by LE Francis
I knew I had to get tickets for this show immediately because it would sell out — & of course it did! This is Spiritbox’s first headlining tour & they’ve really blown up over the last few years. I remember the ticket sale being confusing & annoying thanks to Ticketmaster’s shitty policies & fees. & to be honest, arriving at the venue & figuring out where the hell I was supposed to go to watch the show was a similar experience, but I would do it all again.
Intervals
I was late in, so I missed a lot of Intervals’ set, it was a combination of Seattle traffic & not knowing the venue well enough. The place was absolutely crawling with people & had no clear directions — aside from floor staff that had to shout & still were not audible — to the areas that were not at capacity. Once I found my way to the balcony – the entry hidden behind an absolute behemoth of a bathroom/merch line (again it was all incredibly unclear) – there were plenty of open seats. & listen, I can hang but if you give me the choice between a pit full of moist, aromatic people & a chair with a good view, I’m always going to pick the chair.
Intervals is an instrumental band I’ve heard a lot about, but had never caught a show from before. The project is guitar-driven with compositions focused on the virtuosity of the only permanent member of the band, Aaron Marshall. & the tone is recognizable, bright & shiny like Strawberry Girls or Chon but the focus feels narrow – more like watching Vai or Satriani. Overall, I enjoyed the three songs that I saw & quite like their 2020 album “Circadian,” my favorite track at the moment is “D.O.S.E.” For more info, check out intervalsmusic.net or find them on Insta @aaronintervals.
After the Burial
I’ve stopped going into shows blind because I’ve run into a lot of openers that became faves & I regretted not being more into them in the moment – the OG was Protest the Hero, but also Echoes of Eternity, The Dear Hunter, Thank You Scientist. & in my 2023 concert playlist After the Burial is similar to several other bands, it’s not my favorite style but they’re obviously very talented technical musicians that can deliver a compelling atmosphere, a great groove.
But the mic banter had me walking back a lot of the goodwill I came in with. I get that you’re trying to portray an agro-bro metal vibe but telling people to push someone in the pit if they’re not jumping is fucked up. The reason I will choose the chair every time is not purely sensory, but because I’ve been in some very dangerous situations in crowds – I’ve been picked up entirely off my feet by a crowd before, I’ve been crushed against a barrier & have had to have security pull me out (I had bruised ribs from that one). I’ve been groped & grabbed in all sorts of uncomfortable ways, & have taken countless punches, & all despite naturally staying to the edges of the pit because I have a weak stomach when it comes to being pressed against a sweaty dude or the smell of hot ass in general. But crowd safety isn’t a fucking joke, bro.
Perhaps the weirdest thing was this guy pulling out the old, I can’t listen to metal because it may influence me. Alright Anne Rice, I could write an entire series of books on why that is absolute bullshit. I have had literal days worth of conversations with other musicians, writers, & artists over the years about how every artistic medium is a communicative, immersive endeavor mirroring to us the infinite possibilities of the universe & human imagination, shaped by the width of influences & the well-honed voice of the individual artist. & how with the same prompt nobody can produce the same work because the variance in tone, voice, form, etc. is so vast that no two artists are capable of creating the same work, only endless variations on the same theme, creating subtle differences that would resonate with some but fall flat with others, etc. But for me, it was the most stock metal sounding band of the night pulling such a pretentious statement out of their back pocket that absolutely took me by surprise.
Listen, part of all of that wildly romantic infinite possibilities shit is that some things are just not for me as a listener, & it may be the case here. But I vibed with the part where he encouraged folks to take a wild chance toward their dreams & not let fear hold them back, where he talked about grief haunting him to the point that he felt he was literally being chased by death itself. & that particular song, “Death Keeps Us From Living,” was admittedly a bit of a banger.
But as someone who has seen more than my fair share of corny metal acts, I’m both dying a little inside & laughing like a hyena when I hear someone growl “circle pit” or “horns up” & I definitely wondered what the fuck was going on with their coffee table stage setup. But hey, there was a lot of stepping & lunges involved & get your workout on, brothers. & for real, if you had to bake your way through your rehearsals & ended up anxious & unsure on the road, I feel you & wish you nothing but the best – gains & chill vibes & all the proverbial slaying to be had this tour.
& who knows, After the Burial may be the band for you, you can check them out at aftertheburial.co or on instagram at @aftertheburial.
