The All Stars Tour: Where the Stars Came to Play

I am sure you hear the phrase all star constantly. Whether it applies to sports or reviews, it’s still used with the same purpose, to represent the cream of the crop. Take the All Stars tour for example. It is a show that contains many bands we have come to enjoy on a single, all-inclusive bill. Bands such as  Suicide Silence, Winds of Plague, The Word Alive, I See Stars are all represented here. All bands who are stylistically different, but still share the same love for metal.

This show was at one of the best venues in Southern California, The Grove of Anaheim, CA. It’s a classically designed venue with a keen eye for art-deco styles and for acoustic quality. Overall, the venue was perfect despite the odd terracing which made it nigh impossible to get a massive festival type mosh pit open. However, for many of us, the acoustics alone were enough, providing ample sound and spectacular views on a well-lit and open stage. 

We got a chance to see many bands today. However, since there were nearly forty in total, thirty of which were local, we sadly could not see them all. A Skylit Drive, Dance Gavin Dance, The Word Alive, Winds of Plague, Suicide Silence were all the bands of which we managed to get some photographs of, capturing each bands unique stage presence but keeping the same unbridled sense of enthusiasm for the music.

However, of those two, we had two bands who were really of note: Suicide Silence, and Winds of Plague. For those unaware, both bands hail from California. Suicide Silence hails from Riverside primarily, and Winds of Plague from my small albeit boring town, Upland. This was the hometown show for these two giants, and they delivered. Thankfully, before these titans stepped on stage, we managed to sit down and have a word with each of them. We spoke with Mitch, frontman for Suicide Silence and Johnny Plague, frontman for Winds of Plague. Each artist expressed great joy in this bill and were clearly anxious to see what this sold out hometown show had to offer amongst other intriguing topics.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LURINGTnSd4] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0rw8Lwo2cY]

Of the two bands, the artists’ families were all present. On the side of the primary stage, where we watched Johnny Plague rip through a set as he jumped off high speaker towers and leaped into the crowd, I was flanked by his family: his brother, mother, and his father to name a few. With Suicide Silence, Mitch brought the pain into the crowd, causing a huge frenzy of heavy metal revelers who danced and moshed to their heart’s content. From the floor, in clear sight was his family, including his daughter who came out to see her father tear it up. It wasn’t just a concert, it was a family affair, and this was no high school recital. The bands made no exemption, they put on one incredible show with probably the highest energy of any two bands you can ever see in concert. The acoustics were flawless, the instrumentation was perfect, and the bands were absolutely enveloped into the crowd. It really gets no better than this in terms of raw metal. 

The talent on this bill was remarkable, the two bands alone were well worth the admission cost, but the extra  bands we got to experience were just an added bonus. Whatever your preference on music is, this tour has you covered. It is well worth you check out the dates, but check quickly: if the dates that passed already were already an indiction, it may already be sold out.