Review and Photos by Jim LaValley
Galleries: Nothing More, Crown the Empire
Nothing More on their Spirits 2023 North American Tour with guests Crown the Empire and A Thousand Below stopped by the just about sold-out Worcester Palladium for their seventh show of the tour.
Crown the Empire took the stage with their Album titled song DOGMA which features Andy Leo’s melodic but heavy screaming along with Hayden Tree’s heavy co-vocals and Brandon Hoover’s killer riffs. This was the first-time seeing Crown the Empire so I didn’t know what to expect. Jeeves Avalos on drums was a beast, he and Hayden drove the band’s thundering rhythm section all night and they did a superb job (i.e., 120 DECIBELS).
Crown the Empire had the crowd body surfing to the stage all night and with their killer hit “Immortalize”, fans just enjoyed it so much you could see it on their faces.
This was my second time seeing Nothing More and kind of knew to expect Johnny Hawkins energic style, but I got so much MORE energy than I was expecting. It felt like he was in such a zone and absolutely slayed it. The band kept up their end as well and were super tight and also energetic.
The energy was definitely contagious, the just about sold-out crowd truly erupted and were crowd surfing to stage in rapid succession. You could recognize the fans that were continuously crowd surfing to the stage. If he was close to them, Johnny made it a point to meet them with a fist bump. You can tell how much Johnny truly appreciates the band’s fans.
Nothing More features Johnny Hawkins on vocals, Mark Vollelunga on guitar, Daniel Oliver on bass guitar/background vocals, and Ben Anderson on drums.
The music Nothing More played was nothing short of perfection, they sounded spectacular!! Lights went out they opened with their album titled Spirits song, which set the tone for the night. Next they went right into their killer tune “Do you really want it”, which sounded great and offered a ton of opportunities to get some stunning shots. Johnny really wanted it by jumping, punching, spinning, and screaming!! His vocals were strong, crisp, and melodic all night. I was even able to capture when Johnny sings and presses on his vocal cords on his neck, this is a technique that he does on a few songs.
Tired of Winning and Go to War totally rocked the house with the entire venue just enjoying awesome music. I was first introduced to Nothing More from Sirius XM Octane with Jose Mangin, they find and play kick ass new music all the time.
If you want a unique experience with killer new music, try to get tickets before their North American tour sells out or ends in late May 2023.
Nothing More’s setlist:
- SPIRITS
- Do You Really Want It?
- Tired of Winning
- Ships in the Night
- YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE MEANS
- Best Times
- Jenny
- Let ’em Burn
- Go to War
- Turn It Up Like (Stand in the Fire)
- Don’t Stop
- FACE IT
- I’ll Be OK
- Fadein/Fadeout
- Ocean Floor
- This Is the Time (Ballast)