- May 26, 2022

NOTHING MORE and ASKING ALEXANDRIA (A Parent's Perspective) Show Review

Back in March of this year, multi-Grammy-nominated rock outfit Nothing More and Better Noise Music labelmates Asking Alexandria announced their massive co-headlining tour featuring the legendary Atreyu who recently dropped their top 10 radio hit "Warrior" ft. Travis Barker as well as up-and-coming femme fatale fronted band Eva Under Fire who recently dished out their latest track "Blow" ft. Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills, which is featured in the upcoming horror film The Retaliators.

Monday, May 23rd, 2022. The hard-rock co-headlining giants rolled into the city of Pittsburgh, PA at Stage AE's concert venue. Stage AE is a near one-of-a-kind venue with a state-of-the-art indoor/outdoor setup that I've had the pleasure of visiting many times, the show tonight would be in an indoor setting which is equally impressive to its outside twin.

At around 6:00 PM Stage AE's doors opened to eager fans waiting in line around the block of the Steel City venue. Fans piled into the massive concert hall awaiting again for the first act EVA UNDER FIRE who played an energetic set including tracks "Comatose", "Coming For Blood", as well as a sick, hard rendition of Journey's "Separate Ways" and the aforementioned track "Blow" without Spencer of course.

After a brief intermission, legendary metalcore band ATREYU took the stage for a fast-paced emotional set of fan-favorite songs including tracks "Baptize" "Right Side of the Bed" and "*Ex's And Oh's" where frontman/singer Brandon Saller joked that he was "headed to the bar" where little did everyone else know, that's exactly what he did. He left the stage in the middle of the performance, went through the sea of people to the bar in the back of the venue with a microphone in hand, asked for a drink, then finished the song and went back onstage. Atreyu's energy only set the bar for the rest of the night ahead with the first co-headlining act NOTHING MORE up next.

As the intermission hit, cheeky palate cleansers blasted the radio like Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" to which one has to laugh and appreciate a choir of metalheads singing The Backstreet Boys and N'Sync at the top of their lungs.

At approximately 8:20 PM NOTHING MORE hit the stage for what I can only describe as an "event." NOTHING MORE has to be one of the most entertaining and energetic bands out there with their ability to combine heavy rock with progressive, EDM, and industrial sounds while not to mention killing it with 3-part harmony, synth and vocoders. As I've said many times in the past, harmony is something that will always be my kryptonite. All the while putting on one hell of a live stage performance featuring lights, fog, lasers, drum solos from everyone in the band and not to mention a giant 400 pound, 14-foot tall monstrosity affectionately known as "The Scorpion" which is essentially half of a drumset welded onto old metal scraps from salvaged cars and motorcycle parts with midi synthesizers mounted to an automatic spring that catapults lead singer Johnny Hawkins into the air where he can then control the band's guitar and bass sounds as well as his own voice. Even with that giant mouthful of an explanation, it still doesn't do any of the band justice and its just one of those things you must witness in person.

Nothing More hit the stage with the opening track "Turn It Up Like" with lead singer Johnny Hawkins wasting no time jumping onto The Scorpion and giving fans a taste of its venom. "Let Em' Burn" was next, immediately followed by "Christ Copycat" and "Do You Really Want It". The band kept it back to 2017's The Stories We Tell Ourselves (TSWTO) album with "Tunnels" "Don't Stop" and "Go To War" while taking it even further back to 2014's "Jenny" to which Hawkins gave a shoutout to his sister whom the song is about, in the midst of the previously mentioned tracks.

Nothing More jumped back to two tracks from TSWTO "Go To War" and "Fade In/Fade Out" which is by far my new favorite song after hearing guitarist Mark Vollelunga saying its about his father and his son Fenix where I drew a personal connection to being a dad myself. Hawkins asked fans if they heard their latest track Tired of Winning to which an explosive Pittsburgh audience erupted into an insidious roar, promising that they would drop a new track upon this tour's completion which prompted an even bigger response from the crowd to which they jumped into the new track, not slowing down a bit. Nothing More closed the night on back-to-back tracks from 2014's self-titled album "Ocean Floor" and "This Is The Time (Ballast)" where the band closed the set out with an insane energetic outro of drums and synth once again featuring the beloved and feared Scorpion.

ASKING ALEXANDRIA made way to the stage close to 10 PM an eager and exhausted Steel City crowd. The Yorkshire post-hardcore quintet kicked the crowd's ass bursting into the opening track "Alone Again", a fairly new tune from 2021's See What's On The Side (SWOTS), and wasting no time going back to fan-favorite "The Final Episode".

With a nearly 20-year catalog under their belt, Asking Alexandria ping-ponged back and forth between the decades of old and new tunes like 2020's "Antisocialist" and "They Don't Want What We Want" wherein the middle of the song lead singer Danny Worsnop noticed a young fan (approx. 8-10 years old) in the front row with a sign that read "It's My Birthday And First Concert" where he reached and handed her a drumstick and guitar picks which proved to be a very wholesome moment by the rocker.

The pace didn't slow down with heavy-hitting fan favorites "The Violence", "Run Free" "Dedication", and Someone, Somewhere" followed by the band's two new latest tracks back to back from their 2022 EP "Never Gonna Learn" "New Devil" and the title track from the record followed by 2022's "Faded Out". With very little crowd banter in between songs Asking Alexandria delivered nearly a dozen and a half tracks with barely a breather in-between songs closing with an old school track "Moving On" followed by a fairly new tune to completely close out the night entirely "Alone In a Room".

This was my first "heavier" show in quite some time, however, no matter how I dice it, live concerts for me always jar old memories and obviously create amazing new ones from having nostalgia seeing Atreyu again, where the last time I saw the band live was back in 2006 at the Ozzfest in Pittsburgh to never seeing the jaw-dropping Nothing More and their amazing live on-stage performance.

NOTHING MORE and ASKING ALEXANDRIA featuring EVA UNDER FIRE and ATREYU are on tour now. Check out a full photo gallery of the show as well as tour dates and band info below!