LIVE(STREAM) REVIEW: Atreyu @ Carry The Fire, Orange County
In a year that’s beared witness to the exilement of experiencing the euphoria of live music and the British government’s decision to brandish the music industry inviable, the rise of livestreaming gigs into your living room has become part-and-parcel of a patched-up patchwork industry running close to the edge. As we veer ever closer to 2021, almost every artist under the sun has cottoned on to keeping the dream alive via livestreams, which makes it even harder for someone to stand out in the (virtual) crowd. Cue night two of mid-noughties metalcore mainstays ATREYU’s Carry The Fire series then to turn things up a notch.
Following on from their hit-and-miss greatest hits set on night one, the second night in the series sees the quintet dive deeper into their back catalogue and dust off 2007’s Lead Sails Paper Anchor for a full-throttle front-to-back run-through. Arguably not only the band’s biggest-selling album, but their genre-shifting alt-metal breakthrough, it remains an album criminally underappreciated in ATREYU’s live sets…until now.
If this set offers anything off-the-bat, it’s the enigmatic energy the band exemplifies with former drummer and co-vocalist Brandon Saller stepping into the spotlight as their front-and-centre frontman following the departure of Alex Varkatzas earlier this year. Opener Doomsday sounds as significant to the band now as it’s boundary blurring breakdown-vs-sing-along structure benefits from Sallar’s soul-pouring performance. At the same time it pulls the wool from the eyes ceremoniously – on an album as anthemic as Lead Sails Paper Anchor, the hook-heavy hits fall flat without the ferocity of a crowd chanting along with them.
Whilst a lot of livestreams have latched onto stringing together aesthetically-stimulating visuals that the realm of virtual reality lends itself too, ATREYU opt for a more traditional set-up. They’ve got the drum riser, they’ve got the big screens, and they’ve got the passion. They do their damn-near best to bring the songs to life in an empty room, throwing themselves across the stage as if they themselves are feeding off the energy. The contagious chemistry and on-stage banter between Saller and lead guitarist Dan Jacobs is second to none, although it’s left falling flat in the dust of it all when their one-liners aren’t met with laughter or cheers. It’s an element of the experience no band can truly recreate, but they do give it a run for their money.
As much as ATREYU have more rabbit than Sainsbury’s, it’s the songs that do the talking the most during Carry The Fire’s second night. The early-doors one-two knockout of their arena-sized alt-metal anthems Falling Down and Becoming The Bull – a pair of songs that arguably took ATREYU to unforeseen heights, including breaking into the Billboard 200’s Top 10 – sound as all-conquering as they did first time around. Fan favourite Blow brings out the band’s boisterous side, it’s high-octane hard-rock hitting home as they seem happiest, even joking about playing it over and over.
Whilst the staples still swing with muster, it’s the cuts they’ve kept out of their cupboard of tricks over the years that come off golden here. The pitter-patter piano-laden radio-rock of No One Cares and the ALEXISONFIRE-aping punch-up post-hardcore of Can’t Happen Here lay down the gauntlet for some of the band’s most criminally underrated cuts, both getting their first live airing during the stream. The true highlight is in the harrowingly haunting acoustic balladry of closer Lead Sails (And A Paper Anchor), a track that highlights ATREYU’s ability to warp the capabilities of their genre.
Given the gravitas of the album at hand, it’d have been far more appropriate to hold on to Lead Sails Paper Anchor for when the ATREYU faithful could fill out a room, but nonetheless it’s a stark reminder of the band’s often-forgotten contribution to popularising metalcore in the mid-to-late noughties.
Rating: 8/10
Check out a selection of photographs from the band live in action on the livestream below:
