Crown The Empire set out on the Retrograde tour to promote their latest album by the same name. The band was accompanied by Light Up The Sky, Too Close To Touch, New Years Day, and Blessthefall. The tour stopped into Fort Lauderdale at Revolution Live on November 29th. Due to some serious traffic, I wasn’t to catch Light Up The Sky, and walked in just as they were ending. The vibe in the venue seemed good though, and I heard lots of people in the crowd talking about how well they performed – so I’ll be sure to check them out the next time they come through.
Too Close To Touch we’e definitely a fun band to watch. The singer was fully immersive with the growing crowd and when a fan yelled “come join us in the pit!” he did just that for the last song. The band invited everyone to come meet them after their set, and the fans filed over. New Years Day is always a good time to see live. Nikki Misery is an absolute madman on the stage, sometimes making it hard to concentrate on anything else. From jumping all over the place, slamming his bass into the stage, and spinning in circles – he’s definitely a whirlwind of energy. Ash Costello’s half-heads were out in high demand and the goth-rock group was well received. Singer of Too Close To Touch, Keaton Pierce, joined New Years Day on stage for their duet entitled “Angel Eyes” that was originally recorded with Motionless In White’s Chris Motionless. New Years Day joined suit and met with a long line of fans immediately following their set.
Blessthefall played fourth, and they seem to just get better with time. Beau Bokan, vocalist, rivals Nikki in the “jumping around like a madman” category. From spraying the crowd with water, to jumping from one stage from the other, he’s a fun frontman to watch live. Beau also takes the time to get down into the crowd and connect with his fans. He even happened to take a fans hat and wear it around for a song, making that fan pretty happy from where we saw her. There was a lot of chatter among the crowd that Blessthefall should have been the headliner since they have been around longer, and some people even left before the headliners took the stage. Those people, however, missed out on a killer set from Crown The Empire. With Crown representing Retrograde, the setlist kicked off with the first four tracks off the album. The following songs nodded to their older following of fans with “Memories of a Broken Heart” and “Voices” off their 2012 release The Fallout. Eight of the fourteen song setlist were off Retrograde, giving the fans a thorough adventure through the album. While the songs off Retrograde may not be as larger-than-life as their previous releases, the songs are catchy and polished, which leads us to believe Crown is only going to continue skyrocketing into success.
Setlist: 1. SK-68 2. Are You Coming With Me? 3. Zero 4. Aftermath 5. Memories of a Broken Heart 6. Voices 7. The Fear is Real 8. Initiation 9. Weight of the World 10. Oxygen 11. Millennia 12. Hologram 13. The Fallout
Encore: Machines
