I feel like a concert slacker as this was only my 2nd show of 2026 so far, but oh well. At least I went. This fine March 11th led me to the TD Garden in Boston for Bad Omens, Beartooth, and President.
President opened the show and I was curious to check them out. They’ve come up here and there in my listenings, so I wasn’t unfamiliar with them, but I hadn’t listened to them for more than a song at a time. I guess they opened with Fearless and it was decent. The second sounded a bit like the first. The 3rd as well. It basically felt like the same song over and over. I have to say that there was an annoying amount of pre-recorded sounds like synths and beats.
There were also a lot of voice effects in use too. If he had a good scream or note to hold, he’d start and let the reverb and other effects do the rest. Overall, didn’t love it, but we used the last couple songs of the set to go visit the merch booth. So that part was cool.
Beartooth was next and I’m liking their music more and more, so I was stoked to see them again. This was the 3rd time I’ve seen them in 10 months, even though I’ve yet to buy a ticket to see them. They just get added to great tours I guess.
They opened with Might Love Myself that had a softer, slower, mostly vocal intro. It was a good change up considering the crowd was fairly goth/emo. Show your softer side dude! Win the crowd. In Between followed and had lots “Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh” sing alongs with the crowd. Always a fun time. Doubt Me was a nice heavy one, followed by ATTN. which is a great tune. If I haven’t said it before, check out the opening few seconds to the theme song from the TV show Reading Rainbow, and then listen to the intro for ATTN. Is it the same? Or close to it? Yes! If you ask me.
Several more songs were played (setlist here) and it was a solid performance. They did a small break before Riptide, so being an opener didn’t stop them from doing an encore.
What I will say is that this wasn’t a metal crowd necessarily. Last time I saw Beartooth it was on the Summer of Loud Tour, and it was a full on metal crowd. They definitely played off that energy and put on a hell of a high energy, pyro filled metal show them. This time was much more reserved but still cool.
Bad Omens came out before 9pm, and had a video intro showing an old cassette player labeled “Tape 1” with a bunch of spoken word over it that my deaf ass couldn’t understand. But that didn’t matter as the point of the tape was to break their show into sets or acts. To start “Tape 1” they came out with Specter. Solid tune.
The stage setup itself was awesome. With the use of lighting, screens, and effects, they somehow made the stage seem so much bigger than it was. Felt a bit like an optical illusion. But a very cool set up with a ton of pyros throughout the show. “Tape 1” was 4 songs long with the 4th being The Death of Peace of Mind. Definitely a shocker seeing this one so early in the set. A really fantastic song.
Here’s where the hardcore fans laugh at me. When I first heard this song, I assumed it was a guest vocalist. I figured singer Noah Sebastian did the dude vocals with a guest female vocalist. NOPE! It’s all him. He has a crazy, weird, yet impressive vocal range. Seeing and hearing him do it live was awesome. On the studio version, the last part of the song uses deep screaming vocals. But live, he did deep, mostly clean vocals and I thought it sounded great (minus the girls screaming behind me who can somehow overpower the insane smoky of gear these bands and venues use).
“Tape 2” started with Dying to Love which is another great tune. It’s one of my faves so I was shocked when my buddy Frank said he’d never heard it. Score one for me! Concrete Jungle followed and that’s another good one. “Tape 2”was ultimate cut short due to some kind of issue in the crowd. Couldn’t see from where I was. Not sure if it was a fight, medical emergency, dropped crowd surfer, drunk dumbass or what. But they left the stage and it lasted a good 10 minutes, maybe more.
For “Tape 3” he again showed his range on V.A.N. which actually does feature a female vocalist (Poppy) by just singing it all (at least I’m pretty sure he did! Maybe there was some prerecorded stuff, but I choose to believe it was all him and you should too). For Anything > Human I really picked up some old school Stabbing Westward vibes. It had that industrial sound but with a similar vocal style for me. What Do You Want From Me followed and I really thought this song was influenced by Nine Inch Nails. If I’m wrong, oh well, but that’s what I heard.
“Tape 4” had 3 songs with Like A Villian (another song that could def be a female singer but is not) and Just Pretend wrapping it up. Both are fantastic songs. “Tape 5” was Impose and then Dethrone, a crazy heavy tune, ended the night.
It was a great show and I love the unique sound these dudes bring. While they do use a lot of prerecorded sounds to capture their style, it work and it complements the band. It just kind of sucks now that the current approach is to let the computers do the work over a keyboardist or some crazy synth dude. Also, with all the prerecorded sounds, the light show, lasers, and pyros, it must be very difficult to change up the set list. So for them, it’s the same show night after night. Only the crowd changes. So be part of the crowd! If you want to check them out, better act fast. It looks like they end their US tour at the end of March then it’s off to Europe.
That’s all I got! \m/
Leave a Reply