ASKING ALEXANDRIA / MEMPHIS MAY FIRE LIVE AT TOAD’S PLACE
By Kat Gullage
This stop at Toad’s Place for Asking Alexandria and their “All My Friends” tour was one of three consecutive sold out dates. The friends they brought with them were Memphis May Fire, The Word Alive and Archers.
The area around Toad’s was bustling with people. It’s located across the street from Yale and surrounded by shops and restaurants. Had to sign a waiver before you could enter, basically stating “if you fall on our slippery ass floor or get hurt moshing, you can’t sue Toad’s or their affiliates”. Then you had to pass the walk thru metal detector and wand test before crossing the threshold into the club.
Holy shit the place was already packed! And some of these people were followers of even the first band, Archers, who I was unfamiliar with. They’re outta Madison WI and made up of Oscar Porter (Bass/Vocals), Nathanael Pulley (Vocals), Ben Koehler (Guitars) and Grayson Mesarosh (Drums). Archers chugged out a quick seven song set with tracks from their two EPs, All That I Have Left and New Normal.
They kicked it off with “Drag Me Out”, “Making Eyes”, “Say This Sober” and their new single “Made For Love”. I love that Porter and Pulley share the vocals, but Pulley’s voice was overpowered by the music. He came through clear when he thanked the crowd and gave the obligatory shout out to the other acts on the bill. “Before You Go”, “Bitter” and “Blackmarketmonkeymagic” closed out Archers performance. I like the diversity in their catalog, everything from no growling to all growling. Check em out for yourself!
People continued to file into the club as The Word Alive took the stage for a quick set. The metalcore band from Phoenix, AZ has had a lot of employee turnover in their journey, yet they crank out new music pretty much every two years. They have seven studio albums and pulled from five of em for the set. Tyler Smith (Vocals), Daniel Nelson (Drums), Jose DelRio (Guitars) and I believe Logan Abernethy (Guitars).
Title track “Hard Reset” opened their show, followed by Deceiver’s “The Hounds of Anubis”, Dark Matter’s “Trapped” and Hard Reset’s “Nocturnal Future”. The band was energetic and the fans were more responsive to the latter part of the set. Tyler thanked the crowd and all the acts. They wrapped with Monomania’s “Death Is Only The End If You Assume The Story Is About You”, title track “Life Cycles” and another Hard Reset track, “One of Us”. The Word Alive had sound issues and relied more on growling vocals (which the fans ate up). They were a decent add to the line-up, so give em a listen and see if they match your vibe.
By the time Memphis May Fire hit the stage, the crowd was fired up, the urge to mosh and surf and jump coming off them in waves. I’m sure the band members felt it too, as they took their respective spots. Matty Mullins (Vocals), Kellen McGregor (Guitar/Backing Vocals), Cory Elder (Bass) and Jake Garland (Drums), kicked off their set of eleven tracks, plucked from three of their seven studio albums, with “Necessary Evil”, a 2024 single. The crowd surfing commenced on the first note. Three from Remade In Misery were on deck with “Left For Dead”, “Bleed Me Dry” and “Somebody”. The sound quality was clear and everybody was having a great time.
Big difference from the last time I saw them, which was at the first Capulet Fest. That version of the infamous local festival did take place, but was plagued with sound and other issues that affected MMF’s performance. This gig did them proper justice. Matty addressed the hyped up crowd “It’s cuz of you we’re here! Buying merch, coming out to shows!” The club was packed and the crowd surfing didn’t stop even when the music did.
Challenger’s “Vices” and The Hollow’s “The Sinner” were belted out before Matty addressed the fans again “C’mon New Haven! Do like this!”. He waved his arms side to side and the crowded club mimicked him, “Jump!” his orders were once again obeyed. “Thank y’all so much, you’re a beautiful crowd! We’ve been puttin out new songs. Y’all like what you’ve been hearing? Mind if we do a new one now? I want a sing-a-long. That’s right, I wanna hear you singing along! You know what time it is New Haven!”.
This was the lead into one of their 2024 singles, “Chaotic”. “Y’all are amazing. Give up for the other bands. I’m feelin like playin another new one, y’all are so cool New Haven.” Another single, “Infection”, was on deck. “New Haven, will you be my choir on this next one?” “Make Believe” was the track and an array of cell phones popped up. “Connecticut, can we get a little louder this time around? Prove it!” Four cannons shot smoke straight up. “New Haven, are you still with us?” The bouncing crowd obviously was. “Our pain is just as important as our pleasure. Are you ready?!” “Misery” was the answer and I totally grooved to it.
