Show Review, Photos: Beartooth, Trivium Captivate Crowd in San Francisco
Beartooth
Trivium
w/ Malevolence, Archetypes Collide
The Warfield
San Francisco, CA
June 12, 2023
Review/Photos by Jared Stossel
Beartooth is very quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. The brainchild of songwriter Caleb Shomo, they have been on a steady trajectory to become one of the biggest bands in rock and heavy metal, releasing an immaculate album with 2021’s Below, followed up by the anthemic singles “Riptide” and “Sunshine” over the last twelve months. Pair them with one of the most technically proficient metal acts in Trivium and add two great up-and-coming acts within this genre, and you have yourself a recipe for one of the best shows of the year. This was precisely the scenario on Monday night during the Beartooth and Trivium co-headlining tour stop at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre.
While the downtown area of the city continues to deteriorate, the scene inside The Warfield was all smiles as the first act of the night, the brilliant Archetypes Collide, took the stage. Despite having only one album under their belt (their self-titled album, released earlier this year via Fearless Records), they perform as if they’ve been on the touring circuit for decades, raising the energy level in the venue to a ten as they powered through their setlist (which included a first-class cover of Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer”). Next up, hailing all the way across the pond from Sheffield was Malevolence. The band kicked off their particularly aggressive headlining set with intensity and aplomb, powering through a raucous set that spanned their three-album metalcore-laced song catalog.
The stage setup had Trivium’s theatricality on full display, channeling the artwork from their most recent tenth studio album, In The Court of the Dragon. Drummer Alex Bent – a Bay Area native – had his kit affixed to a drum riser that was adorned with large-scale dragon displays, while two gargoyle-like figures were cemented on both sides of the stage. With only twelve songs to make an impression, the technically-proficient quartet thrilled the crowd with an outstanding performance, pulling from eight of their albums, spanning all the way back to 2005’s Ascendency.
Over an hour later, like a bat out of hell, Beartooth took the stage for an adrenaline-fueled performance that featured songs from Below while simultaneously showcasing fan favorites like “Hated”, “Disease”, “Beaten In Lips”, and “Body Bag”. Beginning with the appropriately named “Devastation”, their set was fast-paced from the first note, with Shomo nearly exploding off the stage as he dominated the crowd. He’s one of the most engaging frontmen I’ve seen in the last few years, and he could very well go on to become one of the best if he keeps delivering performances like this.
Whether playing material from their debut album Disgusting or new singles like “Sunshine” and “Riptide”, Beartooth was captivating every step of the way. As is tradition with all songs on their shows in support of Below, the band finished with “The Last Riff”, a fully-instrumental track that finds Shomo diving into the crowd, unleashing emotion and catharsis in tandem with the flocks of fans that have been gravitating to his music since his early days in Attack Attack!. Without saying a single word, Beartooth performed what I would classify as the heaviest song of the evening and one helluva conclusion to an outstanding show.
Beartooth Set List
Devastation
Disease
Body Bag
Sunshine!
The Lines
Beaten In Lips
Bad Listener
In Between
You Never Know
Hated
Riptide
Encore:
The Past Is Dead
The Last Riff
Trivium Set List
Rain
Like Light to the Flies
Strife
Feast of Fire
Amongst The Shadows & The Stones
Down From The Sky
The Sin and the Sentence
Until The World Goes Cold
No Way Back Just Through
The Heart From Your Hate (with Josh Baines from Malevolence)
In Waves
Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
