Periphery (Washington, DC), Sikth (Watford, UK), Chon (San Diego, CA), Toothgrinder (Asbury Park, NJ)

August 22, 2016

Varsity Theater, in Minneapolis, MN

“What’s up, Minne-apple-tits?”

A short phrase like that and I knew I was going to love Periphery’s set.

This was one of those shows I was looking forward to and wanted to cover since it was announced a couple months ago. I grew to really love the band over this past summer. I listened to their Clear EP front to back on the way to Clear Lake, Iowa for the Sevendust show and that album will always have that memory attached to it. Now I have new memories to attach to their newest record, Periphery 3: Select Difficulty.

“Scarlet” was a perfect song to open with, Lune was a perfect closer with everything in between as close to perfect as could be. I would have loved to see “Alpha” live, but “Marigold” and “Remain Indoors,” two of my favorites on the new record, were played live so the tradeoff was worth it.

Toothgrinder, one of my favorite new metal bands, were awesome though they deserve a longer set. Chon after them impressed me a ton. I wasn’t feeling them too much before the show when checking them out on Spotify, but the visuals of seeing them play their music and be in awe of that probably helped. Sikth I wasn’t a big fan of at all. I didn’t really like the music much and couldn’t really get into it, but like I often say, if you’re a fan of the band, they didn’t play bad objectively, so you’d probably think they were good.

I don’t think I can say enough good things about Periphery’s show. The sound was good, lighting was amazing, the band played flawlessly. I started loving this band kind of late, but now with their new album and having seen them in person, they’re easily one of my favorite bands.