WE CAME AS ROMANS AT BROOKLYN BOWL IN NASHVILLE
On Sunday November, 19, 2023, the “Darkbloom II” tour rolled into Nashville for their final stop of the tour at Brooklyn Bowl. Playing in front of an eager crowd packing both the floor level and the balcony, this tour brought the house down in epic fashion complete with crowd surfing, moshing and plenty of singing along.
The night opened with Archetypes Collide taking the stage with their song “Parasite”. Playing through their set of 7 songs, you could tell that many in the crowd knew exactly who they were watching as you could hear people singing along to all of the songs. They even took the time to play their own blistering rendition of “One Step Closer” from Linkin Park in the middle of their set, and there wasn’t a person in attendance who wasn’t belting the words right along with them. They closed their night with “Your Misery” before making way for Bodysnatcher to join the party.
Bodysnatcher came out on stage to take no prisoners with their special blend of metal. Opening their night with “Glass Prison”, they were ready to throw down from the second they stepped on stage. Throughout their 8 song set, the lead singer Kyle was counting the number of crowd surfers who were passed through the crowd to the front of the stage. He encouraged the crowd between songs to keep sending them during the song breaks and gave them a live count as he went. His goal for the set was 90, and although that number wasn’t reached, it was certainly in the 40s by the time they left the stage after playing “King of the Rats”.
Emmure held the direct support spot on this tour and opened with “You Asked For It” for their set. Blending a melodic backing track with their brand of super heavy metalcore, their sound was as unique as it is mesmerizing. When they asked the crowd who had seen them before, the sound of the cheers back was deafening. Nashville is Music City, and although this may not be the genre you would expect, this city loves its metal music. Emmure had plenty of crowd surfing during their set too, and of course a healthy circle pit. They played through 14 songs, and I even heard a snippet of the classic “You’re So Vain” that was slipped into one of their songs, which was a pleasant surprise. They finished their set with “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong”.
We Came As Romans took the stage to one of my personal favorites off of the album, the namesake song, “Darkbloom”. The crowd was READY for these guys when they took the stage. Lead singer Dave Stephens called out that this was the last show of the tour and they wanted to go out in epic fashion, and they did. They didn’t slow down for a second during their set, showcasing ample amounts of energy. The light show also wasn’t something to shake a stick at- with the large circle LED board backing up the band that was covered in spot lights that swirled and changed through the set. They played through many songs off of the album with the crowd singing the words right back to them and surfing like they had been much of the night. Being the last show of a tour is always a wildcard, because anything can happen, and pranks are pretty common. During one of the songs, the band’s crew came out and “picketed” the stage with homemade signs reading “Justice for the Crew”. Of course it was all in good fun, as the touring party was very tight knit through the duration of the run. They played through an 11 song set ending it with “Daggers”, before coming out for a two song encore that included “To Plant a Seed” and “Black Hole”.
Having closed out the US leg of this tour, the band is taking some well deserved time before heading across the band in early 2024 to continue touring.