Photos and Article by: Casey Steinmiller

Tulsa, OK — Cains Ballroom is located in the Brady Arts District of Tulsa. On Tuesday night it hosted an intimate show of around Three- Hundred people, not even a third of its’ max capacity. The crowd did bring the energy of a much larger group though, making the building feel as though the floor could collapse.

The night opened up with the band Wage War. Based out of Ocala Florida, this heavy hitting band knows how to get the crowd energized. With their newest album “Blueprints” recently released, the majority of their set-list consisted of that. They ended the set by playing Twenty One; a heavy song that created mosh-pits and energized the crowd one last time.

Up next was Polyphia. Based out of Dallas, this band has a truly unique sound. They are purely instrumental and have no singer. With screaming guitar solo’s and very technical play, the members of Polyphia are truly talented. Their set consisted of both old and new music such as; Impassion, 87, Transcend as well as many others.

Stick To Your Guns came on after Polyphia. Coming from Orange County, California they brought the heat. Starting out very heavy in your face they got the crowd jumping immediately with Against Them All. They kept the energy up by playing What Choice Did You Give Us?, We Still Believe, Amber, as well others from their new album “Disobedient”. They closed down with the song Nobody.

Due to a family emergency Keith Buckley, the lead singer of Every Time I Die was unable to attend. He was replaced with Letlive singer Jason Butler. Jason did not disappoint though, bringing extreme amounts of energy to the show. He stage dove right off the stage into the crowd and even hung from rafters on the ceiling. Their set consisted of music ranging from new to old albums. The energy from the replacement singer kept the entire room on their feet and excited. Mosh-pits broke out several times and crowd surfers poured over the barricades. They ended their set with the song Indian Giver from their older album “Ex Lives”.

After a final set change August Burns Red took the stage. Starting off strong with the song Martyr from their newest album “Found In Far Away Places”. Their whole show was packed with heavy guitar riffs and hard hitting vocal break-downs. August Burns Red recently was nominated for a Grammy for the song Identity.  The song is even better live than on the album. After a guitar change they played some Christmas music. A modified metal version of the song Flurries was thoroughly enjoyed by the crowd. After a few more songs one of the band members sprinted off stage and out into the crowd and began playing in the middle of the mosh-pit. He was then carried/ crowd surfed back up onto the stage and said “I havnt been carried like that since I was a six year old child”.  After a few more songs they “ended” their set with White washed, but quickly returned to the stage to finish with another Christmas song Frosty The Snowman and finally Fault Line.

Overall an incredible show with bands all fitting into the same style and easily transitioning onto the next making for a great playlist. Though the venue wasn’t packed the energy was consistently high which made for a fun time for everyone in attendance.