There was a fair amount of Memphis May Fire fans in the room, I saw people that knew the song lyrics from the front barricade back to the sound board. The smoke cannons went off again for the closing song, “Blood & Water”. Matty announced “I wanna get a video of all your beautiful faces!” They threw on the house lights to shoot the vid, so the moshers and surfers finally took a break. “We love this city! Promise you we’ll be back! Thank you for an incredible night!”. Check out this established metalcore band that’s on the rise! Memphis May Fire hails from Denton, Texas, which is 240 miles from Memphis, TX and 488 miles from Memphis, TN.
Asking Alexandria is a hard/metalcore band from England. They’ve had a revolving door of band members in and out, but still released nine studio albums since their inception in the early aughts. Fan favorite Danny Worsnop (Lead Vocals/Guitar), left handed guitarist Cameron Liddell, Sam Bettley (Bass), James Cassells (Drums) and Paul Bartolome (Guitar/Backing Vocals), were greeted by a raucous crowd ready to bounce. And mosh. And jump, and crowd surf.
Asking Alexandria’s sixteen song set touched on six of their nine studio albums. They cracked it open with “Welcome / Dear Insanity” combo from Reckless & Relentless. They were loud as fuck. I’m talkin floor shaking loud. Right after “Down To Hell”, the house lights came on and Danny thanked and greeted the pumped up fans. Then he started rambling. “This is my third shirt today, I keep spillin stuff.”
We were all just staring and blinking. “I’m stalling cuz a bunch of stuff just stopped working. I don’t usually talk about fashion up here. I started feelin sick, I’ve been feelin sick and before we walked on stage (motions to his left) he said “I gotta good feelin about tonight.” This was met with laughs and cheers. “What are you cheering for? This is the show! The whole show! Goodnight!”. Fans were like “Oh shit”.
Very quickly Danny proclaimed “We’re back!” “Jump! Jump! Get the fuck up! You guys come to have a good time or what? Then let’s have a good fucking time!” A track from Asking Alexandria, “Into The Fire”, has the floor moving non-stop. The music was louder than Danny’s vocals but I could still understand him. The crowd was there for it, they sang it word for word. “Where Did It Go?” kept it rollin, but the vocals were completely washed out on the quieter part.
“Alright, alright, down the middle of the room. Clear a path. Y’all know how this works!” I couldn’t believe my eyes. A mini wall of death pit at Toad’s played out to “Dark Void” from Where Do We Go From Here?. Next Danny and the guitarists motioned for a circle pit to commence. “James wanted to play his favorite song. I said, James, if you send me a pic of you in a compromising position, we’ll do it. So, here’s James’ favorite tune!” It was “Things Could Be Different”. “You guys bring your singing voices?”
We got Danny and an acoustic version of “Someone, Somewhere”. I very much appreciated the break from the ear assault and Danny’s voice was really showcased. The crowd surfing continued. Asking Alexandria served it up to the hungry crowd. “I Don’t Need You” from Like A House On Fire, From Death To Destiny’s “Moving On”, “To The Stage” and two from Stand Up And Scream, “If You Can’t Ride Two Horses at Once…You Should Get Out of the Circus” and “A Prophecy”. What a night to be alive!!
The audience goes wild for “The Final Episode”. Danny shouts “Thank you very much!” and the room goes dark. The moshing and surfing kept on as everyone chanted for more. The band came out again pretty quickly. “We’re gonna do one more for ya”. And the one more was “Don’t Pray For Me”. “We said one more, but do you mind if we do two? Now is your last chance!! You wanna crowd surf and mosh and all that stuff? This is your last chance! Right now!”
I’ve been to a shitload of shows and I’ve never seen that many crowd surfers at Toad’s. Major shout out and gratitude to security at the venue. They picked surfers from the crowd and lifted them over the barrier, one after the other, with ease and professionalism. All! Night! Long! The amazingly energetic fans were gifted with probably the band’s most well known hit, “Alone in a Room”.
This venue, with this crowd, made for a really fun show. The last time I saw Asking Alexandria they were opening for Seether and Staind. There was some sort of medical incident in the pit at that gig so they had to stop the show for a few moments. After that no one really danced or bopped or moved. Lamest crowd ever. In a club setting like this, with all their devoted fans, made for a much better experience. Check em out for yourself.
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