August Burns Red brings Through The Thorns Tour to San Diego

The Through the Thorns Tour featuring August Burns Red, We Came As Romans, Hollow Front and Void Of Vision came to San Diego’s SOMA. This incredible lineup managed to hit 32 cities in the span of just 44 days!

Hollow Front is a metalcore band from Grand Rapid, Michigan. When the tour was first announced, I got so excited to see that Hollow Front was included on the bill, so I could see drummer Devin Attard! He’s been such a big inspiration for me and was one of the drummers that made me want to get back into drumming. Unfortunately though, Devin recently left the band — on good terms — to pursue other endeavors. We look forward to seeing what he does next! Hollow Front just dropped their new album The Price of Dreaming in May and their entire setlist consisted of songs off of it. Lead singer Tyler Tate said that they are really happy to be back in California, because Texas (where they played days before) was way too hot.

Up next was fellow Michigan band, We Came As Romans!

We were first introduced to WCAR at Blue Ridge Rock Festival 2021. I loved them and had to see them on this tour in our hometown! Bassist Andy Glass instantly draws you in with his energy and big smile on his face throughout the show… he’s really up there living his best life! He looked a little different from last time we saw him, because he brought back his bleach blonde hair! They opened their set with “Darkbloom”, which was the first single they released for their upcoming album of the same name dropping on October 14th. The new album is full of emotions that the band was undergoing and emotional places they lived in while trying to navigate through life after their singer, Kyle Pavone, passed. Kyle sadly passed away of an accidental overdose in 2018. Dave Stephens introduced the song “Lost in the Moment ” as being Kyle’s favorite song. Dave said Kyle always lived in the moment instead of worrying about what’s next or what he couldn’t control — strive to be more like Kyle and live in the moment. Kyle forever! We are so excited to see We Came as Romans next month at Blue Ridge Rock Fest again!

In between sets, the house music was playing some pretty brutal metalcore songs. All of the sudden it switched to “Chop Suey” by System Of A Down and we all knew that vibe change meant it was time for August Burns Red! The recording of “Chop Suey” played for a while until “I don’t think you trust….” when the whole band came out. I love that song by SOAD and I didn’t think anyone else could touch it, but August Burns Red absolutely killed it! Lead singer Jake Luhrs has some pretty impressive vocals! I’ve never seen August Burns Red before and I expected more of a ‘hardcore’ appearance but… guitarist JB Brubaker looked like he just came from the beach with his flip flops! I had never seen somebody in a heavier band wear flip flops onstage before and was thinking “did he forget his shoes or something?” But, nope! Flip flops are just his thing, which is so cool! It definitely made him stand out! This tour is almost over, but they will be heading across the pond for a European tour later this year.    

Catch Hollow Front and We Came As Romans at, you guessed it, Blue Ridge Rock Festival in just a couple of weeks! If you can’t make it to Blue Ridge, though, catch We Came As Romans joining the Trinity of Terror Leg 2 Tour all through September!

Photography by Heather Vandemark; Recap by Kaiya Vandemark

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