broadside — CONCERTS & EVENTS

Picturesque, a band from Lexington, Kentucky opened the Get Free Tour on February 16th at the Underground (The Fillmore Charlotte) in Charlotte, NC. They opened with their single “Monstrous Things” and even debuted a new song called “Dead Flower” that was distributed as a B- Side through a special pre-order before the tour. The new track has more of an R&B vibe to it in contrast to the other songs on the set such as “Waiting” and “Just Exist”. There were a few crowd surfers throughout their set and a handful of fans were singing along loudly. The energy from the band was very high. Kyle Hollis, the lead singer even reached out to grab the hands of the few crowd surfers.

Next was the Richmond, Virginia based band Broadside who opened with the single “The Simple Type”. The crowd surfing did not stop as Broadside played songs from both their first album “Old Bones” and newest album “Paradise”. There was even a small mosh pit. Broadside’s set brought a nice variety of both softer songs and heavier songs. Unfortunately, there was a fight during the third song “Damaged Kids” but the band stopped playing to break it up and the people responsible were removed from the venue. It’s very good to see that the band takes violent situations seriously to ensure the safety of their fans and those attending their shows.

Silverstein was next, all the way from Canada. They are currently co-headlining with Tonight Alive so they switch off every night. As soon as they started, the lights went crazy and everyone rushed into the venue from the patio outside. This set had the most crowd surfers and was most definitely the roughest crowd but the energy was amazing. Silverstein opened with the song Ghost and closed with the song “Afterglow”. The crowd was so intense, people had to be removed from the crowd due to injuries.

Tonight Alive comes all the way from Australia and did not disappoint despite people leaving after Silverstein. Jenna has an incredible vocal range and stage presence. Tonight Alive’s set list was a mix of songs from their releases “What Are You So Scared Of”, “The Other Side”, “Limitless”, and their newest release “The Underworld”. The crowd was literally a sea of yellow Tonight Alive hoodies. Despite the smaller size of the crowd, the energy was not small at all.

Words and photos by Emily Armitage.