Thursday night was my first time on the balcony at The Fillmore. I splurged on the good seats what feels like a lifetime ago, the minute tickets went on sale in the frigid dead of winter. For anyone who’s followed, it’s no secret that my Poppy obsession knows no bounds. This was easily my most anticipated show of the year, and I’m happy to say it, unsurprisingly, delivered in spades. My younger self would’ve had FOMO from all the bouncing, jumping, and moshing. But my millennial ass has found a new favorite vantage point from which to experience the chaotic majesty that is Poppy and co.
THOUSAND BELOW
“We’re San Diego and we’re from- wait…fuck. We’re Thousand Below and we’re from San Diego…”
A moment of levity amongst the emo-coded post-hardcore group’s set further endeared the already earnest act, fronted by vocalist James Deberg, whose versatile vocal delivery effortlessly overlaid co-vocalist and guitarist Josh Thomas’ colossal riffage, bassist Josh Billimoria’s droning and deep rhythms, and drummer Max Santoro’s powerhouse smashing. They’re not an act I was previously familiar with, but they certainly make their musical ancestors proud by tapping into a precise, polished mix of hardcore, metalcore, emo, and the modern-era electronic flourishes popularized by acts like Poppy and collaborators Bad Omens. From guttural screams to falsetto balladry, Deberg led the band with confidence, getting the energy levels up for what was to follow with their excellent display of riffs, drum fills, screams, and hardcore calls to arms.
Setlist
Kerosene
SHAKE
Venenosa
Wrong Again
Save Me
Hell Finds You Everywhere
Palace of Dread
No Place Like You
Sabotage
LANDMVRKS
Well, holy fuckin’ shit.
I’d known about these guys for a hot second, but just never took the time to dive in. So a sincere thank you to Poppy for inviting them on this tour because they’re one of the best acts I’ve seen in recent memory, full stop. Hailing from Marseille, France, vocalist Florent Salfati, bassist Rudy Purkart, lead guitarist Nicolas Exposito, rhythm guitarist Paul Cordebard, and drummer Kévin D'Agostino brought the heat and never let up.
Their sound has a wide swath of influences and a genre-bending variety, from mid-90s rap-coded metal to Norma Jean to Linkin Park to Korn to Turnstile. Firmly metalcore in terms of genre classification, they outpace the majority of their peers in almost every respect, from the ferocity of their riffage to the entire band sharing moments of vocal overlapping, to their blending of so many sounds within each individual song, to their super high-energy stage presence. Being completely locked into a brand-new musical experience is a rarity for me that I happily celebrate. Having gone back and blasted through their entire discography more than once now, including a faithful (and very fun) cover of Sum 41’s “Fat Lip,” they’re a band I’m going to be paying close attention to for the rest of my days. And I’ll be catching them every chance I get. For as good as their studio production is, this is one of those rare instances where the live experience elevates the music in a way that it feels like it’s being injected straight into your veins.
Setlist
Creature
Death
A Line in the Dust
Sulfur
La valse du temps
Lost in a Wave
Rainfall
Blood Red
Self-Made Black Hole
POPPY
My favorite.
I can’t ever write about Poppy in a balanced or unbiased way. Her (in my subjective opinion) magnum opus LP, Negative Spaces, came to me at a very critical time in my life, and it remains among my top two releases of the past decade (along with METZ’s II). And ever since diving into her work a couple of years back, my love for her as an artist has only grown in intensity and appreciation.
So, with that said, I’m happy to say that she is presently at her peak performance abilities. As anyone familiar with her knows, her musical evolution is worthy of a doctoral dissertation or its own college-level, full-semester course, manifesting like a speedrun of David Bowie’s career-long chameleonic shifts. Beginning as an online performance artist as much as a musician, her career has gone from pop(py) to pop(py)-metal to straight up metal. And there’s an abundance of nuance in between and within each distinctive era and project. Songs like “Concrete” are emblematic of her ability to mash it all together, and albums like Zig showcase her ability to take hard turns in the midst of it all before turning back in the same directional line and then wandering even further afield. I imagine if you don’t like a wide variety of musical genres and subgenres, Poppy might be hard for you to digest. Which makes her all the more exciting to me (and her myriad fans). I never know what’s coming next… but I end up loving it all anyway. Variety is the spice of life, after all…
Poppy at The Fillmore. Video clip by Justin Stercula.
Anyway…
With the last two tours, this year’s Constantly Nowhere and last year’s They’re All Around Us, the focus and musical identity leans heavy on her more modern adoption of consistently metal queen. The aforementioned Negative Spaces and this year’s Empty Hands carry Jordan Fish’s production and co-writing, with contributions from the likes of Knocked Loose’s Isaac Hale and House of Protection’s Stephen Harrison. The result is a more consistent focus on guitar-driven heaviness, though she still maintains her best pop sensibilities with soaring melodies and vulnerable emotional explorations.
What this translates to live is something akin to “Poppy’s Variety Hour.” It rocks. She rocks. Her band, consisting of lead guitarist Johnuel Hasney, guitarist Alexa Lynn, bassist Jake Massanari, and drummer Ralph Alexander, is quite possibly the most talented roster of touring musicians (within genre lines) ever. Hasney’s ability to absolutely shred, strum and pick delicately, or just chug chug heavy riffs alongside Lynn is formidable and supremely badass. Then you have Lynn’s own interplay and movement acting as the throughline of maximum riffage in tandem with the dirty, low, adventurous bass riffs from Massanari and, best of all, Alexander’s drumming that would make Danny Carey and Eloy Casagrande proud. Wearing the “scary masks”–as with the last tour–they serve as faceless, borderline demonic denizens of rocking the fuck out and propping up the larger-than-life stage persona that is Poppy.
This tour basically functions as They’re All Around Us, Part II. The best surprises of the night for me were the inclusion of “Crystallized,” in which she rightly requested the crowd dance their asses off, and “Halo,” the Negative Spaces album closer that will forever wreck me emotionally. I also have to shout out the one-two punch of the title track for “Negative Spaces” and it’s spiritual successor, “Eat the Hate,” which veered more into Courtney Love/Hole territory before veering back to metal with house-on-fire banger “The Center’s Falling Out.” But with the relative brevity of her set compared to her discography, she weaves an intricate web of ups, downs, lefts, and rights in terms of genre-switching. And she does it all without giving us whiplash. Expertly placed segues and additions to certain songs create a musical narrative that carries it all from A to Z very smoothly.
Despite a shoddy and low-quality sound mix compared to the openers, the band’s performance itself proved impeccable from start to finish. It’s a testament to the level of skill on display and a clear evolution in Poppy as a performer as she seamlessly transitions from angelic singing to guttural screaming. The addition of Alexa Lynn on guitar and backing vocals has been a massive benefit for the live sound. While Poppy has always been a singular entity, I do wonder if this dynamic will open the door for more group-oriented, collaboration-focused projects in the future.
In short, Poppy is still doing Poppy things and proving that she’s among the best to ever do it. Whether the next creative leap is into electronic, even heavier metal, grunge, psychedelic, whatever… I’m all in. She continues to prove herself able to master all realms she seeks to conquer, and I’m just here for the ride.
Long live Poppy.
Setlist
Constantly Nowhere
have you had enough?
the cost of giving up
Concrete
Bruised Sky
Scary Mask
crystallized
vital
Guardian
negative spaces
Eat the Hate
the center’s falling out
Public Domain
Time Will Tell
V.A.N (Bad Omens cover)
If We're Following the Light
Encore:
halo
new way out
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