Photos and Review by Jim LaValley
Galleries: Pop Evil, The Word Alive, Avoid
Pop Evil’s headlining Skeletons Tour with support from Avoid and The Word Alive stopped by the Worcester Palladium recently to a huge crowd. Pop Evil’s 7th studio new album “Skeletons” has a ton of killer hits. The Word Alive has a couple of newly released hits and Avoid has their recently released heavy album “Cult Mentality”. This was an evening of killer new music from all over the country (Phoenix, Seattle, and Michigan).
The crowd arrived early to check out the hot up and coming band out of Seattle that has gotten the attention of Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, who gives them a well-deserved shout out. Avoid is full of energy and gets the crowd going by enticing them to crowd surf and giving them a high-five at times when they reach the stage. All in all, Avoid’s heavy sound is catchy, and with their momentum, I think they have a great future ahead of them.
The fans were ready when The Word Alive took the stage!! The body surfing started to get even more intense. One thing about the Worcester Palladium is the security has a nice system to let the fans have fun and constantly bodysurf to the stage and return to the crowd unhurt, at least security gives it a ton of effort to keep the fans safe (Kudos).
Tyler Smith’s range of vocals can go from nice melodic tones to fiercely deep screams. This was the first time I have seen The Word Alive and can say I love the journey they bring you on with their music, it’s different and I like it. Benny Scholl joined Tyler for a tune which showcased their vocals harmonizing and with some cool back and forth. I have heard them on Sirius XM Octane with their killer hit “New Reality”. They played their other recently released hit “Nocturnal Future” and their cover of Kanye West’s song “Heartless”. I am excited to see what The Word Alive has for us in the future.
By the time Pop Evil took the stage to support their newly released (March 17, 2023) album Skeletons, the crowd was primed and ready.
Lights went out and then the band took the stage with “Eye of the Storm” from Skeletons with Leigh Kakaty (vocals) set back on Hayley Cramer’s (drums) huge stage riser. It is amazing to think about all the hits that Pop Evil has created over the past couple of decades. This was my second time seeing them and I love them even more now after seeing this show. Leigh brought it with his vocals, they were crisp, strong, and melodic. The band is so tight that every song sounded perfect!!
Nick Fuelling ripped it all night with killer leads and Dave Grahs was awesome, these guys were tight.
The second song was “Deal with the Devil”, one of those songs that stays in your head and you find yourself singing it all day. Hayley and Joey “Chicago” Walser on the rhythm section drove each song in sync. Hayley is incredible on the drums with her speed, offbeats, and super tight timing. Joey was energetic and was all over the stage getting the fans all pumped up.
When they did “Paranoid (Crash and Burn)” it sounded good and punchy. It is another one of their songs that get stuck in your head (lyrics literally say “voices in my head”).
Leigh took a moment to talk about the intro to their Album titled song Skeletons where he speaks about the world going mad.
All in all the entire night was filled with killer new music. I think they are on the final leg of this tour so if you can see it, it’s a fun night out.
Pop Evil’s setlist:
- Eye of the Storm
- Deal With the Devil
- Let the Chaos Reign
- Circles
- Dead Reckoning
- Work
- Paranoid (Crash & Burn)
- Be Legendary
- Who Will We Become
- Skeletons
- Footsteps
- Survivor
- Waking Lions
- Torn to Pieces
- Trenches
- Breathe Again