Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis
May 11, 2024
Photos by Brett
Review by Nick
The time has finally come! MN got a date on the BETTER LOVERS tour. We have been impatiently awaiting this day since “30 Under 13” came out. It doesn’t matter that there’s only 6 songs out there and they are headlining. It was going to be fantastic to see Greg, Jordan, Goose and Stephan back on stage again. It’s been way too long since ETID or DEP came thru and judging by the crowd, we weren’t the only ones missing having them on the stage. This was a fantastic lineup of some of hardcore/metalcore's best out there right now. Sadly, I missed Greyhaven's opening set.
BETTER LOVERS came out to an intro tape of all kinds of “Love” songs spliced together and as soon as the lights dropped, chaos ensued. BETTER LOVERS came to play and set the tone right out of the gate with “Become So Small” and “Sacrificial Participant”. A massive pit appeared, many bodies came to the stage, and with no barricade it just made things that more intense. Nothing between the band and the crowd and I’m still not sure who enjoyed it more.
The band themselves were in top form, a well oiled frenzy from start to finish in an hour set that contained the 6 already released songs, 4 brand new songs and a fantastic, maybe just a little sped up cover of Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage”. The guitar trade off between Jordan Buckley and Will Putney is worth the cover charge alone. One takes it here, the other one takes it up a notch and back and forth. Add in Greg’s wound up madman as a frontman and you have a deadly front line barreling at you at insane speeds. Those three guys had no problems with getting up in the crowd’s faces – which only made everything more chaotic.
Just waiting for the band to get to the stage, there was an energy in the building. Better Lovers came out and left it all on the stage and the fans left it on the floor and some definitely made it’s way to the stage. If anything was going to get a fan more pumped up for the forthcoming full length record, it was that show. The 4 new songs sounded right at home with the already released material scattered throughout the set. The entire set was full of adrenaline and chaos. What was going to happen next? No one knew, not even the band themselves.
Jordan even said it was his favorite show of the tour. Greg jumped from the balcony at the end of “30 Under 13”. Everyone in the crowd went home, elated that they were in attendance for this show. This will be a tough show to top, not only for any show this year but for any small club show ever. The intensity and love in the room, was on a whole different level than any show I’ve been to for quite a while. Better Lovers will definitely not be playing the Fine Line again in the future. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss out the next time they come around. Minneapolis definitely caught lightning in a bottle.
SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY brought the heat warming up the crowd for BETTER LOVERS. Clocking in with a 45 min set that definitely pulled no punches. The crowd ate it up, screaming along, stage dives and had good sized pit going too. Excellent trade offs in lyrics between Connie, Timmy and Taylor bringing a full on assault to your senses with their "sass-core".
Keep your eyes on FOREIGN HANDS. Their full length comes out June 21 and had the crowd going during the already released “God Under Fingernails”, “Conditioned for a Head-on Collision” and “Tearing Down Your Reality”. Foreign Hands brought the same fire to their opening set that they did on the Dying Wish tour last November. This is a fantastic tour for them to be on, as it will open people’s ears to them – Minneapolis definitely already knew as the crowd was already packed in before the band played the first note.
CHECK OUT MORE OF BRETT's PICTURES FROM BETTER LOVERS, SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY and FOREIGN HANDS HERE!
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