Show Review: Circa Survive – “Violent Waves Tour”

One of the most unique things about Circa Survive is who they choose for tour mates. Circa, being a creative progressive rock band, brought along the Californian hardcore group Touché Amore, and their friends from the punk rock band Balance and Composure.

Balance and Composure came out with a bang, they didn’t need any time to build up energy, and the crowd certainly didn’t either. Overall their set was remarkably tight and pretty charming for grunge-infected punk rock group.

Touché Amore piggybacked on their opener’s energy, and ultimately, reminded us what true hardcore looks and sounds like. The set was constant driving, but still appropriately dynamic. It was intense, but not exaggerated or painted up like so many “hardcore” bands nowa’ days. The crowd responded enthusiastically to every song, and multiple times, lead man Jeremy Bolm (through his thrashed throat) expressed his gratitude towards them.

Somehow, the anxious spirit that had been in the air became more obvious. Only Circa Survive could draw a crowd that would be restless after two sets of that caliber.  But alas, their antsy-ness was fulfilled ten-fold. Lead man Anthony Green was practically worshipped when he stepped on stage. The band waited a moment, and then conducted all the voices in the room as they pounded out their hit “Get Out”, which, on this tour, had more commonly been their closer. Circa played a number of songs from each of their albums, and not one of them went without the whole theater singing along with Anthony (in the lower octave, of course).

But apart from the crowd’s reaction, Circa Survive put on show on unmerited skill and precision. They sustained a masterful level of execution through odd time signatures, intricate rhythms, syncopated riffs, insanely high vocal parts, and so on.

I applaud all the bands on the tour for showing us something incredible and unique.

Check out Circa Survive on Facebook and Twitter.