Entering the photo pit while Atreyu began their set with “Strange Powers of Prophecy” was an entirely different vibe than I ever thought I would get from this group. You could feel the electricity in the air! I had never seen Atreyu before, but from their opener to the last song I found myself singing along with their songs and enjoying their stage presence. The crowd interaction was great, and the fact that they called out a guy in the crowd for pushing people around (not in a mosh pit) was cool, too. It’s always nice to see artists prove they care about those of us in the crowd. One of my favorite parts of their show was when they started to play a bit from “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by the iconic Whitney Houston. The crowd started getting really into it, singing and dancing.

Overall I enjoyed their set and I would definitely see them again live. Their sound quality was good,  they woke the crowd up and got them pumped for the rest of the show. They were a great choice for an opening act!

Horror movies, heavy metal, and a show? What else could you ask for? From the second they stepped on stage, Ice Nine Kills did an incredible job captivating the room with their on-stage theatrics ranging from stealing Georgie’s boat and impersonating Patrick Bateman to reenacting the shower scene from Psycho. They killed the performance! To top it off, before they even came out, they played the theme music from the classic slasher film Halloween over the speakers, which created the perfect atmosphere for their brilliant performance. Everything from the immersive backdrops to the props and the stage actors made this a show to never forget! Along with the appealing sights, Ricky Armellino absolutely nailed his “The Flight of the Bumble Bee” solo during the song “Farewell II Flesh” and vocals were nearly perfect.

One thing about Ice Nine Kills is they always somehow find a way to go beyond their last performance, which I’m not entirely sure how they do it! I highly recommend that you catch these guys in concert if you haven’t already!

While Ice Nine Kills brought the heat, Motionless in White brought the dance moves, and emotion (along with major heat!). When frontman Chris Motionless stepped on staged he automatically demanded the attention of the audience and got them amped up and ready to rock. While the energy stayed high throughout the set, when they played “Masterpiece” and “Another Life” the atmosphere switched from amped up and ready to mosh, to a quick cathartic session of belting out emotional lyrics. One thing Motionless did well was balancing the set list and keeping the flow of the show, starting off strong, keeping that energy up and letting us down slowly as they ended their set. Something new that they added to their show was having 2 members of The Cherry Bombs with sparks flying, tossing candy and walking on stilts! It reminded me of how I’d be at a circus when I was younger and I’d be in awe of all of the excitement on the stage, never wanting it to end! I truly could watch this performance repeatedly.

Ah, yes. The closer for this night! I’ve been a fan of Black Veil Brides for a while, and I love their older music. More recently I have strayed away from listening to them, not due to anything they’ve done necessarily, so I was excited to hear some of their new music live. As the set went on, the music sounded great, Jake, Jinxx and Lonny used the stage and put on a good show! I was a little underwhelmed by Andy‘s stage presence but that’s my personal taste. He was great vocally, his screams were on point and he did use the stage, but I was hoping for a bit more energy from him. The highlight of this set was when Jinxx came out on the violin, which was so fun to see and it’s not something that is incorporated often (in my experience anyway). Overall I was happy with Black Veil Brides set but I think they should step up the game a bit more if they’re going to follow the energy of Ice Nine Kills and Motionless in white. Although ending the night with a mellow set might not be such a bad thing either, come to think of it!