Anberlin w/ I THE MIGHTY
Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA
06.20.19

Bands come and go. When they go and come back they usually don’t come back the same. Not Anberlin. After calling it quits in 2014, they came back in 2019 with a reunion tour, picking everything up right where they left it. Some might even say they came back stronger than before. They brought I The Mighty along with them around the US on what turned out to be a fantastic reunion tour.

Anberlin started the night with the fast-paced song, “Godspeed,” to set the tone for the night. Strong backlight hid the faces of the band, as flashes from the side stage illuminated each member. Lead singer, Stephen Christian, grabbed the phone of a young girl in the front row who was video recording the opening song. Christian proceeding to take the phone to record himself, the audience, and getting up close to the other band members all while continuing to sing and preform. Like everyone on the internet, most live concert footage we see on Instagram is usually pretty terrible. That short clip has to be up there in one of the top 10 best concert footage from a fan’s phone.

From there on out it was one high energy, fast-paced, adrenaline-filled night of Anberlin. With a long 22 song they hit many of their best songs like ‘Feel Good Drag’, ‘Paperthin Hymn’, and ‘Underwinding Cable Car’. Of course they missed a lot but lets hope they are saving those for their second reunion tour.

Their live performance had not lost any of the big energy that makes Anberlin so fun live. Christian got the crowd involved, jumping onto the front row barricade to sing right over the crowd and throwing the mic in fans faces. All night rhythm guitarist, Christian McAlhaney, was thrashing about the stage along with bassist, Deon Rexroat.

After five years, nothing about them has changed and their performance was even more impressive than when they were younger. Everything gets better with age and so did Anberlin. 

I The Mighty were the opener for Anberlin. Huge fans of Anberlin themselves, the band recalled watching them every day on Warped Tour when they toured together. They played an extended opening set as the only openers. The most entertaining member was their bass player that really left everything he had on the stage that night by running, jumping, and thrashing for the whole 45-minute set. 

Photos & Review by Logan Westom

Anberlin

I THE MIGHTY