Live: Hands Like Houses, Emarosa, Devour the Day and The Faim in Indy
The Emerson Theater is a venue in Indy that used to be the go-to venue for all things punk, metalcore and hardcore metal. Then it reached a slump where not many people went to shows there, but lately things have improving and attendance is back up.
This is thanks to them bringing bands like Hands Like Houses, who’s headline tour recently came through Indy with support from Emarosa, Devour The Day and The Faim, making for a night where the venue was packed almost to capacity and the crowd was ready to go.
For The Fire got the night started off strong but their set was pushed forward an hour so most people who came out to see them actually missed them. Keep your eye on them, though, these guys have a really bright future ahead of them and they’re a band you need to see live.
It wasn’t long before The Faim took the stage and this is where things got interesting. Everything about their set was solid, except for they kept having issues with the sound system. At one point, a photographer stopped the band and told them they couldn’t hear them out of one side of speakers, which frustrated the band even more.
Overall, The Faim sounded great- it was like Twenty One Pilots if Twenty One Pilots didn’t suck. Their stage presence solid and saw singer Josh Raven coming down into the photo pit to get up close with fans, making sure they got wild and crazy early and ensured the band’s first full US Tour continued to be one to remember.
Devour The Day were up next and were an interesting band to have on this tour since they’re stylistically different from the rest of the bill, but fans welcomed them with open arms and knew the words to almost every song as well.
Devour The Day made sure the crowd got exactly what they wanted and put on a show that lived up to everything they’ve built their reputation on. Bassist Joey Walser was energetic as always- jumping and running around the stage and singer Blake Allison’s screams resounded through the building stronger than ever; Even though Emarosa has a name for putting on a crazy show, the bar was raised high.
Emarosa took the challenge and ran with it, on a mission for impossible for Hands Like Houses to outdo them. From the start of their set, the sound issues that plagued The Faim came back with a vengeance and singer ER White’s mic didn’t even work for half the set- putting out horrible feedback, static or straight up not working at all- so badly that he took time between songs to talk to the sound staff about how bad things were.
In between two more songs, he told the crowd he was going to wait for the issues to get fixed but then gave up waiting when it took too long- at one point a fan yelled for him to break the mic but he said he wasn’t going to, only because it’s his.
Despite these issues, though, Emarosa’s set was insane and lived up to every expectation fans had for them. By the time they were done, fans didn’t have much energy left for Hands Like Houses but still somehow mustered up everything inside them to give HLH the respect and adrenaline they demanded and deserved.
The lights went down and the crowd was deafening and ready to spend what they had left and the band made sure those left in attendance got what they came for. Their set was loaded with energy and they didn\’t let up until it was all said and done.
It’s a beautiful thing when a band and the crowd are completely in-sync, feeding off each other and that’s exactly what this entire night was from start to finish.
-Reggie Edwards