Concert Review:  We Came as Romans

Fire and Ice Tour – The Madison Theater
Covington, KY – 3/9/2012

Concert time again!!! In light of my recent dive into the hardcore/metalcore genre, a few friends of mine took a liking to a band called Woe, is Me.  We had been looking for an opportunity to catch them live, and were able to do that this past weekend as part of the Fire and Ice tour headlined by We Came as Romans.

I have to admit when I first saw this tour, I was a bit surprised that WCAR had the fan support to merit a  headlining tour.  I actually enjoyed both of their albums, but just didn’t necessarily feel like they stood out among other players that are active in the genre right now, and so the headlining slot surprised me a bit.  So, I intended on going to this show to see Woe, is Me, and be a casual observer of WCAR to see what all the fuss was about.  Once again, the free market proved me wrong – the WCAR show was really excellent, and once again showed me why going to see unknown bands is a great idea.  You never know when a band like this will come out of nowhere and blow you away.

The History:

We Came as Romans is a post-hardcore group out of Troy, Michigan that was formed in 2005 when they were seniors in high school.  After several lineup changes, they released their debut album in 2009, entitled To Plant a Seed, to relatively solid reviews.  Featuring thematic, synth-filled choruses along with their heavy vocal screams, We Came as Romans (WCAR) was able to create a unique sound and quickly carved out a healthy fan base, especially among the younger crowd.  WCAR’s relentless touring to support this album (alongside acts such as Asking Alexandria, Parkway Drive, Of Mice and Men, and more) caused their fan base to continue to grow.

2011 saw their sophomore release Understanding What We’ve Grown to Be, which arguably outpaced the first effort.  Slightly more complex in nature, the new album is more interesting and better executed than the first, both lyrically and musically.  Although both albums are a bit over-produced for me (a la autotune….), I won’t hold my personal preference against them, as I think they executed the sound they were looking for precisely.  In support of the latest release, WCAR hit the road again, stringing together several 2-3 month tours.  Their latest run, dubbed the Fire and Ice tour, is a March-April string of shows that was kind enough to stop at the Madison Theater, just outside Cincinnati.  WCAR – let’s do this.

The Show:

Right from the beginning, the standout element of this show was the vocals.  The constant battle between clean and unclean vocals that has made WCAR so successful creates interesting elements in their live show just as it does on their albums.  David Stephens, who does unclean vocals, was hands-down the highlight of the night for me.  His screams crawl around the low register and are throaty, with tons of depth and character.  Occasionally he brings his screams more into the full-voice range, but regardless where the scream was on the spectrum, he was spot on and shook the house.  Throughout the entire show, I found myself extremely impressed with his crystal clear tone quality and talent as the front of the band.  Truthfully, he sounded better at the tiny Madison Theater than he does on the albums, which is a rarity.  In addition, he was extremely entertaining to watch, running all over the place and giving his vocals even more personality by his body movements.  Bottom line – this dude was wildly impressive and made the performance for me.

Balancing out Stephens’ screams was the other lead vocalist, Kyle Pavone, who sings clean vocals for the band.  On the albums, Pavone’s high register has a very pure sound that is a great complement to Stephens’ low and powerful screams.  Unfortunately, the WCAR albums do a lot to Pavone’s vocals digitally, and without this luxury on stage, he struggled to keep up with Stephens in a live setting.  I didn’t notice any pitch problems (other than occasionally sliding into a really high note), but his overall power and tonality were significantly weaker than Stephens.  It certainly wasn’t enough to hold the group back from sounding great as a whole, and I look forward to watching Pavone improve and grow.

As for the rest of the band on stage that night- I really have no complaints.  The drummer seemed to me to be quite impressive, and although I don’t know as much about sticking as I’d like to, he seemed to be doing some unique things to make his drumming more interesting.  The strings section also sounded very good, and my only suggestion to them would be to enjoy themselves a bit more – there were parts where the lead guitarist was very focused on the part he was playing.  I’m all for playing correctly, but remember, the more fun you have on stage the more fun we have in the audience.  Overall, though, a very solid musical performance.

The set design, a two-tier stage with the drummer in the back, was simple but effective in allowing the six-piece a lot of space to move around.  The entire band, and especially the two vocalists, were very fluid throughout the show, moving back and forth between tiers to allow for the appropriate focus to be on the right person at the right time.  This kept the show exciting, as the band almost directed your focus to the correct place depending on the part of the song.  Overall, the show had a very polished feel – everyone knew where they should be at all times, and to the audience it was really quite impressive.  Bottom line was that it was a very well put together, professional show that reflected how much time this young band has put in on the road. As far as song selection goes, I thought WCAR picked a really good balance of songs to play.  The unquestionable highlight of the show for me was the first single off of their new album, Mis//Understanding.  About halfway through that song, Stephens bellowed “Six years ago I married a bride”, which took the award for most intense moment of the night.  For me (and apparently many others), this was that part of the show that took everything I had not to just lose control – a really awesome experience.  Other highlights were the songs Intentions and the eponymous track of the latest album.They ended the show with a great song called To Plant a Seed, which ends with Pavone singing some slower parts.  During the show, both vocalists were standing on the fence, being held up by the crowd.  While Pavone belted his final few lines, Stephens thanked the crowd for their participation and support.  It was a very cool show element, as the majority of the show was really intense, yet at the end, they slowed it down to really connect with the crowd before signing off at the end.  Great end to a great show.WCAR without a doubt propelled me from casual observer to big fan with this show…and isn’t that the whole point of live music?  Well played, fellas.  After that, it was some late night food, and the hour long drive back to Indianapolis to crash.

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“My future started with the first note that I ever sang / The first note that was ever played.”