Dead Throne tour featuring Enter Shikari, Whitechapel, and The Devil Wears Prada
Heading into Chicago to check out the show, I did not know there was a curfew for this all-ages show and it would be ending at 9:30pm. With this being the case, I missed the first band as I arrived to this sold out show at the House of Blues. I will be the first to admit, while this type of metalcore music is not my favorite, I do enjoy seeing the shows live because of the pure energy. Just having covered Hatebreed, All That Remains, and Five Finger Death Punch, I knew this was going to be even harder and more brutal.
As Enter Shikari was setting up, they were having issues and guitarist, Rory Clewlow told the crowd in his heavy English accent that it’s the electronic causing the delay. After about 15 minutes, they were able to get going but this cut into their set time. Once started, they got the crowd going and going hard with Destabilise , Mothership, and Arguing with Thermometers, to be released off their upcoming album. The crowd got so crazy that I was pulled from the barricade after the 2nd song for security fearing something might happen. I worked my way to the balcony to see the rest of the show and take a few shots as they played there new song, Sssnakepit. Singer, Roughton Reynolds went into the crowd to sing and before they ended with Juggernauts, Clewlow jumped into the crowd and body surfed around the front of the pit.
I really enjoyed Enter Shikari and look forward to seeing them again.
As I worked myself back to the barricade, which was not easy with all the packed bodies, I asked the security to not take me out again because I needed to shoot and was liable for myself, which they okayed and I was ready to go when Whitechapel came on.
Whitechapel is straight up hard-as-hell deathcore metal and they do not let up from your neck till they walk off. While the lighting for this band was some of the worse I have seen, I can understand while they want to be playing in near-darkness, it adds to the experience of watching live. Opening with Breeding Violence and Possession, this took the crowd into a metal trance as the place exploded with bodies flying over heads and pits forming in tight circles, leaving bodies broken and bruised as they worked their way out of them but still with evil grins on them, like they made it through hell.
With a 10 song setlist and little over 45 minutes of pure balls-out metal, they ended with Vicer Exciser, Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiatio, and to end the show with the intense, This is Exile, and Eternal Refuge.
With a brief set change to allow the fans to catch their breath and recover for what would be the next assault on them, out came The Devil Wears Prada. While Whitchapel was very dark set, TDWP had extreme lighting - from intense strobe lights to pitch dark to in-your-face blast of light. Just as heavy, if not even more intense than the last set, TDWP opened with Dead Throne off the album of the same name. Singer, Mike Hranica came out in what looked like a little kids outfit and threw himself at the crowd with such ferociousness, I thought for sure he would fall into our cameras. There are very few singers like Hranica that capture your eye almost the whole time in this genre of music and he is for sure, not afraid to launch himself right into your face and growls at you like a pitbull coming in for death grip.
Continuing with Untidaled, Escape, and Sassafras, which grew the crowd into such frenzy as they moved with the music, I have never seen the House of Blues crowd react this way as I have with this tour and they kept the assault up with Outnumbered, Dez Moines and Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over. The night ended with an encore of Chicago, Constance, and Danger: Wildman, which gave one last chance to let loose and leave it all out on the floor. As the night closed, people walked out drenched in sweat from a wild night of head banging, along with the sheer joy of seeing the bands they love so much perform for them.
This tour will run until December and if you’re up for brutal night, then go check it out.
All Photos Provided by Peter Lizano
