Just saw the Crush Em All Tour this past Monday at The Met in Pawtucket RI. Co-headlined by Veil of Maya and After The Burial, the tour also included Misery Signals and Within the Ruins as well as Structures. Originally I though Volumes was playing but they played select dates in order to join a different tour to promote their new album “VIA” which is sick.
I got there at the beginning of Within the Ruins set. I saw them at Metal Fest this year, they are pretty solid. Singer seemed pissed the crowd was hardly moving but on a Monday at 7:30 in Pawtucket you aren’t gonna get much energy… Kudos to him for trying though.
I was looking forward to Misery Signals the most as their album “Controller” is in steady rotation on my MP3 player. They didn’t disappoint and the crowd was really into them; there were some die hard MS fans fucking shit up. I figured they would be the best band of the night but I couldn’t even pick a favorite if I tried.
After The Burial really killed it. Their lead guitarist Trent Hafdahl is a BEAST. I haven’t been that impressed by a guitarist in a long time. ”Aspirations” is ridiculous live. Both guitarists ripped on black-light 8 strings and the singer kept the energy super high. He dedicated a song to his late mother which was so intense it gave me the chills. The whole band was impressive.
Veil of Maya is a band I never really got into but live they were great, very technical. Sometimes it takes seeing a band live to get into them.
I would definitely HIGHLY recommend both this tour and seeing any of these bands perform outside the tour.
The Met is also a decent little venue. Lots of pillars so I can’t see any great pits going on here (the circle pit attempt was interesting) but spacious with good sound and a nice deck for smokers. Too bad Pawtucket is a fucking shithole!
