Underoath recently brought their tour in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their album They’re Only Chasing Safety to the Diamond Ballroom in Oklahoma City. Along for this ride were Notsew, and Static Dress. There was one hell of a crowd on hand for the festivities, even with it being a Wednesday night.
The evening began with Tampa Fl. based rapper Notsew. He took the stage dawning his old school Jeff Gordon DuPont race car coat. Talk about taking me back a few years. He threw down his set and got the crowd hyped up. Notsew thanked everyone repeatedly and gave shout outs to his sister and some friends who were in the crowd as well as telling everyone that this is a dream come true.
Next up was Static Dress. They are an English rock band straight out of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Prior to this show, they were a new to us band, so I was excited to see them. This band delivered everything but the kitchen sink. It’s hard to give them a specific label. Emo, metalcore, punk…they are all of this wrapped into one energetic, entertaining, in-your-face band. Vocalist, Olli Appleyard covered every square inch of that stage and made sure he kept the crowd 100% engaged during their entire performance.
This four-piece band consists of vocalist Olli Appleyard, drummer Sam Ogden, bassist George Holding, and just to add to the intrigue, the mysterious masked guitarist Contrast. Head to the band’s website at www.staticdress.com to see their tour dates, merch, etc. Make sure to check them out before they head back across the ocean.
It is now the time of the evening for every emo kid in the Diamond Ballroom to lose their minds. Underoath started their set off with drummer Aaron Gillespie sitting on the couch singing “Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape” with the stage only being lit with the lamps on the stage. As each band member came onto the stage during this song, the lamp beside their spot slowly lit up. Once every member was on stage and all the lamps were lit, the band immediately upped the energy with “Young and Aspiring”.
The band powerfully and energetically went through their set, playing all the songs from “They’re Only Chasing Safety”. After they finished the songs from this album, they played an encore of 5 more songs that were chosen by the fans. Underoath also played a live debut of an unreleased song called “Generation No Surrender” from their new album. The fans ate this up. Seeing the pure joy on the faces of the fans in the crowd made it evident what this band means to them. Between the crowd surfers and people dancing in the back of the venue, there is no doubt this band will be entertaining fans for many more decades to come.
