Seether, Tremonti, Red Sun Rising Nuke Niagara Falls’ Rapids Theatre on Cinco De Mayo

For what was my first time in Niagara Falls’ Rapids Theatre, was definitely a memorable one.  On a day where I could have been head first into a bottle of tequila, I chose to endure myself into an awesome night of music at the Rapids Theatre, on top of that, I was exposed to an up and coming band Red Sun Rising, as well as I crossed a band off my bucket list with Tremonti, I also got to enjoy a great headlining set from Seether.

I will start off by saying the Rapids Theatre is a great destination to see a concert in Western New York, and I believe it is safe to say it definitely rivals the nearby Town Ballroom in Buffalo.  It’s a retro style theatre very similar to the Landmark Theater in Syracuse but The Rapids Theatre has a decent sized stage and large pit area floor, but to top it off it has a bar by the floor and up in the balcony, and has projection screens on both sides of the stage facing the crowd, but most importantly I have no complaints about the sound. My ONLY complaint would be they need a larger parking lot, but in that neighborhood that will never happen.

Akron, Ohio rockers Red Sun Rising opened the show.  They’re a very explosive five piece band.  I believe this is the next coming of Shinedown in the making.  Their sound is similar to Shinedown, or any of the bands you would hear on Octane on Sirius XM.  But their performance was top-notch, with a fresh sound, and very brilliant use of using dual/back up vocals at times.  They played songs off their upcoming debut album which is expected to be released in August such as “Blood On My Hands” and “Emotionless”.  I do believe the momentum this band has is going to pick up fast and will likely be part of more major tours and festivals in the near future.

red sun

I couldn’t begin to tell you how excited I was to finally see Mark Tremonti perform with his band Tremonti for the first time. And they did not let me down whatsoever. Mark Tremonti belongs front and center anchoring a band. Although, in his other bands he is the lead guitarist and lends his vocals out from time to time, he is born to be both lead guitarist and frontman.

He split his eight song set from three new songs from his album Cauterize (which is due out in June) and the rest off his critically acclaimed album from 2012 All I Was, including “Waste Your Time”, “The Things I’ve Seen”, but the highlight was the closing song “Wish You Well”.  His band fits the music well and overall they knew how to get the crowd going.  Hopefully a headlining run isn’t too far distant in the future because more and more people need to see this band.  And to top it all off, after their set, the whole band came to greet the fans by the merch table and signed items to those who purchased from them.  Now that is giving back to the fans…wish more bands would take note of that.

safe_image

Everyone came for Seether; they were the reason it was a jam-packed house. Seether is at the point in their career where they could play a song and just about anyone would know it. As they are now well into their second decade of their career, there is no doubt they will be cranking out hits and packing more venues as time goes on.

I’ve seen them a number of times in their early career and now seeing them again almost a decade later, they still very much ‘got it’. Opening with “Gasoline” their set consisted of the songs heard on the radio from their entire catalog. The band even showed off their sense of humor and broke out into “La Bamba” for shits and giggles right before they went into “Fine Again”. Even drummer John Humphery had a killer drum solo mid way thru their set. Main-man Shaun Morgan makes every song he performs look easy on stage, and bassist Dale Stewart and touring guitarist Bryan Wickmann are great compliments to him as well.

I would say the main highlight of the set was “Country Song” because the crowd went bananas but I really liked their added creativity on the way they ended their set with a longer version of “Remedy” which included a prelude instrumental of Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist”.  Overall, it was a fun memorable night of solid rock music and Seether proved why they still remain alternative rock heavyweights.

Seether1

Comments are closed.