Empire Live was chaos wrapped in emotion on Tuesday, November 4th. Four bands, one jam-packed room, and not a second of filler From Ashes to New. The kind of night that rattles your bones and resets your faith in live music.
Orlando’s Not Enough Space opened the night with a set that burned like an arson fire. Dual vocalists Lizzie Raatma and Liv Mitchell didn’t come to charm the room — they came to dominate it. The back-and-forth between them felt dangerous, urgent, and deliberate. One moment melodic, the next pure fury.
It was a masterclass in intensity, and they didn’t waste a single second trying to win the crowd over, they just took it. When they finished, it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room, leaving behind a backdraft of adrenaline and disbelief.
Until I Wake followed and shifted the tone into something darker, heavier, and more introspective. They’re the rare band that makes pain sound like power. Every lyric felt ripped straight from the edge, every riff a pulse of defiance.
Their music digs into the realities of mental health, depression, and self-doubt, but there’s nothing self-pitying about it. On stage, those songs turn into lifelines. The crowd absorbing every word like it meant something personal.
There’s therapy in the noise. A peace inside the panic. It’s loud, defiant and shared. By the end of their set, the room was buzzing with that collective release only a band like this can trigger.
Magnolia Park kept the energy high with their trademark hybrid of pop-punk, hip-hop, and alt-rock. A sound that’s made them a rising name in every corner of the genre.
They played tight, sharp, and crowd-focused. But as good as they were, this night belonged to one band.
When From Ashes to New hit the stage, the energy in Empire Live flipped from electric to explosive. The place was beyond capacity. A sold-out crush of bodies, heat, and noise. The roar that greeted the band could’ve cracked concrete. You could feel the anticipation before they played a single note.
Formed out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, From Ashes to New built their identity on resilience. On clawing their way through chaos and building something powerful from what’s left behind. That ethos bleeds through everything they do, and it’s the reason their live show hits like a gut punch.
They’re not a band that hides behind production or image; they’re a band that’s lived the struggle they write about. You can hear it in Matt Brandyberry’s delivery. You see it in Danny Case’s unrelenting performance.
The dual vocal dynamic is their weapon: Matt’s rapid-fire verses cutting through Danny’s massive melodic hooks, a perfect blend of grit and catharsis. That balance was flawless inside Empire Live.
This band has always walked the tightrope between nu-metal aggression and arena-sized melody, and on this stage, they owned both sides. Every breakdown was razor sharp, every chorus sounded like an anthem meant for ten times the crowd that fits inside any room. They moved like they were plugged straight into the power grid, in constant motion and establishing constant connection.
What really separates them, though, is how much of it feels real. From Ashes to New doesn’t play for spectacle, they play like they remember what it’s like to have nothing. There’s gratitude behind the aggression, and it bleeds through every interaction with their fans.
Between songs, they took moments to talk about life, the grind, and how fond they are of Albany and its energy. It wasn’t a speech; it was a reminder. This band isn’t just surviving the modern rock landscape, they’re redefining it.
When songs “Nightmare,” “Heartache,” and “Panic” dropped, the room came apart in the best possible way. Every voice was in sync, every hand in the air. Empire Live has seen its share of chaos, but this was different. This felt like belonging. The line between performer and audience vanished. It was one pulse, one release, one giant exhale of everything that built up through the night.
By the final chorus, it was clear: this wasn’t just a headlining set. It was a victory lap for a band that’s fought their way into the conversation by refusing to quit.
Four bands, four different approaches, but it all led to that eruption. Not Enough Space kicked the door open, Until I Wake bared the scars, Magnolia Park stoked the fire, and From Ashes to New turned it into a full-blown inferno.
If you missed it, you missed a statement. Not a show, but a moment. If you were in that room, you felt it: the sweat, the sound, the sense that for a few hours, nothing existed outside those walls. That’s not just live music. That’s rebirth through volume.
Setlist: New Disease, Nightmare, My Fight, Monster In Me, Enough, Luts, Heartache, Scars That Im Hiding, Hope You’re Happy, Hate Me Too, My Name, Barely Breathing, Dead To Me, Nothing, Tia, Panic
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