Back-to-back nights of the Remade in Misery Tour in SoCal

Two nights of Misery in SoCal! We were able to go to not one, but two shows on Sirius XM’s Remade in Misery Tour, which included Memphis May Fire, From Ashes To New, Rain City Drive and Wolves At The Gate! We went to the shows at The Glass House in Pomona and then San Diego’s SOMA. The Glass House is in the art district of Pomona; it’s a super cute part of town, with art decor from the sides of buildings to even the trash cans. The venue itself — meh. We really try to keep everything positive here, but we have to be honest, too. It was pretty hot, with no AC or ventilation, and the staff wasn’t very friendly. It just felt… awkward. Aside from that, it’s live music, so it was still an amazing time!

Wolves At The Gate kicked off the night. They are a Christian rock band: I honestly had no idea until they were about halfway through their set and made a speech about “conspiracy theories”, saying one of the biggest conspiracy theories is “religion”. What they were saying was really intriguing and insightful; it took an interesting turn and that’s all I’m gonna say about that. They just released their album Eulogies earlier this year, so go check it out and support opening bands! 

Rain City Drive is one of my all-time favorite bands!

I found out about them during the pandemic and they were the band that really struck up my love and passion for music again. There’s something about their music that just hit me and really stuck with me. This was my first time seeing them since their reband from ‘Slaves’ (although in 2021, I got to see three of their shows in three different states, before the rebrand). It was really different not hearing any songs off of Beautiful Death, but I love that they finally have their OWN thing and can play their OWN music. They just released their self-titled album, their first release since their rebrand! Lead singer Matt McAndrew came out in leather pants and a custom-painted Rain City Drive leather jacket. It looked really sick, but I don’t know how he survived with it being 100-degrees in the venue! Seeing bands live seriously changes your whole perspective on certain songs. When “Blood Runs Cold” first came out, it didn’t really catch me, but after seeing it live, it’s now one of my favorites off the album! Rain City Drive will be heading out on tour again soon, supporting Set It Off, so be sure to catch them if they’re in your town!

From Ashes to New vocalist Matt Brandyberry is the founder and the sole constant member of the band. Fun fact: Matt received a worker’s compensation settlement and used the money to start the band in 2013. With Matt’s rapping and Danny Case’s clean and dirty vocals, they make an amazing team! During “Broken”, they had everyone get on the ground and when the song picked up, everyone jumped up! It’s a lot of fun and really pumped up the crowd! At the San Diego show, I actually got to mosh with Danny, which was really cool. From Ashes to New is another band that I didn’t know much about, but this show made me a fan! 

Memphis May Fire kicked off their set with “Blood & Water”, which is the opening track of their latest album, Remade in Misery! Lead singer Matty Mullins explained how he broke his ribs a couple shows ago, saying that he was now “Grandpa Matty”. Much respect to him, because it has to be painful to sing/scream from your core with broken ribs! He sounded great though and still brought the energy! At the San Diego show, Danny joined them for a chorus of “Vices”! The San Diego crowd definitely brought the energy!

During the last couple songs, no joke, the whole crowd turned into a mosh pit.

We had such an amazing time at both of these shows and we wish Matty a speedy recovery! The Remade in Misery Tour has now concluded, but you can catch Memphis May Fire and From Ashes to New at our favorite place ever, Blue Ridge Rock Festival in September!

Photography by Heather Vandemark; Recap by Kaiya Vandemark

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