Thank You, Palisades

January 11 was a somber day in the active rock community as New Jersey's alternative metal group Palisades announced their disbandment, concluding their 12-year career with two farewell shows at the House of Independents in Asbury Park, NJ on February 25 and 26. With the unexpected departure of vocalist Brandon Elgar last October, the band brought back original singer Lou Miceli and electronic engineer Earl Halasan for their two commemorative headlining shows, bringing a family reunion type of feeling to the celebratory weekend.

With Palisades having a close and gracious relationship with their fans, they have gone the extra mile to film and stream the first show of the weekend for fans who weren't able to buy tickets or travel to the shows, with replays available until Monday, February 27. These farewell shows have been marketed with the phrase "Thank You for Everything," a phrase that many fans have echoed back at them, which is what I'm going to do here.

Palisades was a band I was familiar with solely by name for a long time, and I didn't really dive into their music until I was about to see them live. In late January/early February of 2019, it was announced that metalcore monsters Ice Nine Kills were going on a co-headlining tour with Pennsylvania's premier nu-metal band From Ashes to New in the spring and playing in my hometown of Jacksonville, NC, with support coming from Afterlife, Palisades, and Hawk. Personally, I despise being at a concert and being unfamiliar with what I’m hearing, so I did some thorough research on all of the support bands and loving all of them, but feeling more of a connection with Palisades’ music.

The first song I ever heard from Palisades was “Let Down,” their most popular song and standout track from their 2017 self-titled album. At first, I had to make sure I was listening to the right band because the song was sonically so much different from the rest of the bands on the “March Into Madness” Tour, but I quickly learned why they were on the bill when I heard the next track, “Through Hell.” The stark contrast between the two songs alone was enough to capture my interest and attention, because it’s great when bands take risks and do different things. It didn’t take long for me to realize that taking musical risks was simply a part of Palisades’ DNA – their early work had a prevalent emphasis on electronic experimentation, with 2012’s Mind Games being the greatest example of that. 

Palisades’ self-titled album is one of my favorites, with my adoration for it amplified by the sentimental value of it being the first record of theirs I got into, but their 2018 follow-up Erase the Pain is a strong contender as well. I was hooked on songs like “Vendetta” and “Ghost,” but it was the album’s third track, “Fade,” that really had a grip on me from the very start. Musically alone, it was a song that instantly got stuck in my head – I’m a sucker for mid-tempo songs that still pack a punch, and this one checked all the boxes. From the sonically infectious chord progression in the intro to the backing vocals in the second half of the chorus, “Fade” instantly became my favorite Palisades song, with only a handful of close seconds. 

When the concert day arrived, I was hyped beyond belief and ready for a fun night of heavy music, and I wasn’t at all disappointed. My dad and I (yes, my dad goes to these kinds of shows with me because he’s THAT cool) had VIP tickets for Ice Nine Kills, so we were at the venue a lot earlier than the doors opened, and I remember being able to hear Palisades and From Ashes to New soundchecking. I could clearly hear From Ashes to New’s “Forgotten” and Palisades’ “Let Down” and “Better Chemicals,” reverberating outside the walls of the Tarheel Concert Lounge (now known as the Lime Light), and all I was thinking about was how much I wanted to just run inside and have the concert start at that very moment. The show was great and all the support bands were hanging out at their merch tables, with all of them being great to talk with. It got very crowded very fast, but Palisades were super personable and took their time with everyone that came up to them, myself included, and I left that night with fingers crossed they would come back to the Jacksonville area again in the future as headliners. 

Not even a full year after that concert, the world turned upside down thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, and Palisades was quiet for most of that period of time. Their social media was largely inactive from the outside looking in, and with Miceli’s departure from touring in 2019 due to medical issues, I was worried for a while that Palisades may not return after the pandemic. Thankfully I was wrong, with their first new single, “My Consequences,” dropping in December of 2021 and an album scheduled for release in July of 2022.

Palisades’ fifth album, Reaching Hypercritical, had a more guitar-driven sound that I gravitated towards, and I was a fan of Brandon Elgar’s contributions as the band’s new lead vocalist. The album had an aggressive yet bleak feeling to it that reflected the mentality of the musicians’ lives over the past year or two during the time the album was being written, which was a tone that a lot of listeners could relate to as a result of their own mental health and personal struggles as a result of the pandemic. I loved the album, with it being one of my favorites of the year, and it was in heavy rotation for me that summer.

