I saw A Day to Remember Friday April 16th 2010 at the House of Blues in Cleveland. I can’t honestly say that I was overly familiar with the band before the event, but I did know a couple of the radio releases and I crammed in as many of their songs as possible on the hour drive to the show. The show was opening by Veara, followed by Enter Shikari.
Both seemingly unknown bands came out and put on a strong show, grasping the attention of the over packed audience. Up next in the lineup was Silverstein, A long contender in this rapidly expanding world of progressive-hardcore. My intentions were to spend this time getting to the front of the pit(which I did) because I really had no interest in this band but Silverstein really did a great job of removing the sour taste they leave in my mouth by playing a very solid set of songs I actually enjoyed. Entering the stage next was August Burns Red. I can’t say enough good things about this band. August Burns Red is perhaps the best young prog/math metal band on the market today.
They came out and absolutely tore the House of Blues apart. I’m not sure how many of these kids appreciated real metal before entering the show but I guarantee you that everyone walked out with their eyes opened. The strength of August Burns Red was the biggest weakness to A Day to Remember. The headliner came out and played a real solid show, but solid was all it was. The vocals were about 80%, good enough but a little too pitchy for my liking. The guitars were right on, but since they were playing the simplest of Drop-D tuning songs it was expected. My biggest complaint about their performance was by far the stage presence. They walked around and played their instruments.
They jumped together a couple times. They ran in place a couple of times. Nothing special, but ok.And then they started trying to act metal. They attempted to convince the audience to start mosh pits. They head-banged through those awful Drop-D breakdowns that every unsigned band at Peabody’s is playing.
They pretty much made themselves look stupid in my eyes. But maybe it would have been cool if they hadn’t followed one of the most talented metal bands around. The crowd absolutely went wild for A Day to Remember so they must be doing something right. If you’re a fan of the band, go see em live. They were good but they just didn’t wow me.