Pop Evil: What Remains Tour

Phantom Light Media
Apr 25
3 min read

The crowd started off fairly stoic for the Pop Evil show at the Knitting Factory on 4/22 in Boise, ID. I don’t believe there was a lack of enthusiasm for the entertainment for the night but just that it was a Tuesday night. They eventually warmed up and started jumping and moving for the bands and forgot how early in the week it was and realized they were at a show.

The opening Canadian metal band Oni came on stage and nailed their 30 minute set. Their high intensity sound helped wake the crowd up a little bit with their energetic guitarists, strong vocals and hard hitting drums leaving me hoping that I get to see more of these guys in the future. The same can be said for all of the bands. As is usual for me this was my first time seeing these artist’s live.

Return to Dust came on next and crushed their 30 minute set as well. They brought heavier grungier sound that brought a different energy for the crowd to feed on and continue to warm up for the next two sets. I did feel they cruised through their set list and that there could have been a bit more hype and interaction with the fans. The first two bands sounded great and I enjoyed their sets, but up to this point I had not noticed any mosh pits or too much going on with the fans. At one point they did raise their flashlights for Oni.

Devour the Day was where I saw the crowd finally wake up and get involved. The lead singer did a splendid job of hyping the crowd and getting them ready for the headlining act. Their sound was solid and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Even though the lead singer kept asking for the crowd to open up the pit, they did not respond in kind, at least not that I noticed.

Well there was a little tiny one and I did get a few snaps of it. When these guys finished their 40 minute set the crowd was primed for Pop Evil.

Pop Evil came on stage for their hour and 15 minute set with strong lights and a hard hitting sound. At this point the energy in the room had finally reached what I had expected all night. Joey Chicago walked out on bass, Blake Allison hopped on the drums at the moment I didn’t connect the dots, but later realized I had just watched them preform in Devour the Day, Joey playing bass for both and Blake playing drums for Pop Evil and is also the lead vocals for Devour the Day. For how hard they played in both sets I am impressed. That's a tough thing to do night in and night out. Even getting a shout out from Leigh Kakaty, lead vocalist of Pop Evil for being some of the hardest working artists in the industry.

Pop Evil hit us with some of the greats like “Trenches” at the beginning, “Waking Lions” and “What Remains” were performed towards the end. This and many other great songs got the crowd roaring which is something I love to hear. Having Leigh hype them up even more, louder is better. The bands feed off the crowd energy as much as the crowd feeds off the bands. Over all this was another great show and great night at the Knitting Factory. I will certainly be watching for these bands to return and I will be there when they do. 3 Redbulls deep and ready for the show.