Scream Like You Mean It Tour Review

Tearing through Texas with an attack on our minds and our senses, the first annual SCREAM IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT tour left Austin a little hotter Tuesday July 27 following an impressive performance by industry staples such as Ivoryline, Dance Gavin Dance, Emery and Canadian post-hardcore headliner Silverstein.

Taking the stage with a whole lot of attitude and a deliverance to back it up, Ohio-based Close to Home wasted not a moment of their opening slot warming up the audience for bigger and better acts. By the ending of their first number, sweat was pouring off the crowd and everyone was literally drained.

Breathing life back into the crowd, Ivoryline offered a calmer set, performing hits from both old and new albums including Vessels, which released the day of the show. While the music by Ivoryline is emotionally charged by their faith, it is the deliverance of passion that connects the band with their fans.

Following a short intermission where the audience wrapped their bodies around industrial sized fans, Sky Eats Airplane took to the stage filling our ears with pig-squeals and really awful clean vocals. I get that the whole, scream-sing-scream thing is in at the moment, but if your band cannot pull of the singing portion, maybe that is not the style for you.

Drug use and full-frontal nudity started off the electronic-screams of I Set My Friends on Fire, it was like an R-rated movie. While I am still out on the whole electronic scream sound, I have to say that ISMFOF pulled their sound off, and were a definite highlight of the crowds night.

After the ordeal that was ISMFOF, We Came As Romans took the stage to a highly anticipating audience. At this point in the night you could feel the audience dragging. The summer heat was mild for Austin, but it added up exponentially with the crowd and length of the tour. WCAR took an unfortunately long time setting up, but after finally sorting out a few technical difficulties tore at Emo’s at full force. The band’s dual vocal dynamic of Kyle Pavone and David Stephens kept the crowd engaged and distracted from the sweat dripping across the room. “Intentions” and “Roads That Don’t End and Views that never Cease” drew two of the biggest responses of the night. WCAR played a great relief roll, revitalizing the crowd and building towards a strong finish.

Next up was Sacramento, CA’s Dance Gavin Dance. DGD has been through a blender of band members since their 2007 debut, and with that change in personal came a very clear shift in sound. Originally, DGD could have been written off as another Rise Records heavy band with pretty choruses, but over time the six-piece evolved into a March of Flames era Fear Before mathcore band. Their set was tight, unpredictable, and left anyone in the audience who was unfamiliar with their music scratching their head trying to put the puzzle together. While this resulted in a serious lull in crowd energy, it certainly didn’t keep the band from stepping up.

Industry veterans, Emery, followed DGD with what was easily the set of the night. With a brief, eight-song, set, and decked out in matching Hawaiian t-shirts, they covered a few songs off of each of their major releases, including “Walls,” “The Smile, The Face,” “In Shallow Seas We Sail,” “Rock ‘n’ Rule,” and “Studying Politics.” “Walls” and “Studying Politics” opened and closed their set, respectively, and did a beautiful job of setting the tone for their set and bringing the energy back around, leaving everyone anxious for more. After being together and touring full time for nearly ten years, the bands ability to live on the road and deliver quality shows day after day is astonishing and impressive.

Canadian post-hardcore powerhouse, Silverstein, closed out the night in a similar fashion. Like Emery, Silverstein has played together for over a decade, resulting in a huge catalog to choose from. They easily had the loudest set of the night, despite a fairly quiet crowd. With that volume came a probably similar to Sky Eats Airplane’s issues earlier in the day, vocalist, Shane Told sounded excellent during his clean vocals, but would fade out horribly during his screams. Regardless, Silverstein’s set was a welcome trip down memory lane and wrapped with When Broken is Easily Fixed staple, “Bleeds No More.”

Check out this Behind The Scenes teaser with Nate and the guys in Emery.