This tour hit Iowa City April 10th this year, taking place at the always awesome Picador. This tour played Chicago 2 nights in a row earlier that week which would've been amazing, but alas, this was the best I could do. The Picador is an awesome venue though with a great mix between small personal space and some great sound equipment.
We unfortunately missed most of Genghis Tron on this night, but I am not too familiar with them anyway, but from what heard, they were playing an awesome set that tour. I spent most of my time early that evening shoveling cash at Converge while my friend played Galaga in the back by the bar.
The first band that I would watch that evening was Baroness. Baroness is a band that I've long appreciated as being an awesome group, and have very much enjoyed listening to, but I just do not listen to them that much if that makes sense. Anyway, I was eager to see them, and so were a lot of other people.
They played a well paced set, that a lot of people were into. I came out very pleased, they craft very eloquent tunes, and they play them perfectly live. I was surprised to see a large chunk of people clear out after they played though. I guess it was their new found success on the MTV2 circuit, but I figured that most people were there for Converge (which was still largely true), but it was a surprise.
The Red Chord followed Baroness. I used to be really into the Red Chord, but up to this point I hadn't been listening to them much lately. They put on an awesome show though, it was really high energy, and they seem really comfortable playing their tunes which get very technical at times, they were just having fun. It was great. They played a little long I thought, but it was still entertaining to watch. Many stage dives and ridiculousness, including a bunch of people just getting on stage for no reason at the end which brought the singer into a fit of laughter in which he just embraced and stopped trying to sing.
After The Red Chord, Converge came on.
I had seen Converge before this in the same building actually, but this night would easily eclipse that in my mind's eye. Converge started with Kurt (guitar) standing on stage by himself playing 'Plagues' off of their album 'No Heroes' which is just about the best way any band could ever open a set in my eyes. Slowly the rest of the band joined him and the set began.
They played for about an hour playing every song I could have wanted minus one or two (I do not recall hearing The Saddest Day or Heaven In Her Arms), songs I can recall: 'No Heroes', 'Concubine/Fault and Fracture', 'Last Light', 'Locust Reign', 'My Great Devastator' along with a mess of others and finishing with an epic 12 minute finale of 'Jane Doe'. It was just fantastic, I couldn't have asked for a much better Converge experience.
This was easily one of my favorite shows of the year, and with such a varied lineup, it was a perfect night.
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