For Today
El Corazon, Seattle, WA
11.08.16
Originally formed in 2005 in Sioux City, Iowa, Christian metalcore band For Today announced this summer that they would be ending the band after one final fall tour. Their fans would have this one final chance to take in the band’s ministry, and at Seattle’s El Corazon, that’s exactly what the sold out crowd did.
Against a stage draped with a big “For Today” backdrop, the band played for an hour and half. Vocalist Mattie Montgomery gave a small speech about how when he first joined For Today 10 years ago, he never thought of making friends along the way, but to him it was much deeper than friendships, he feels this is a huge family that keeps growing everyday.
Everyone in the crowd was so happy to hear that, and could tell he truly did mean those words. The band worked their way through a 14-track set that had everyone in the band cracking huge smiles and laughs throughout. You could definitely tell they were going to miss playing together. They had a very good sound guy to make them all sound on point and on the same level in such a small venue.
The crowd’s energy never let down from the beginning of their set to the very last song, I looked out in the crowd a few times and saw some people with tears in their eyes, knowing this is last time they will see For Today.
For their encore, “Devastator,” as soon as the band came back to the stage and that guitar riff kicked in, the entire venue was going crazy. They knew this was their one last chance. At the end of the song, tons of people went up on stage from the crowd to sing along, making it a very deep and intense ending to the show.
After they played their encore, Montgomery wanted to pray with everyone in the crowd. He told everyone to put one hand on the person next to them, as he put his left hand on some guy’s head in the crowd. He prayed for everyone to keep going on with this family to never let go, even though For Today will be ending, this family doesn’t. After he prayed with everyone, the rest of the band came out to hand out guitar picks and drum sticks.
Review and photos by Bryce Cato
For Today
Norma Jean
