Auras, Phinehas and Erra

Saturday April 22nd 2017 @ Walter's in Houston, Texas



 What's up guys and welcome to my first music blog. For this first one I chose a show at one of my all time favorite H-Town venues, Walters. This little venue is situated right by the UH Downtown campus at the end of the Light-Rail Red Line. There is always free parking around if you come on the weekends and if you are there during the week there is still free parking with metered paring along the street and underneath I-10. The venue can hold a small amount of 350-400 people, so it can get quite intimate with the stage and the crowd. Speaking of the stage. It is pretty decent in size and is not that high off the ground, nor are there any barricades so you can get really close and personal with the performers. All in all a really great place to go and the staff there are top notch to boot.

Now on to the show. Today was the final stop for the tour headlined by Erra, with Phinehas and Auras supporting them on the tour. They also had three other acts opening up for them. Two local acts, Bear the Burden and Imperial Affliction. The third was Hell or High Water hailing from Vista, CA. These guys happened to be on tour and crossing paths with the first tour so they joined forces for tonight's show

The first band to play was Bear the Burden. This 4 piece metal band comes to us from Spring,TX. I had never heard of them till this show and from what I saw they have a lot of energy and they know how to put on a show. Even if the crowd was just starting to file in from the doors and wasn't very receptive to their music at first. I definitely can't wait to see what they do in the future and where they go from here. If you get a chance to, look them up on Facebook and check out their music.

The second band to play was Imperial Affliction. This fast paced, high-octane 4 piece metalcore group comes from right here in Houston, TX. The crowd had pretty much filled in and the band put on a spectacular arrangement in their vocals, guitar riffs, and percussion breakdowns. This is when the crowd started to move a little, with the help of their lead singer calling out and hyping the crowd up. They are another local band that I will be adding to my list of "You gotta check these guys out!" So give them a listen and support local musicians in whatever town you may be in.

Now on to Hell or High Water. This was my second time seeing these guys, and this time I was a bit more into their sound. They are a metal group hailing from Vista, CA and they have some pretty impressive names that they have worked with. For starters their original front-man is the drummer/vocalist in Atreyu. They also have collaborated with M-Shadows of Avenged Seven-fold on their song "Go Alone", with Shadows providing guest vocals. They also played a song called "Don't Hate Me" and one called "I Want It All". During the latter the crowd really started to get involved, screaming the ever powerful line at the top of their lungs. Next time we cross paths I hope to be able to sit down and have a chat with theses guys and post the interview here and on my YouTube channel. Stay tuned!

Now onto the main acts. The first up was Auras. A 4 piece metal group from Waterloo, ON, Canada. Their lead vocalist Eric knows how to play the crowd, sporting a James Harden jersey from the Houston Rockets. And their sound was off the charts! For this being my first real interaction with them, and not knowing any of their music; I can say from an un-biased approach that these guys are going places. Starting with being on a pretty impressive tour supporting the band Erra.

The second of the main acts was Phinehas. From the get go these guys were a hit with the crowd. Even before they took the stage the background music that they had playing got the crowd moving. First with an impromptu conga-line set to a 90's Punjabi hit called "Tunak Tunak Tun". Then on to a good ol' classic from the Rednex "Cotton Eyed Joe". Then this 5 piece, La Mirada, CA metalcore band took the stage for their set. This included crowd favorites like "Fleshkiller" and "I Am The Lion". Then their set concluded leaving the crowd pumped and ready for the headlining act. These guys were definitely a pleasure to see in person for the first time and I hope to run into them soon and possibly get a few sound bites to post on here for you guys.

The headlining act. The 4 piece metalcore band from Birmingham, AL known as Erra. Before their sound check the band was running around setting things up for their set and J.T. their lead singer comes up to me (I was in the front so i could get good pictures. Like the one of J.T. to the right) and was saying thank you for coming out to the show and making it to the front row (pointing at my camera). And talking about my camera and pointing out the features he liked on it; such as the touch screen that tilts and moves. Then they took to the stage with their first song "Dreamcatcher", that had the entire crowd singing along. They then went on to talk about how this was the last stop on their tour; that they were going to go back home after this and that they were going to record a new album. then after coming back on stage for their encore the closed with "Irreversible" They were by far the best set of the night; and not just because they were the headliner. They were energetic, powerful, talented, genuine, and all around great guys to listen to.



Well that's going to do it for my first music blog. Hope you guys liked it and continue to read my blogs when I release them. I hope to write my next blog just after Cinco de Mayo when I got to a local pop-punk show with acts like Far From Home and In Memory Of; both of whom I hope to interview for this blog. In the mean time you can pop on over to YouTube and check out my channel with my poetry that I have been uploading. Please subscribe and hit the bell to get notified when I release new content. Also I hope to eventually start pod-casting these blogs on YouTube. The links to that and my Patreon page will be included below. Thank you!

Patreon: www.patreon.com/cmcardlepoetry
YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCF43bvnzDy8zkQsFEIXtwPA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CMcArdle49

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