PERFORMANCE OF 2017 : EVERY TIME I DIE
Rickshaw Theatre | Vancouver, BC August 2, 2017
There are bands that we can see over and over again without ever tiring of them. We all have at least one. One of those bands for me is the rowdy boys from Buffalo, Every Time I Die.
I have seen them multiple times in my life, but most often when I lived on the east coast; since I moved to Vancouver, the band graced this city with their presence a total of 3 times. So when they announced last summer that they were coming back, after no less than 6 years of absence, I slammed the Purchase Ticket button faster than you can say Ebolarama. I was very excited to see one of my all-time favourites, but the last time the band was in town they got a fairly lukewarm welcome from the crowd so I was not sure what to expect of the show altogether.
On this occasion, by the time Every Time I Die was ready to go on stage the crowd had been well warmed-up by some great local talents, namedly Anchoress and Neck of the Woods.
When ETID hit the stage, it was like an asteroid slammed into the Rickshaw Theatre. Merely 10 seconds into the show and the crowd was unmaneuverable, forced tight against each other and the rail without an inch of space between all the ETIDiots that crammed in as close to the stage as they could to experience Every Time I Die's own brand of boisterous metal.
The crowd was so dense that guitarist Jordan Buckley took his daily stagedive less than a minute into the first song.
His counterparts were obviously delighted, and the crowd was relentless. I have been in madhouse shows before, and I have seen Every Time I Die play for all sorts of crowds, playing with your average early 2000 lineup Warped Tour, to Between The Buried And Me, to Story Of The Year, to GWAR. But I have never seen what I saw at the Rickshaw that night. It was raw energy of epic proportions. Every Time I Die gave all they had and a little bit more. The ended the night by inviting the crowd to join them on stage, and they were so many people trying to cram onto the small stage that the crowd swallowed the band who disappeared behind them.
(Yup, that is someone crowdsurfing on stage!)
Everyone in attendance was ecstatic, undoubtedly happy that they have finally gotten to see the quintet again, or see them for the first time ever. The essence of Every Time I Die was embodied in that night, and even for a band that is known for having absolutely off the hook shows and frenzied crowds it was extraordinary. Out of all of the times I have seen this band play this was by far the most intense, and out of all the shows I saw this year this one took the whole cake.
Other than this picture of the aforementioned crowd-on-stage moment, we don't even have photos from that night, because having a camera out would have been gear suicide.
You're just going to have to trust us, or go see for yourself when they come back to Vancouver on March 22.
