Concert Review and Photos: MISS MAY I with CURRENTS, KUBLAI KHAN, and UPON A BURNING BODY at The Blind Tiger

The Shadows Inside Tour

MISS MAY I with CURRENTS, KUBLAI KHAN, and UPON A BURNING BODY

The Blind Tiger – Greensboro, NC – 16 June 2017

Recently, the triad area of North Carolina has taken a major musical hit with most of our local venues closing. The venues that had the capacity to bring in larger bands – as well as the fan base to support those bands – have shut their doors, leaving smaller venues to try and pick up the slack when it comes to bringing music to the fans in the area. One of those locations, The Blind Tiger in Greensboro, has been slowly working its way more into the limelight with its influx of booking Hardcore Thrash and Metal acts.

When the announcement for The Shadows Inside Tour hit my inbox, I immediately had to jump on it. Miss May I had been a band that I had wanted to see live for years but never had the opportunity to make it out to one of their shows, until now and was it worth the wait.

The night started off with the tour’s opening act, Currents. The funny thing about this night was, I had an interview scheduled with the band the following day to talk about their new album, but didn’t know that they were on this same tour until I saw the list of the bands at the mixing board, I got pretty lucky on this one, but my luck didn’t last long. When the lights dimmed and Currents took the stage, I raised my camera to begin firing images off, but I quickly noticed the severe lack of lighting that I needed to capture these bands in action. Currents and their new frontman, Brian Willie, did not disappoint with their on-stage performance. This was the band’s first major tour, outside of their home in Connecticut, using the opportunity to capture the attention and the love of the fans in the crowd.

The second support act of the night, Kublai Khan, a Texas metalcore act, continued and maintained the high energy left over from Currents’ performance. Fans created circle pits in the crowd as the band jumped around as much as possible on the small stage in the venue. The band were firing on all cylinders throughout their 20-minute set on stage, helping to bring the energy levels up for the night’s main support act, Upon A Burning Body.

Now if you haven’t seen these guys in person, you need to, they deliver an amazing performance, even in the smallest of venues. Upon A Burning Body was a great choice for main support, building the energy in the venue to its peak levels with their heavy-hitting sound and showmanship. Fans in the building called for an encore as the band exited the stage not to return, I even joined in on the “One More Song” chant, hoping the band would give us what we had asked for.

This was Miss May I’s first headlining tour in several years, as they have been playing support recently and focusing on their on-stage performances to give their fans the best experience possible. Frontman Levi Benton said, “We wanted to be our headlining tour to be as epic as possible, we have a new lighting rig and we want to bring the big festival experience to the small venues”, which they did. The lighting for the band helped bring that experience to The Blind Tiger, as the band performed all their hits with a few songs off their new album mixed in. The crowd erupted throughout the band’s performance, giving the artists on stage a taste of what North Carolina has to offer.

The tour is scheduled to run throughout the summer and into the fall with Miss May I performing at a few festivals before they make their way into Europe in the fall. You can check out my interview with the band here.