'TID THE SEASON IN BUFFALO, NY
Photos By Nicole DiBenedetto & Words by Meaghan D’Amico
On Saturday, December 11th, Every Time I Die held the second day of their annual holiday festival entitled ‘Tid the Season, or more commonly referred to by its fanbase as Shitmas (‘Tid the Season took place virtually last year as most things due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). The second day of the festival really was jam packed. Events started at 2pm with wrestling.
Wrestling
The event was going to be headlined by the Butcher and the Blade duo, guitarist Andy Williams being the Butcher and his partner the Blade, Jesse Guilmette. Williams wasn’t going to wrestle given his injury.
The first match was Puf/ Vince Valor vs. Dark Horse/ Dexter Doom/ Carlos Romo. A lot of the audience was probably not very familiar with most of these wrestlers, but they made it very fun and very easy for the crowd to be involved. The entrance music was a huge range of things for each wrestler and the matches lasted about 30 minutes each so they could finish in the time frame.
The second match was a 3 way fight between Lucky 13 vs. Matt Cross vs. Myung Jae Lee. The third was a singles match between Jody Threat and Vinnie Moon. The match started with Vinnie saying he wasn’t going to fight a girl and Jody saying she would. This pushed it into the match and it was a fun match with Jody winning.
Then it was time for the final match, the entire venue screamed and yelled various chants of, “Let’s go Buffalo!”, “Let’s go Blade!”, and just overall screams of enthusiasm. Despite Andy Williams and the bunny not being actually involved in the fight they were there to help hype the crowd up and cheer on their friend. Of course in the end, Blade was victorious and the entire arena burst into cheer.
END
When the music started at 4:30 the party really began with hardcore super group, END. The band is made up of vocalist Brendan Murphy (Counterparts), guitarist/producer Will Putney (Fit For an Autopsy), guitarist Greg Thomas (ex-Shai Hulud), bassist Jay Pepito (Reign Supreme), and drummer Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan). They ripped through music from their entire discography, such as “Chewing Glass” and “Usurper”, ending with the most known track, “Necessary Death”.
The Dirty Nil
The next band up was The Dirty Nil, I didn’t know a lot about them but they totally won me over with their incredible stage presence and fun music. Every Time I Die always picks such great bands for the festival and this year was no exception.
Spiritbox
After The Dirty Nil was one of the bands I was looking forward to the most, Canadian outfit Spiritbox. For those that aren’t familiar, vocalist Courtney LaPlante was formerly in I Wrestled A Bear Once. Spiritbox is one of the most hyped bands in hardcore right now and their live show proved it. The band pushed through their short set with all of the singles and songs from their newest album Eternal Blue. They opened with “Sun Killer '' which is the opening track from the record. From the moment they got on stage, they commanded the audience with their presence. They ran through the big loose singles from the last year or so, “Rule of Nines”, “Blessed Be”, “Constance”, “Circle with Me”, and ended with their biggest song, “Holy Roller”. The crowd was whipped up into a frenzy, and they absolutely slayed. If you’re not familiar, get familiar - they’re going to blow up even more.
The Bronx
The Bronx were up next and showed why they’ve been a powerhouse band for so long, absolutely rocketing through their set of fan favorites and songs from their latest album that was out in August of this year. They opened with “White Shadow” from the new self-titled album. It got the crowd moving immediately and the crowd didn’t stop until they got off stage. They closed with “History’s Stanglers” and “Around the Horn”. You could tell the crowd was preparing for what was to come with the last three sets.
Knocked Loose
The next band was one of the most anticipated, especially after recently dropping a heavy EP, A Tear in The Fabric of Life: Knocked Loose from Oldham County, Kentucky. If you’ve been around the hardcore scene, you know how hype they are and with good reason. They opened their set with the opening song from the new EP titled “Where the Light Divides the Holler”, and the crowd immediately opened up to pit and push as much energy back at the band as they were putting out. Vocalist Bryan Garris had complete control of the crowd and when he asked for everyone to jump, the entire crowd complied. The new music, to no surprise, sounded insane live and just as great as on the recording, but much larger. There were three features in the set that just added to chaos and mastery on stage. Brendan Murphy of END came out to do a verse or two with Knocked Loose, for the female voice in “A Serpent’s Touch”, Courtney LaPlante from Spiritbox came out, and of course, Keith Buckley came out for his feature in “Forget Your Name”. “A Serpent’s Touch” and “Forget Your Name” come from their previous album, A Different Shade of Blue. Bryan told a story about hearing Every Time I Die for the first time in 7th grade, and how ETID is his favorite band. Knocked Loose played such a powerful set they almost could’ve been headlining.
Ice T
The next set was one of the most fun, but with a totally different vibe: Ice T. He came out and did a “gangster rap set”. He had a lot of fun, and so did we. He was saying some songs he played came out before some of the crowd was born and talked about group he was part of, NWA. At one point for the song “OG” he called a girl up on stage that he had been goofing with all set and had her be his hype man. She clearly had the time of her life up there and everyone fed off their energy. They always have a set that seems very left field, but ends up being a blast.
Every Time I Die
After Ice T played an insane set, it was finally time for Every Time I Die to get ready, with the curtain going up and the Christmas music playing. They even blasted “fake snow” (some sort of soap bubbles) into the front row from the ceiling. Once it was time for the band to come on, the crowd screamed and yelled and were ready to party. If you haven’t seen Every Time I Die in Buffalo, it’s something to behold. There is a palpable energy that you can’t help but be stoked to be there.
For the second night of the two day festival, Every Time I Die, composed of guitarist Jordan Buckley, guitarist Andy Williams, drummer Clayton “Goose” Holyoak, bassist Steve Micche and vocalist Keith Buckley, opened with one of my favorite songs “Roman Holiday” from New Junk Aesthetic. Two songs got played for the first time ever from the newest record, “Desperate Pleasure” and “People Verses”. The combination of “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasure” back to back was so much fun and the crowd absorbed every second of it. With the premiering of new songs and deep cuts, there were also plenty of fan favorites such as “Romeo-A-Go-Go”, “Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space”, and “Map Change”. They literally had songs for everyone with songs from their album Hot Damn all the way to the newest release, Radical. They even pulled out “Sweet Life” which features Matt Caughtran from The Bronx, which they haven't played since 2010.
The reaction of the crowd to the lyric, “Give my love to Buffalo” in “Sly” was unreal. These new songs were made for small, sweaty clubs like Every Time I Die is known to play, but they also fill a big room like Riverworks. Every piece of ETID was operating at 100% and this is truly the best they’ve sounded. They closed their set and the night with three banger songs: “Map Change” which resonates with a lot of us for various emotional reasons, the debut of “People Verses” which sounded incredible and is one of my favorites on the new album, and “Indian Giver” as the closer from their album Ex-Lives.