Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas was the scene of this packed show with one of the most enthusiastic crowds I have seen this year, for the kickoff of the Graveyard Shift North American Tour for Motionless in White, along with support from The Amity Affliction, Miss May I and William Control. The crowd was on the younger side with an all ages show, and they were there to support them.
Opening the night was William Control, and I was rather surprised - in the past when he has played in Vegas he has most all the lights turned off but this time he actually had some stage light on him. From the very opening note his set was plagued by sound problems and stage mishaps - computerized background music cutting off, loud hissing through the monitors, and the keyboardists stand collapsing - but in spite of the technical difficulties the set was actually very good, heavily electronic and a good fit for the tour lineup.
Miss May I is a metalcore / melodic metalcore band from Troy, Ohio, and the band gets its sound from the rawness of lead vocalist Levi Benton and the melodic vocals of bassist Ryan Neff. Ryan states he tries to make 'inspirational music instead of angry music'., and this band was a crowd fav and set the tone for what was yet to come.
Next it was The Amity Affliction, and when this band hit the stage the biggest mosh pit I have ever seen at Brooklyn Bowl opened up and stayed open most of the bands set. The Amity Affliction was formed in 2003 and hail from Gympie, Australia, and the band sings about personal themes related to singer Joel Birch’s past including depression, anxiety, drugs and suicide. This was a band where the crowd knew the lyrics to all their songs and sang along with them throughout their set. The Amity Affliction has had several #1 hits on the ARIA charts, and one of the highlights of their set was the song "All Fucked Up", that deals with the demise of singer Joel Birch stumbling through the streets of LA and hitting rock bottom. The band at times let the crowd sing on this song while they played jumping back in the song at intervals.
But the night was about headliners Motionless in White and the kickoff for the Graveyard Shift Tour - and and band had a massive stage set up with stairs leading up on both sides of the drum riser and two huge statues of white angels looking down upon the crowd, with big pumpkins and a few skeletons scattered throughout their stage set up. The band’s sound is one of metalcore / goth metal, and led by singer Chris "Motionless" Cerulli, with white painted face and stringy dark hair he is an in your face frontman and a great modern singer touring today. MIW members include Ryan Sitkowski – lead guitar, Ricky "Horror" Olson – rhythm guitar, Devin "Ghost" Sola – bass guitar, backing vocals and Vinny Mauro – drums. Each member has their own look making this one of the more visual bands you will see. MIW opened up their show with the song "Rats", and highlights included songs such as "Immaculate Misconception", "A_M_E_R_I_C_A" and closing out the night with "Reincarnate" and "Eternally Yours".
