Given that his band from Wales hadn’t performed in the Alamo City in five years, one could understand Bullet For My Valentine vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matt Tuck for thanking the nearly sold-out crowd of just under 3,000 fans on Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Boeing Center at Tech Port for not forgetting about them.
Not to worry, Mr. Tuck. There was no chance of that happening. And even if there was a remote one, support acts Of Mice & Men and Vended weren’t about to let that occur.
The dedicated faithful expressed their love for all three acts in true metal fashion, riding a wave of bodysurfers and not one but two mosh pits almost from the opening note of the evening.
Touring in support of their latest and self-titled album, Bullet For My Valentine also marked 20 years as a band by tilting its 15-song setlist heavily toward first two albums The Poison from 2005 and 2008 masterpiece Scream Aim Fire.
Make that a 16-song setlist (more on that soon).
Referring to the Boeing Center as “an incredible venue,” Tuck joined lead guitarist Michael Paget, bassist and scream vocalist Jamie Mathias and drummer Jason Bowld in shredding the audience into two pits with one heavy track after another. Watch them in action via ATM’s Facebook Live footage of “4 Words (To Choke Upon)” and “The Last Fight” here and view the printed setlist in 40-photo gallery (no professional video was allowed).
After “The Last Fight,” Tuck had another label for the venue’s patrons: “Fuckin’ hell, you guys are psychos,” he said. “We love it!”
Bullet’s five-year visits to San Antonio date back to the inaugural River City Rockfest in 2013 before the previous stop in 2018 at the Aztec Theatre. This time, Tuck told the crowd that the band would spend next year “writing the best album” and “the earliest we’ll see you again is 2025.”
But it’ll be tough to top the Scream Aim Fire record. B4MV could’ve performed that album in its entirety and would’ve received no bothersome feedback from this writer. Alas, they spread the set among several records, as evidenced by final two songs “Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow” and “Waking the Demon.” But the crowd didn’t exactly want to stop moshing and rocking, so a funny thing happened after the band had waved goodbye and walked off. Chants of “one more song” echoed throughout the Boeing, and the Welsh boys happily obliged, adding unplanned (at least from the printed setlist) “Hearts Burst Into Fire” (watch all three songs here).
Despite being the Jan Brady of the three-pronged dose of metal, Of Mice & Men was not to be outdone when it came to eliciting its own crazies in the crowd.
Just call ‘em lokos.
Highlighted by the first song on second album The Flood from 2011 in “O.G. Loko” and new track “Into the Sun” (watch both here), vocalist Aaron Pauley and his mates had also previously performed in S.A. at the Aztec Theatre, though their show came in March 2019 opening for hometown heroes Nothing More (coverage here).
On this night, the band had the bass pumped in to accompany Pauley’s vocals, lead guitarist Phil Manansala, rhythm guitarist Alan Ashby and drummer David Valentino Arteaga.
Pauley showcased his range of stage presence throughout the group’s set that also included “Castaway,” “Obsolete,” and “Warpaint.” He encouraged the audience to give security a hand for the job it was doing handling the influx of bodysurfers and dedicated “Bloom” to those who’ve lost a loved one by stating, “If you’re walking around with the crushing weight of grief. . . . “
Pauley also expressed his gratitude with, “We’re not rock stars. We’re just people like you who love music, and the only reason we get to do this is because of people like you.”
Then there was Vended. Or, rather, Vended was first. But definitely not least.
Having opened for Punjabi metallers Bloodywood on May 15 at Vibes Event Center (coverage here), the boys from Des Moines were even more ferocious this time around.
A buzzcut Griffin Taylor shed his curly locks from the prior visit and moreso demonstrated that the apple doesn’t fall far from the studio, rehearsal space or stage. Hell, Taylor even says “Good. Fucking. Night!” identically to his famous father who fronts Slipknot and Stone Sour.
Watch Taylor and guitarists Cole Espeland, Connor Grodzicki, bass player Jeremiah Pugh and another Slipknot offspring — drummer Simon Crahan — in action via ATM’s Facebook Live footage of “The Far Side” just prior to the band ending with “Asylum.”
On this night, the inmates definitely ran it. Not casually, and not just for one band.
The bands killed it, and San Antonio repped it — demonstrating that the heavy metal capital is going to do just fine with the current, and perhaps future, generations of metal concertgoers.
