Show Review: The American Dream Tour (Portland, OR)
I started this show with high expectations hoping that every band would hit it off. I felt there were more emotion from the crowd then the bands themselves. Even though it was the last few days of the tour, they should still have some energy to put on the same performance as the first few shows. I have seen all of these bands before and it just was not the same this time.
Letlive was the opening band and I had really high expectations for them for seeing them at Vans Warped Tour 2013. Quite disappointing. I paid to see a show not some monkey jumping around for a half an hour. Letlive will be coming back to Portland in May with Architects in a smaller venue and maybe Jason will feel the need to actually perform. Letlive is a humble band, but the performance was poor and the crowd was not happy with them during the show. On another note Jason does NOT care about the venues rules or anything. Jumping on PA systems and the venues sound equipment isn’t just unsafe, but can damage them. I will be surprised if letlive in a few years can even get shows in a decent venue since venues will be put up with his shit.
Issues was the only band on this tour that actually put in energy to their show and made it entertaining. I was not a huge fan of Issues until after they played. They put on an awesome show while entertaining the fans. The crowd had more of an reaction towards them compared to the other bands. They put in the same energy compared to the show they played in November with Sleeping with Sirens and Our Last Night. Issues will never let down their fans.
This was the fourth time I have seen Of Mice & Men. Since I have seen their stage performance before I had REALLY high expectations for their set. Disappointed. Since they have got their new vocalist, Aaron Pauley they have only played new songs off Restoring Force. The new album does not have the heart and the backbone of old Of Mice. It makes you wonder if another band got suckered in the music industry and will slowly deplete their talent. Why is Of mice & men using 7 strings when they are still an over rated Post hardcore band. If they wanted to become a heavy metal band, get rid of the cleans and up those screams Carlile. There is NO reason for a band like this to use 7 strings. The show they put on was disappointing.
The headliner, Bring me the horizon actually surprised me. Not with their stage presence but with the stage effects. They made use of the stage with a second stage set up for their keyboardist and Drummer. They interacted with the fans and Oliver Sykes actually didn’t sound like shit with his vocals this time. I only stayed for four songs but the crowd was enjoying them and they put on a hell of a show. Their setlist was disappointing with mostly only playing their new stuff. The actually show performance from them was disappointing only because I saw the crowd singing more then Oliver Sykes himself.