Spiritbox
I came out for Spiritbox. A friend recommended them a few years ago, prior to the release of “Eternal Blue.” & that release was one of the bright spots of 2021, one I couldn’t shut the fuck up about along with Eidola’s “The Architect,” Thank You Scientist’s “Plague Accomodations,” & Bilmuri’s “400lb Back Squat.” I only had tickets to one show that summer – Between the Buried & Me – & I ended up staying home because my mom was suffering with long-COVID & a tenacious Epstein Barr reactivation illness that lasted months & I couldn’t bring myself to avoid her for what I think was about two weeks based on recommendations at the time. So those albums were foundational for my sanity at the time as an introverted person that does most of my socializing at shows. So, I walked into that venue with the idea that Spiritbox could not fail – & they did not.
There seemed to be some issues with both After the Burial & Spiritbox where the vocals were a little low in the mix but it seemed like they got it figured out after a couple of songs.
Spiritbox is a band that manages to be incredibly versatile while sounding exactly & unmistakably like themselves no matter how electronic or pop or metal they lean. & Courtney Laplante is one of the most talented vocalists I’ve ever seen live, she is absolutely mesmerizing. She makes it look effortless, but flipping between those two voices is not an easy operation. Her breath cannot miss on either end. Though her clean tone leans breathy & soft, there’s a lot of power behind even the most delicate line. You can hear it punch through in their compositions, often in interesting & unexpected ways. I am impressed again & again listening to her.
Instrumentally, like Intervals & After the Burial, the musicians in Spiritbox are very technically adept. I think where they really shine is in the departure from their normal, down-tuned, weighty metal feel; when they take that entire essence & translate it into something softer, electronic, more experimental. Not to say I don’t appreciate the impossibly heavy, earthbound grooves that hold Courtney’s ethereal, heavenly vocals in lock with their gravity – I just really appreciate the variation & range of this band.
My favorite songs at the moment are “Rule of Nines” & “Eternal Blue” which were both on the setlist, but you have to give it to “Constance” for being right up there with “Shelley (Unheard)” by A Lot Like Birds in never failing to make me cry.
You can check out Spiritbox at spiritbox.com or follow them on Insta @spiritboxmusic.
The Neptune Theater is located in Seattle’s University District. It originally opened in 1921 as a silent film theater & became a live venue in 2011. Seattle Theater Group’s website has more information on the theater’s century of history. The venue has really leaned into the strange, old details of the building – lighting the eyes of the sea gods on the walls with a lime green glow, shining neon green light behind stained glass depictions of Neptune – it was giving Flying Dutchman from Spongebob. The venue has a really cool atmosphere & the only critique I have is that I talked to four or five different staff members on the way in & nobody instructed us where to go & the flow of foot traffic from the door funneled people into an already packed pit area.
Seattle is not a great city for traffic or parking. As someone who comes from out of the area, I frequently choose to drive the extra 3.5 to 4 hours to Portland because I know the Trimet lines well enough & don’t have to deal with parking outside of my hotel. I parked in a lot that was maybe a 5-10 minute walk to the venue. I paid way too much & there were closer, cheaper lots but they were on the other side of congested intersections & my anxiety told me to just shut the fuck up & pay the man. I drove in from a hotel in Auburn (south of the city) & would say running shows a little later may help, because doors at 6 p.m. puts people at odds with rush hour traffic.
Spiritbox’s “Eternal Blue” headlining tour is still underway but the tour is largely sold out (if you’re lucky I think they had a few venue upgrades along the way & more tickets may have opened up so it’s always worth checking into) but it was a good time & I’d recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to go out to a show.
& my year of many shows continues, next on my schedule is The Sound of Animals Fighting, but I also have tickets to & will be writing about Wage War with nothing.nowhere, Meute, Thrice, Between the Buried & Me with Thank You Scientist, & Sleep Token. If you’re out at shows in the Pacific Northwest I may see you there.
LE Francis (she/her) is Sage Cigarettes Magazine’s fiction editor. She’s a writer, podcaster, visual artist, & musician. She is a columnist for Cream Scene Magazine. She is a co-host & editor of Sage Cigarettes’ A Ghost in the Magazine horror review podcast. Her debut poetry chapbook, This Spell of Song & Star, is available through Bottlecap Features. Find her at nocturnical.com.
