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| Bullet for My Valentine @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
San Francisco’s Masonic Auditorium was witness to a four-band sonic assault on Thursday night. Co-headlined by Bullet for My Valentine and Trivium and supported by August Burns Red and Sylosis, the third date of “The Poisoned Ascendancy Tour” spotlighted the twentieth anniversary of BFMV’s “The Poison” and Trivium’s “Ascendancy” albums and featured the four bands that have all been performing for over 20 years.
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| Bullet for My Valentine @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Bullet for My Valentine served as the night’s closing act and the Celtic metal veterans performed “The Poison” in its entirety - and in order - for their main set. An extended intro of the Welsh band’s history with interview footage got the anticipation raised and the crowd chanting “Bullet” before the band took the stage waving to the crowd accompanied by their intro music and launched into a screaming version of “Her Voice Resides.”
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| Bullet for My Valentine @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matthew Tuck led the band with an ever-present smile and connection with the crowd while bassist Jamie Mathias provided the accompanying howling vocals on many of the songs. Michael Paget provided blistering lead guitar throughout the night as drummer Jason Bowld thundered on drums from above.
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| Bullet for My Valentine @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Paget’s screaming lead guitar on “4 Words (to Choke On)” got the crowd energized with arms-raised, heads banding and the mosh pit circling as Tuck and Mathias exchanged vocals back and forth with the crowd chipping in with the chorus. Tuck also took a brief solo on the song before Bowld pounded it home.
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| The crowd @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The tender intro of “Tears Don’t Fall” gave way to the song’s power as the crowd energy reached perhaps its collective high point of the night as the song alternated from its reins held back trot to a breakaway gallop repeatedly. “Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do) saw Tuck and Paget playing harmony leads and the extended lyric trading of Tuck and Mathias – showcasing the band’s spread spotlight among its members.
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| Bullet for My Valentine @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Once they had finished the main set, Bullet returned to the stage for a two-song encore -- starting with a blistering “Knives” from their self-titled 2004 album before finishing the night with “Waking the Demon” from 2008’s “Scream Aim Fire” to send the crowd home abuzz from a metal night that stretched more than four hours long.
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| Trivium @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Like their co-headliners, Trivium’s set also presented their featured album in order of the record. Judging by the representation of t-shirts in the crowd, Florida’s Trivium had a nearly equal proportion of the crowd focused on their co-headliner set as Bullet. After pumping up the crowd with Metallica’s “Hit the Lights”, they took to the stage accompanied by “Ascendancy’s” intro “The End of Everything.” “San Francisco are you fu@#ing ready?” lead singer Matt Heafy asked the crowd. “Show me what you fu@#ing got!” he demanded. Heafy’s never-wavering enthusiasm and tongue-out smile were on display throughout the entire show as he moved back and forth across the stage.
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| Trivium @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Though they launched with a Masonic-shaking version of “Rain” and the song features lyrics like “Die choking on your every word,” Heafy’s was not alone in his enthusiasm as the band’s power and aggression were accompanied by smiles and a happy spirit during the entire set. “Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr” and “Drowned and Torn Asunder” followed the opening song and the band’s energy never wavered throughout the 70-minute set. Trivium’s one song encore saw them present the title track of 2011’s “In Waves.”
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| Trivium @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
August Burns Red filled the second slot of the evening with vocalist Jake Luhrs presenting a commanding presence at the center. The trucker-hat wearing Luhrs was continually on the move as the Grammy-nominated band roared through a nine-song set. Somewhat unconventionally, they took the stage to System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!” and morphed form the taped version providing their intro music to diving deep into a full cover of the song themselves. The Pennsylvania-originated metalcore band has put out ten studio albums and Luhrs’ confidence and energy served to get the crowd lathered into a frenzy with bodies constantly coming over the rails. Drummer Matt Greiner wore a wide smile throughout and flip-flop wearing guitarist JB Brubaker was constantly up on his riser showing off his soaring guitar. The “Guardians” album served as the show’s center with four of their nine songs.
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| August Burns Red @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
England’s Sylosis has talked about the influence of the Bay Area thrash scene on their music, and it was on full display during their short 20-minute opening set. The band blazed through four songs with the ever-present machine gun drumming of Ali Richardson (who recently returned to the band’s tour). Their sound and the ever-present circle pit harkened back to the era of all-day thrash shows at Ruthie’s Inn decades ago.
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| Sylosis @ the Masonic Auditorium (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The night provided a refreshing energy of a young metal crowd. Despite all four bands having been together for decades, most of the audience looked to be 30 and younger. It was a very apparent difference from many of the larger recent metal shows in the Bay Area and the sold-out Masonic represented the next generation of metal fans well.
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