By Jessica Esquibel
Editor in Chief
The Outbreak Tour sponsored by Monster for Issues kicked off last Friday in San Francisco at the Regency Ballroom. The band is from Atlanta, Georgia and bases their music around metalcore, while incorporating R&B and nu metal. They currently have two albums and one EP out. Sometime this year they’ll release their third studio album. The date and name has yet to be revealed.
The tour featured the opening bands Crown the Empire, One Ok Rock, and Night Verses. I was only really familiar with Crown The Empire. The other two bands were new to me, but definitely not to the crowd there that night.
In my opinion, The Regency Ballroom is a great place for concert-goers. No matter where you are in the room you’re bound to get a great view of the stage. It’s small and intimate in the best way. The architecture is simple, yet nice. The bass is insane and the sound vibrates well off the walls.
Everything started just in time. Night Verses opened up the show with a Deftones vibe. The performance was impressive in my opinion, but the crowd was totally dead. The vocalist did a good job going back and forth to doing unclean vocals to clean ones. Soon, their set was over and One Ok Rock’s crew began to get the stage ready.
One Ok Rock brought in a massive amount of their fans to the show which surprised me. They’re from Japan giving off the post-hardcore and alternative rock vibe. I have heard of them before but never really gave them a listen. I regret that now. Their stage presence was amazing. Everything worked so smoothly together. The lead vocalist had such a lovely voice. He could also scream too. They even brought out Tyler Carter (lead clean vocalist of Issues) to sing one of their songs with him. After their set was over a big chunk of the crowd left. I was shocked, but didn’t mind too much, I got way closer to the stage.
Crown The Empire was next up. They opened up with a classic and the crowd loved it. This was their first time playing in San Francisco. The last time they were supposed to play, their bus broke down. That was on the Of Mice and Men tour, but they made it this time with no delay. It was everything I had hoped for honestly. The crowd was into it, two of the lead vocalists were very energetic, the band was on point.
Finally, it was time for the main band, Issues, to come out. Before I get into their set, the stage setup was perfect. It gave off the whole junkyard, rebel feel. It reminded me of their music video Hooligans which I think was the point. The drum set was sat on top of a display where everyone can see it. There was a small structure the band members could climb on top of and rock out. It was so much bigger than I had expected it to be.
When the lights dimmed, I could not contain my excitement. One by one, the band walked out. Michael the lead unclean vocalist literally started off by saying, “This song is about f*cking!” That then led to the song Love, Sex, Riot. The fact that they started with that song already made my night. In fact, they played a lot of old songs. They even played a good amount of new songs as well. One about the topic of police brutality, Blue Wall. It gave off a Rage Against The Machine vibe, which I enjoyed. The bassist, AJ Rebello even screamed during that song. I had never heard him do that and it was a really nice touch. The Realest was another new song they played. It’s a good jam for sure. It had a funky vibe to it. The crowd was definitely at its best point there. To all the people that left early, they missed out.
If I could repeat the night, I would. It was the best I had ever seen this band and I saw them two times before. Maybe it’s because it was their first show they had played in almost five months. Or maybe they’re just always so awesome. Whatever the case, I’m glad I went to that concert that night instead of going to Justin Bieber.
