The San Francisco Bay Area doesn’t let a little thing like a 6:30 start time on a Thursday night stop them from enjoying a quality evening of metal, especially when it comes to a Parkway Drive and Killswitch Engage co-headliner. The San Francisco crew lined up early and got rowdy for opening sets by Vein and After the Burial.
By the time Parkway Drive took the stage, the Warfield was packed to the rafters and floor went sideways when they launched into “Wishing Wells” off of last year’s Reverance. It had been well-over a year since these Aussies have hit the stage here and they had clearly been missed. No doubt these guys could have easily headlined this show on their own and as the sweaty kids hobbled out of the pit after the set wrapped with “Bottom Feeder,” the obvious question was how the heck was Killswitch Engage going to follow that? The answer: crushingly.
After a quick change-over KSE was on the stage and frontman Jesse Leach was up in the crowd and wailing to “This Fire.” While some of the faces of front had switched out, the floor was no-less furious as the band raged on, guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz always making sure the mood stayed light as he pogoed around the stage. Not too shabby for a band that’s not only been crushing it for nearly 20 years, but has maintained relevance throughout. Now about that new album, it’s been a while…
Co-headliners can sometimes be hit and miss—a mere naming formality where one headliner clearly over-shadows the other both in terms of set times as well as performance. Not so this Parkway Drive/KSE tour, where each band clearly pushes the other to deliver at the top of their game. Well done, gents.
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
PARKWAY DRIVE
AFTER THE BURIAL
VEIN
PARKWAY DRIVE SETLIST
Wishing Wells
Prey
Carrion
Vice Grip
Karma
Cemetery Bloom
The Void
Dedicated
Absolute Power
Shadow Boxing
Wild Eyes
Crushed
Bottom Feeder
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE SETLIST
This Fire
Rose of Sharyn
The End of Heartache
The Arms of Sorrow
The Hell in Me
Just Barely Breathing
Take This Oath
Hate by Design
Vide Infra
Always
My Last Serenade
Daylight Dies
In Due Time
My Curse
Strength of the Mind
Holy Diver (Dio cover)
