Underoath and Periphery’s Blind Obedience Tour Hits Pennsylvania
The Blind Obedience Tour
Heavy music fans came out in full force on Saturday night, selling out the Sherman Theater in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Lines of dedicated metal heads lined the sidewalk stretching more than a block at times for the 2nd show on the Blind Obedience Tour featuring the legendary Underoath and Djent kings Periphery. Underoath released their latest single “Let Go” the day before on March 3rd and of course the guys are still touring in support of their 2022 album Voyeurist which was released back in January of 2022.
Periphery is days away from releasing their new album titled Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre, which will hit all music stores and platforms on Friday, March 10th, 2023. We were lucky enough to get an early listen and you can find our album review HERE! Spoiler alert!!! The album is AMAZINNNG!!!! The album is the follow-up to 2019’s HAIL STAN. This tour also marks the first time since 2019 that Periphery has been back on the road.
Opening the tour is UK’s very own Loathe, who was quite popular with the PA crowd as the sold-out show was packed from the very beginning. Loathe is touring in support of their 2021 record The Things They Believe. The band really started to capture attention in America with the album I Let It In and It Took Everything.
Periphery took to the stage around 7:45 pm with dark blue lights illuminating the stage. If you attend The Blind Obedience Tour the one thing you will quickly notice from all bands is their sound quality. Hats off to the sound guys on this tour as this is one of the best-sounding lineups from beginning to end of any tour I’ve seen. All the instruments and vocals are dialed in so perfectly that it makes the live experience of these bands really enjoyable.
Spencer, Misha, Jake, Mark, and Matt kicked off their set with “Ragnarok” off of the band’s second album Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal. The set began as heavy and loud as you’d expect from these guys. Next, the band blasted into a new song, “Wildfire,” one of the band’s first new singles from Periphery V. If you like this song, you really enjoy the massive kick to the face this song provides live with 7 minutes of bone shredding guitars and Spencer Sotelo’s vocals soaring through the sold-out audience.
From there the brutal assault doesn’t stop; dark reds, blues, and occasional strobe flashes light the stage as Periphery plays another P5 track “Atropos” and somehow it’s even more face-melting than the previous. The band doesn’t even take a full minute in between the first three songs which equates to a little over 20 minutes of the set time. The major theme we noticed on the new album was the different ranges of vocalist Spencer Sotelo and the huge drums of Matt Halpern. I’m happy to report both translate beautifully live.
The six-song setlist left me wanting more but that’s cause I’m a fan of the band so I’d want more no matter what. It was cool to see the new tracks live and also they threw in some good old songs with the last three being “The Bad Thing,” “Follow Your Ghost,” and fan favorite “Marigold” which saw the capacity crowd screaming their hearts out. Periphery is always a can’t-miss with their technicality and amazing musicianship and sound but this tour is a hell of a place to catch them live. We are looking forward to a proper headlining tour from the guys.
Headlining the night was the tour’s main act, the legendary Underoath! It’s fair to say that after over 20 years of making albums and grinding on the road from Warped Tours to arena tours with bands like Korn, Underoath have seen it all and they’ve earned their spots. This tour is no exception.
The band took the stage around 9 pm with a fury only they can deliver. As the intro began for “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door” the crowd went absolutely mental, fans screaming at the top of their lungs while bodies flew over the barricade. A completely different energy than the previous acts. If you’ve ever seen Underoath you know it can only be described as CHAOS!
Strobes bounced all around the Pennsylvania theater as shadows and silhouettes covered the stage with brief flash glimpses of the band members. Once again the sound was incredible, even with all the chaotic playing every chord, kick drum, and keyboard strike could be heard perfectly. The band rallied into tracks “Damn Excuses” and “In Regards to myself” much like Periphery barely even taking a moment to catch their breath and the crowd was the same, participating in circle pits, crowd surfing, and screaming along.
Underoath even unleashed their newest single “Let’s Go” for the live debut. Even performing as a 5 piece in the absence of James Smith couldn’t slow this band down as they tore furiously through a 15-song set filled with every song you could possibly want to hear “Down, Set, Go”, “Rapture”, “A Boy Brushed Red Living In Black and White” and “Writing on the Walls.” Underoath shattered all expectations and rebuilt them with a massive performance. Underoath gave us rock, metal, and post-hardcore and rolled it into a set that is a ton of fun to see live. This might be one of the most underrated tours rolling through the U.S. right now but the hardcore fan bases for all these bands are clearly showing up!
Get yourself a ticket and make sure you support Periphery’s new album Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre coming March 10th!
Click Here for the Full Gallery of the Evening!
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