Article and Photos by: Megan Choi

The Rage on The Stage Tour made its stop in San Antonio this past week, bringing out breakthrough artists I Prevail, and support from We Came as Romans, The Word Alive, and Escape The Fate.

Escape The Fate opened up for this solid show and fans were showing their support with cheers and screams. Escape The Fate is no stranger to touring, as the band has been established for over a decade now. They still kept up a consistent energy that excited the crowd.

Hailing from Arizona, The Word Alive was up next. About halfway through their set, vocalist Telle Smith encouraged the crowd to go low and jump high, all while capturing it for the band’s Facebook page. Seeing almost the entire venue crouch down and then uniformly jump up was a great sight. In addition to new songs, they played older favorites, such as “Life Cycles.”

We Came as Romans was the final support of the night, and the crowd was ready to see these Michigan rockers take the stage. Almost immediately into their set, guitarist Andy Glass provided a lot of jumps, and amped up the crowd. The band started of with their new single (and newest album title), “Cold Like War.” The band played their fan favorite cover of “Glad You Came” by The Wanted, and also played one of their first hits, “To Plant a Seed.”

With much anticipation, I Prevail got on stage to what appeared to be the voice of a man introducing a wrestling match. Drummer Gabe Helguera was set up in a wrestling ring, and when asked why there was a wrestling ring set up on stage, unclean vocalist Eric Vanlerberghe stated “because we wanted to.” Noticeably absent was vocalist Brian Burkheiser, who is currently resting from a vocal cord injury. Guitarist Dylan Bowman took over for clean vocals, and the show proceeded. Fans were singing along in unison and smiles were spread throughout the crowd. Later on in the set, Vanlerberghe asked if someone from the crowd would throw him a beer, which he caught and proceeded to drink to cheers from the crowd. The band had confetti and smoke canons set up, which made the show that much more enjoyable and memorable for the concert-goer. I Prevail formed back in 2013, and are now headlining a stacked tour. The growth of this band has been exponential and it’s exciting to see what they have been able to achieve.

There are quite a few tour dates left for the Rage on The Stage tour, and you can view them here.