Article and Photos by: Megan Choi

San Antonio, TX — This weekend, I got to catch one of the final shows of The Retrograde Tour, headlined by Crown The Empire. This tour was stacked, bringing on newer artists such as Light Up The Sky and Too Close To Touch, and featuring touring veterans including New Years Day and Blessthefall.

Opening for the night was Light Up The Sky, a post hardcore band with a twist, hailing from Washington. The definitely lit up the room with their poppy melodic sounds, while also providing that extra oomph of breakdowns and screams. Not only did they get the crowd moving, but also dancing with songs such as “Body Right.”

Too Close To Touch was up next, and one word to summarize their set would be: intense. The passion in lead vocalist Keaton Pierce’s voice in combination with the emotional lyrics captured the attention of everyone in the crowd. The band delivered with a strong performance and provided a raw, refreshing sound to the scene.

Fan favorites New Years Day got on stage and went full speed right away. The band became one with the crowd, and lead vocalist Ash Costello encouraged crowd surfers to come up to the front from the get go. They played favorites including “Kill or Be Killed” and “I’m About To Break You” off of their most recent album, Malevolence. After their set, fans got in line at their merch table for a chance to meet the band. Clearly they have some of the most devoted fans because the line was almost as long as the venue was wide.

Blessthefall was the final supporting band, and the crowd was eager for them to come out. After a full minute of chanting “Blessthefall,” the band came out and opened with the hit “You Wear a Crown But You’re No King.” Lead vocalist Beau Bokan went straight to the crowd, and really amped things up as he let fans participate in singing into the mic. In addition to that, he helped everyone cool down by spraying water multiple times into the crowd. Rhythm guitarist Elliot Gruenberg provided a ton of posi jumps and intense faces that made for some pretty sweet shots. The crowd was clearly pumped, even forming circle pits from the very back of the crowd. Blessthefall has been in existence for over ten years and it’s great to see a band still provide just as much energy and dedication to the show as they did in the very beginning.

The crowd was ready for Dallas natives Crown The Empire. I actually went to Crown The Empire’s very first show back in 2010. It was a benefit show at a local church where Memphis May Fire was also performing. It’s surreal to see a band grow so greatly in (what feels like) such a short amount of time. Their persistence and hard work has paid off, as they are now headlining national tours. The tour is focused on promoting their 3^rd full length album, Retrograde, and the stage set with inflatable astronauts and bright blue lighting to go with it. One thing to note is that unclean vocalist David Escamilla did not appear on this tour. The band has not made any announcements yet, so the reasons behind his absence are still unclear. As the band came out, fans went wild and some dedicated front row-ers brought out their Retrograde album art flag, and held onto it the entire night. They started off with newer songs including “SK-68” to set the crowd mood with a calm outer spacey vibe. “Weight of the World” was the perfect song to get the crowd really stoked, and even made people in the back move along. After playing a few newer songs, the band played hits from their older albums, including “Memories of a Broken Heart” and “Millenia.” Drummer Brent Taddie utilized a portable spot light and shone it into the crowd multiple times to pump up different sections. It appears to have worked because fans were jumping and singing along from the start to finish of every song. They ended the night with an encore of “Machines.”

The tour had one more show in Dallas before coming to an end. After listening to all of these bands, it appears that they’re all gaining momentum and don’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.  Each band is unique in their own way, but the combination of them together on this tour just worked.