AFI and Circa Survive w/ Citizen
Showbox SoDo, Seattle, WA
08.05.17

For the final show of the second leg of The Blood Tour, AFI and Circa Survive were paired up in an epic co-headlining effort. They took over Seattle’s Showbox SoDo with in-your-face screams, big guitars, and even bigger beats. All of which served to show exactly why these bands have garnered such mainstay audiences over the years.

The show opened with Midwest rockers Citizen who may not have met the energy level of the bands about to follow but set up the room with appropriate musical passion. The guys have two albums under their belts and a third on the way, and they managed to get the crowd singing along halfway through the set, so they clearly did their job and had a few fans present.

By the time Circa Survive hit the stage, amidst a wash of strobe lights and red LEDs, the crowd was ready to party. Frontman Anthony Green was in a chipper mood, grinning his way through screamo tracks that leaned toward their newer catalog and throwing his body into full motion. They kicked the energy in the room up tenfold.

Green paused for a moment midway through the set and sang a bit of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” encouraging the crowd to do just that, to which there was zero hesitation. While there were the requisite hits on their setlist, they also chose to rock out some less common tracks – which makes sense after two anniversary tours – and gave us the fresh “Lustration,” off a forthcoming album in the works.

Their set was a perfect lead into AFI’s, both bands killing it on the energy and crowd involvement, to an almost surprising level given it was the last night of tour. No one appeared tired in the least. AFI rocked a setlist of radio hits mixed with cult favorites, the crowd going crazy for “The Despair Factor,” amongst others.

Lead singer Davey Havok, in top form, leaped all over the stage, caught serious air, and god-walked into the crowd on “I Hope You Suffer.” The rest of the band wasn’t far behind either, tearing up serious guitar work while jumping and posing right along with him. A few fans – likely contest winners – had the pleasure of being in the front barricade as Havok screamed in their faces and they screamed right back.

It was a celebratory night for all the bands as well as the entire crowd as AFI closed out the show with a two-track encore of the classics “God Called in Sick Today,” and “Miss Murder.”

Review and photos by Stephanie Dore

AFI


Circa Survive

Citizen