Killthrax Tour – Silver Spring, MD – 4.3.17

On this night with perfect weather in Maryland, The Fillmore Silver Spring was lucky enough to host this packed lineup consisting of Killswitch Engage, Anthrax, The Devil Wears Prada, and opening for a short time on this tour, Jasta.  Photographer Luis Rosales was on site to provide the gallery below.

Up first and starting about 15 minutes early, Jasta takes the stage to play their 25 minute set.  Starting out with “This Is Your Life” Jamey Jasta showed those unfamiliar with the group what they meant.  Quickly turning newcomers into fans and really digging his style.  They consistently used bursts of strobes while keeping a fairly dark production for the most part.  The strobes fit in perfectly to those breakdowns that flashed along with the double bass.  Jasta was a perfect fit as an opener for the night as we got ready for the next act.

Taking over the stage next was The Devil Wears Prada as they showcase a very diverse setlist playing at least one song from the last 6 albums and EP’s.  Prada kept their production dark, very dark as it gave them their ominous look keeping any front front lighting to an absolute minimum.  Vocalist Mike Hranica was being his energetic self on stage as he ran side to side tossing the mic cable around like a lasso.  For 40 minutes on stage, played new material and went back to older jams and going back to their new music.  Everything about their performance was thrilling to watch and was full of energy the whole time that you couldn’t help but to participate in moshing of some sort.

One of the biggest names in thrash metal, part of the Big 4 back in the 80’s, Anthrax takes stage as fans of all ages came along to watch one of the legends of the scene perform.  Playing a much longer set since this is a co-headlining tour, Anthrax had 12 songs on the table for the night including their encore.  One of the first things you noticed about their set was was the production and the amount of work put into it.  Two levels as they had the drums up high and their logo plastered everywhere they could, plus the crazy amount of lighting made it impossible to miss anything.  All that lighting was necessary to keep singer Joey Belladonna in sight as he did not stop moving the entire night.  Fans on guitarist, Scott Ian’s side were star struck seeing a legend like himself so up close.  Joey Belladonna during “Madhouse” acknowledged the photographers and even took one of their cameras on stage and started taking photos from the stage.  To make things even better for the fans, he took a couple handfuls of guitar picks and showered the crowd by tossing them up in the air.  Anthrax put on a memorable set for anyone who was able to witness legends on stage.

Closing out the night was Killswitch Engage as they followed Anthrax for the true metalcore fans who came out that night.  They had the same amount of time as Anthrax as they were only able to fit in 12 songs but that was plenty as they played songs mostly off their older albums which had fans going crazy.  Almost everyone sang along to every word and people were crowd surfing left and right.  Killswitch simplified their stage production as they let the music do the talking as they proved that you don’t need crazy visuals in order to put on a great show.  The album that got most attention for the night’s setlist was The End of Heartache as they played “A Bid Farewell,” “Rose of Sharyn,” “Take This Oath,” and “The End of Heartache.”  For the entire night, every member took advantage of the room on stage as Adam D was able to run around and partake in his usual stage shenanigans that make him fun to watch as always.  For an hour and 15 minutes, Killswitch Engage put their all on that stage and left fans wanting more like always as they played a perfect set.