Between The Buried And Me and August Burns Red
w/ Good Tiger
The Regency Ballroom
San Francisco, CA
March 21, 2016
Progressive metal is always an area of the heavy metal world that has fascinated me. It generally retains the elements of heavy metal and metalcore, while managing to switch up time signatures, tones, and overall variations of any piece of music. Putting two burgeoning metal acts on a co-headlining bill, Between The Buried and Me and August Burns Red, was a smart choice and a great collaboration. Both artists have clout in the metalcore world, but still managing to attain great stature in the worlds of progressive metal.
August Burns Red took the stage in San Francisco, California on Monday, March 21, playing (as always) a bold and powerful set. The setlist spanned from nearly every album in their career thus far, including a number of tracks from their newest effort, 2015's Found In Far Away Places. While August Burns Red fall more on the heavier side of the metal spectrum, their newer material has featured more progressive elements, and it was clear that those elements got more of a chance to shine on this particular tour.
Between The Buried and Me took the stage about a half hour after ABR, with a tone that was (at first) drastically polarizing from the other bands that performed that evening. It started out....well, softer. Light piano notes and clean vocals rang throughout the room. It didn't last long though, as the band launched into a full-on metal onslaught of trippy guitar work, screaming vocals, quirky time signatures, and complex song pieces for the next hour and twenty minutes.
Each of BTBAM's songs clock in, on average between five and seven minutes, which made for a rather interesting experience in the photo pit (we got three songs, but didn't leave for nearly 15 minutes, since we had to keep explaining to security that the first song really was about seven minutes long). While the tracks are longer than a typical metal act, it's for good reason: there's a lot to absorb with their songs. Listening to the albums prior to the show is something that I would recommend when going to see a band like Between The Buried and Me, but if you're someone who likes to get lost in the music no matter what the circumstance you're hearing it in, this was the perfect tour.
Between The Buried and Me: www.facebook.com/btbamofficial
August Burns Red: www.facebook.com/augustburnsred
Good Tiger: www.facebook.com/goodtigerofficial
This has been another Shameless Promotion.