The Jera On Air made us a small surprise with this intimate show with Beartooth organized 2 weeks before the festival where the band is also playing. Beartooth in a 550p venue. It could only be sick. And it was!
Since their first album, we knew Beartooth got something different. That they were gonna be big. But maybe not so big. Or not so fast. We still remembered the sick show they made in Hasselt in a soldout Muziekodroom in 2016 and thinking this venue as already too small for them. Right before the Covid hit us, they played a soldout show at Trix in Antwerp in front of 1100 fans. Early 2023, they’ll headline the Ancienne Belgique like Parkway Drive, Architects or While She Sleeps did during the last few years. So when the Jera On Air announced this small show, we knew we had to be there. It’s really rare and won’t be happening soon again.
Unfortunately, we arrived in the venue at the end of the show of Another Now who replaced Loathe in last-minute due to a Covid positive case. They had the chance to play in front of the packed venue so that’s a good thing already for them and seems the few people we talked with liked their show.
But we were all there for Beartooth. No barrier. Small stage. Many stage-dives to come. And we didn’t wait more than a song for that! With Below followed by Devastation, both from the latest album “Below”, the band wanted to destroy everything from the beginning. But the crazyness won 2 levels right after with a trio The Lines/Hated/Body Bag. Just 5 songs but we already knew this show will be in the top 10 at the end of the year!
During the whole show, Caleb and his teammates will play songs from their 4 full-length albums and all their classics: Disease, In Between, Agressive… Between a few songs, he took the time to talk to us about how much he missed live music, how music is important for him and basically save his life but also in more positive topics, he told about this show being the fastest show of Beartooth to be soldout and that it was one of the best he’s ever done – at least the best from this Summer run! On this last point, we kinda believe him a bit.
For the encore, after playing The Past Is Dead, he finished in the middle of the crowd playing guitar for the instrumental The Last Riff – perfect name for an ending song! One more easy way to make the audience to go crazy! We saw them at Slam Dunk 2 weeks ago for a sick but really different show. Where we got a huge stage with fire and many effects, we got tonight a show back to the roots with nothing special on stage: just the band, their instruments, a small backdrop and all the energy they got.
We can’t thank enough Jera On Air and Beartooth to make this show happen. Beartooth in a 550p venue. It could only be sick. And it was!
