Nothing More is on the road promoting their latest release “Tired of Winning”. Another thought provoking hit that absolutely rocks. It’s like getting exactly what you would expect and yet still being blown away when you hear it the first time. Initially, this was to be a co-headlining tour with Asking Alexandria but due to unfortunate circumstances with voice concerns, AA had to back out of the tour. Knowing the spirit of Nothing More, the show would definitely go on. You will see in galleries that the crowd was wall to wall and they poured out energy from the start with a local favorite, Eva Under Fire. While it would have been amazing to have Asking Alexandria perform on this stop, the fans were definitely not short changed. Nothing More has a strong enough pull (obviously) to carry the load on their shoulders and run with it.
Arriving at the event, the line of people was wrapped around the block waiting for doors to open. You could see the excitement building before you even entered the theatre. I was glad to have arrived early enough to catch Eva under Fire’s set. I’ve heard their name mentioned SO many times but this would be my first time experiencing them live. I’d swear that their lead singer, Amanda, almost seems to have fed of off Johnny Hawkins lead on this tour. I wish I had seen them before this for a direct comparison. She works the stage back and forth and has the frontman job down to a science. She engages the audience and just is short of yanking them out of their seats. The performance was fantastic and a big portion of the crowd could be heard singing along. It’s always nice to see our local bands make it to the bigger stages. It was fun watching their excitement on stage and it transcended to the crowd.
Next up was the heavy hitting Atreyu. I’ve covered Atreyu several times, both on tour and at festivals. A metal core band with melody and emotion. They have a strong following and that showed here in Detroit. They revved up the crowd to about 8000 RPM as soon as they hit the stage. Crowd surfing commenced and security did a great job of catching a steady flow of people as they poured over the front row. With Asking Alexandria off the tour, I feel these guys stepped up their performance as this was some of their best work that I have seen. Their sound was spot on.
A restless and riled up crowd was now awaiting Nothing More. Now, as someone who covers a lot of shows and many generations of music, it kills me when I hear people say “today’s music sucks”. These people have not been listening. They have not been expanding. I could go on and on about how great todays rock music is with bands I genuinely love to hear. If you think todays music sucks, I implore you to change the station, find a new playlist, go to a festival and expose yourself to a variety that goes outside the main stream.
Nothing More embodies exactly what I’m attempting to convey. Their songs have meaning, they make you feel. Powerful ballads with writing that delivers stories and messages. Nothing more took that stage and the crowd was soon in tune with each other. I love watching the people gathered to feel the harmonies together. Johnny would regularly come down from the stage to gather with the fans and bask in the radiating energy they give off. His smile is something that can’t be faked, it was as genuine of a smile as it gets. You could see how much he loved the vibes coming from the crowd. The show is a visual and audial treat from beginning to end.
Whatever your genre preference is musically, I feel like Nothing More is one of those bands that anyone with an open ear would say, “wow those guys are good” While I was inclined to say that Nothing More stepped up to the plate to headline this show, the reality is that I’ve never seen them perform at a lesser level. I’m sure they have lost count of the number of performances they’ve done and yet they pound that stage like they have something to prove every single show. I used the word powerful earlier and that is still an understatement.
~Joe Orlando
Check out their latest video release of “Tired of Winning” here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR4yR_rjhEg
