Jun 7

Jun 7 Show Review: Crown The Empire Bring "The Fallout" Anniversary Tour to Berkeley

Crown The Empire
“The Fallout” 10-Year Anniversary Tour
w/ Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, The Word Alive, Until I Wake
The UC Theatre
Berkeley, CA
June 4th, 2022

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

It occurred to me during this show that Crown The Empire are the last of their kind. Whether you believe that to be a good or a bad thing is based solely on musical preference, but it was odd to realize. The early 2010s brought a barrage of “scenecore” acts, bands often hosting up to seven people on stage at once (looking at you, Woe Is Me) with music that featured crushing breakdowns accompanied by polished clean vocals, slickly produced instrumentation, and a keyboard player that just goes fucking crazy up on that stage. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember many bands after Crown The Empire’s 2012 release, The Fallout, that attained this level of success. Even with a current lineup that only features three of the six members that even worked on The Fallout, it is clear to me that the Dallax, TX based metalcore acted are the last bastion of this style of music, one of few acts from that MySpace era that hasn’t disbanded and is still making music presented in this style. It’s not the same as it was ten years ago, but it’s still very fun to watch.

The four-piece act brought their tour celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the Joey Sturgis produced, Rise Records release The Fallout to Berkeley’s UC Theatre, along with a number of acts that rounded out an incredibly solid evening of metalcore and post-hardcore songs. The first act of the evening, Fearless Records’ Until I Wake, did an excellent job of warming up the crowd and kicking things off right, followed by a power-packed set from The Word Alive. I’ve seen The Word Alive play countless shows since 2010, and they always deliver. It did feel a bit weird to see them with only two of the original members in tact (vocalist Tyler “Telle” Smith and guitarist Zack Hansen), but no matter the lineup, they always manage to bring forth an engaging show.

The act that stole the night, however, was D.R.U.G.S. (or Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows). The Craig Owens-fronted project took the stage in the Bay Area for the first time in well over a decade. It should be noted that, like several of the other acts at this show, the lineup for D.R.U.G.S. has changed since its inception. Guitarists Matt Good and Nick Martin, bassist Adam Russell, and drummer Aaron Stern left the project back in 2012, after just one album released via Sire/Decaydance. Guitarist Jon Weinhofen, bassist Aaron Patrick, and drummer Aaron Stechauner all round out the current. As someone who had seen the band back when they were conceived as a supergroup between members of Chiodos, Story of the Year, Matchbook Romance, and others, it did feel a little odd. With all that being said, Craig Owens is still a stellar frontman and songwriter, and he did an excellent job commanding the crowd and taking them through a selection of songs both old and new, and the current lineup is comprised of exemplary musicians.

Crown The Empire took the stage around 9:45 PM and celebrated The Fallout by playing the album in its entirety, albeit in a different order than the running track list. A few tracks from other albums were thrown in, like “BLURRY (Out of Place)” and “What I Am” from Sudden Sky, and “Machines” from The Resistance: Rise of the Runaways, but this set was dedicated to that powerful debut album. Lead vocalist Andy Leo is an engaging frontman, with a voice built for music like this, guiding the crowd through track after track with ease. A two song encore featured The Fallout’s opening number, “Oh, Catastrophe”, before pivoting to the vaudevillian-infused closer “Johnny’s Revenge”, providing one of the most energetic and crowd-favorite moments of the evening.

I think we’re past the point of new bands in the style of Crown The Empire and that aptly named “Rise-core” sound emerging; the genre has morphed in so many different ways over the last several years. But it’s always fun to see what these bands end up doing with newer material, and it’s even more exciting when you get one night of revisiting that older material to remind why you fell in love with the music in the first place.

Crown The Empire Set List
The Fallout
Two’s Too Many
Menace
In Another Life
Memories of a Broken Heart
Graveyard Souls
Evidence
BLURRY (Out of Place)
What I Am
Children of Love
The One You Feed
Machines
Dancing With The Dead
Makeshift Chemistry

Encore:
Oh, Catastrophe
Johnny’s Revenge