great group of guys with an incredible talent. They played a good mix of songs from their latest release and their older work, which the fans seemed to enjoy. A sign of any good performance, once WATG were about to leave the stage the crowd broke into the most recognizable chant, “One more song! One more song!” Which led the band to play the highly requested song, “Heralds.”
This was one of the greatest shows I have ever been to. From beginning to end there was not a dull moment in the set. If any of the bands mentioned above come through a city near you I would highly recommend making the trip to see them.
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