Shortly before Reaching Hypercritical was officially released, Palisades was announced as direct support for Alesana on the first part of their “Trilogy” tour, in which they played their landmark 2010 album The Emptiness in its entirety, with one of the first stops on the second leg being at Hooligans Live in Jacksonville, NC. With the venue only being a twenty-minute drive from my house, I knew I had to be there. I also felt compelled enough to reach out to Palisades for an interview with Elgar before the show, covering his step-up from bassist to vocalists, the album, and the tour they were on – truth be told, I don’t know what possessed me to do this and I really wasn’t expecting any sort of response from them. I was only a few months into this blog, and didn’t have any interviews under my belt at that point. Sure, I’ve interviewed UFC fighters, local musicians, and horror film celebrities, but that was when I was in college and for projects unaffiliated with Dead Noise, so with nothing to really show in the context of this particular platform, I didn’t think I would be taken seriously. To my surprise, they responded within minutes and agreed to the interview. 

When August 19 came, my dad and I made it to Hooligans a couple hours before doors opened to set up the interview, and Palisades happened to be soundchecking when we arrived. Hearing “Sick of the Attitude” and “My Consequences” from the outside brought back the memory of waiting outside back in 2019, and Elgar walked outside with drummer Aaron Rosa a few minutes later. We set up outside, and the musicians were extremely friendly and happy to help with anything we needed. They asked if we already had tickets, helped get us photo passes to film their set, and were simply just fun to talk with to the point that it felt like just hanging out with old friends even though we just met. The interview took around 20 minutes, and their 35-minute set was phenomenal. Of course, the only problem was that it was too short, but I once again held out hope that they’d return again as headliners.

Like many fans, I felt blindsided by Elgar’s exit in October, so I couldn’t imagine how the guys in the band felt, particularly considering the fact that they were about to embark on another tour in a couple weeks. Nonetheless, I still believed in the band’s potential just like I did when I first heard them in 2019, and I hoped for the best in terms of their continuation. After a couple months, they teased the return of Miceli and Halasan, causing a ton of buzz online, which then led to the bombshell farewell announcement. Just like the news in October, this felt like a punch in the gut simply because of how surprising it was.

After some time, I once again felt compelled to reach out to the band for an interview to help celebrate their career and hear their opinions on the shows and the planning process behind everything – I had a lot of fun talking with Aaron Rosa off-camera in August and wished I had included him in that first interview, so I asked if he would happen to be available for this one, and he was on board. I planned for it to last only 20-30 minutes, but the full interview ended up lasting around an hour and a half. I was worried about taking up too much of his time or encroaching on the band’s schedule, but he was down for anything and was happily flexible with however long the interview needed to take. It was a ton of fun talking with him, and I hope any Palisades fans that watch the interview feel the same kind of closure that I did while listening to Aaron’s answers. 

I also think this little anecdote is another indication of the kind of people that make up Palisades, as well as how much the musicians care about their fans – we had some small talk before we started recording and I mentioned seeing him back in August in Jacksonville, and I didn’t think he’d really remember since he’s met so many people on the road. However, when we were talking after the recorder stopped and the Zoom window was about to close, he said, “before this kicks us out, tell your dad ‘what’s up’ for us, hope he’s doing well,” and I was just as  happy and shocked to hear that as my dad was. When music is such a big part of your life, it’s very easy to put your favorite bands and artists up on a pedestal because of how much of an impact those songs have had on my life, so it’s wild to see things come full circle in that way.

While I’ve only been a Palisades fan for four short years, their music has made a big impact on me – I remember how I felt when I first got into them and listening to their songs on long walks around my college campus, in the gym, in the car, and in my room. Their music was a go-to for me on bad days and good days alike, and while it’s upsetting to see them come to an end as an active band, there’s the comfort of them ending on their terms the way they want to, as well as the fact that their music will continue to last. In the spirit of the theme of their shows, I have to thank Palisades for everything – for the music, the conversations, the memories, everything. I hope our paths cross again in the future, and I wish the band nothing but the best. 

Lastly, here are my personal favorite songs + recommendations from each Palisades album:

• I’m Not Dying Today EP (2012): “Bury It,” “Seamless Ending,” “Wolves”
• Outcasts (2013): “Your Disease,” “The Reckoning,” “Sidney”
• Mind Games (2015): “No Chaser,” “Mind Games,” “True Blood”
• Palisades (2017): “Dark,” “Through Hell,” “Personal”
• Erase the Pain (2018): “Vendetta,” “Fade,” “Ghost”
• Reaching Hypercritical (2022): “Reaching Hypercritical,” “Your Misery,” “Sick of the Attitude”

For tickets to Palisades’ farewell show livestream, click here.

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