Concert Recap: Alesana - The "Trilogy" Tour, Pt. II in Jacksonville, NC (August 11, 2023)

Around this time last year, post-hardcore legends Alesana touched down in Jacksonville, NC on the first leg of their Trilogy Tour, performing their landmark rock opera album The Emptiness in its entirety. This year marks Part II, in which the album in the spotlight is their 2011 epic A Place Where the Sun is Silent, and Hooligans Live was home to the festivities once again on Friday, August 11. While sequels have a reputation for being inferior to the initial installment, Alesana proved that notion false in their instance, bringing a solid support lineup and delivering an all-around bigger and better show than the first.

Kicking the night off was The Day We Confess, a local metalcore band from Wilmington, NC. As the crowd was filling in, the 7-piece group provided the perfect welcoming music for the occasion by getting everyone energized for the tour package about to take the stage. The reception to them was pretty favorable, with their sound falling perfectly in line with the rest of the bands on the bill. As far as the touring lineup goes, the first band was Across the White Water Tower, a metalcore quartet from New York. The group was eccentrically dynamic from the second they stepped on stage, with vocalist Matt Sosa refusing to stand still. Their fast-paced energy matched the speed of their music, along with the short time they were allotted on stage, and while their set was brief, they definitely left a lasting impression on the crowd.

The band I was personally most excited to see was Vampires Everywhere, who happened to be on the previous Alesana tour last summer – I was stoked to see them back on the lineup this time around, and the band didn’t disappoint. Their set was similar in some areas (opening with “Star of 666,” the intro tape starting with “Energy” by Drake, etc.), but there were enough surprises to appease longtime fans and new listeners, from closing the set with their fantastic cover of “Cry Little Sister” from the 1987 vampire epic The Lost Boys to the addition of the Terrifier (2016) theme to their intro tape.

As short as their set was, the band fit in a decent amount of VE classics, both old and new, like “Kiss of Death” from their second full-length album Hellbound and Heartless and recent singles “Witch” and “Sudden Death.” Careful listeners may have even picked up on vocalist/VE founder Michael Vampire sliding in an “Ice Ice Baby” reference during the bridge of “Immortal Love,” which goes to show how eclectic the band’s influences are, along with how much they just enjoy having fun on stage. The band sounded really tight, with bassist Brandon “Blackout” Burke and drummer Jesse James Smith holding things down while rounding out the low end of the group’s sound, guitarist Michael “Ghost” Rodd making things look effortless on with his solos, and Michael Vampire doing what every frontman does best – getting the crowd excited, while also having fun himself.

I interviewed Michael Vampire and Jesse James Smith after they got off stage, and in the interest of full disclosure, it was a bit of a surreal experience – it’s only been about a year since I started doing interviews for Dead Noise (ironically enough, my first interview took place at the last Alesana show here in Jacksonville when I interviewed former Palisades vocalist Brandon Elgar), and I’m always grateful to work with musicians that seem just as excited to talk with me as I am with them. Michael and Jesse, along with their tour manager Robert Javier and bassist Brandon Blackout, were very personable and patient as we were setting our equipment up, super inviting  with allowing us to leave our equipment on their tour bus during the show and letting us do the interview in there, and flexible with any last-minute changes or requests. Additionally, nobody seemed like they were in a rush or were waving their fingers saying “okay, let’s wrap this up” when the interview was taking longer than the anticipated 20 minutes, and I can’t thank all of them enough for being so gracious with their time and being so great to talk with. I can’t speak for the band, but I had a great time interviewing them and loved getting to relive it as I was editing the video. I’ve been a fan of Michael Vampire’s work for a while, from VE to his other band Dead Girls Academy (along with his features on songs by bands like Motionless in White and The Edge of Reason), and I also really enjoy Jesse’s podcast The Sceneior Citizens Podcast, so to be able to interview them felt amazing and I can’t wait to see the band live again.

The Floridian post-hardcore outfit Limbs played after Vampires Everywhere, and I caught the first two songs of their set (“Empty Vessel” and “Slow Burn”), having left afterwards to interview VE. For the short time that I saw them, the crowd reacted very well to their hard-hitting and in-your-face music, and the band fed off of that energy as well. In simplest terms, they were a great fit for the direct support slot to a band like Alesana.

Alesana had the audience in the palm of their hand from the moment vocalist/rhythm guitarist Shawn Milke walked on stage to sing “The Dark Wood of Error” – when the rest of the band followed to kick off the following Place Where the Sun is Silent track, “A Forbidden Dance,” it was off to the races. With Alesana’s hometown of Raleigh, NC just a short drive away from Hooligans Live here in Jacksonville, to say the audience was composed of dedicated hardcore fans would be an understatement. Every fan there knew every word to every song, and the band gave them a performance that was even better than the last time they were here.

Musically, they sounded absolutely on point, and their energy on stage simply can’t be understated. I have so much respect for each musician in that band as performers, but I want to spotlight screamer Dennis Lee for a minute – not only am I blown away with him being able to scream the way he does for the entire duration of a live show (and, in turn, a full-blown tour), but it’s unreal to perform at that level when you take into consideration how active he is while on stage. Alesana’s not the type of band to stare at their shoes while they strum at their guitars, and Lee is easily the most energetic member of that band, constantly running back and forth on stage and getting in fans’ faces as they scream his lyrics back at him, and it’s unbelievable how he’s able to do so without sacrificing his vocal performance. Even if you’re not a day-one or hardcore fan, it’s hard not to be entertained at an Alesana show, and this was just another example of that.

To sum things up, it was a great night for fans of heavy music, and a very memorable one at that. It was great to see Alesana back in the area and to bring another stacked bill with them, and one can keep their fingers crossed they’ll be back for Part 3.

Support the bands by checking out the following links:

The Day We Confess: https://linktr.ee/thedayweconfessband

Across the White Water Tower: https://linktr.ee/atwwt

Vampires Everywhere: https://linktr.ee/Vampireseverywhere

Limbs: https://linktr.ee/whoislimbs/

Alesana: https://linktr.ee/alesanaofficial

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