End The Madness Tour with Sleeping with Sirens, State Champs and more

End the Madness. That’s the name of the tour currently being headlined by Sleeping With Sirens, a pop rock/post hardcore band....

End the Madness. That’s the name of the tour currently being headlined by Sleeping With Sirens, a pop rock/post hardcore band but I’d be lying if I said I went to the show for them. I was more intrigued by their openers, Tonight Alive and State Champs. (They had another opener Waterparks who played a very short set that I wasn’t super impressed with).

I believe at this point in my career as a concert goer, I have seen Tonight Alive more than any other band (other than Pierce The Veil), a grand total of 4 times now (April 2015 with All Time Low, March 2016 with Set It Off, July 2016 on Warped Tour, and November 19th with Sleeping With Sirens) and I still get the same excitement every time I see frontwoman Jenna McDougall appear on stage (each time with a different haircut and color). But let’s go back to the beginning of the night with Waterparks.

The trio definitely thrives on the hard pop/rock vibes of teen angst with songs like Mad All The Time. Their set was short and only included a few songs leaving the band plenty of time between each song to interact with the crowd. As a music fan, I believe it is important for bands to interact with their fans, but as I continue to go to more and more shows I have become more of a critic and believe that Waterparks spent potentially too much time just talking and not enough time playing and were rude in some of their comments to fans. That aside, I ended up with some great photos of them because of their energetic stage presence. Now, onto Tonight Alive.

If you asked me two or three years ago what I wanted to do with my life, I would’ve told you I wanted to be a frontwoman in a band (you can see how well that turned out as I realized I’m better at photography). I developed an obsession with female fronted bands and placed these women up on pedestals of inspiration for every aspect of my life. One of those women that has remained a constant inspiration has been none other than Jenna McDougall from Tonight Alive. The Australian pop punk band pauses in the middle of every set to spread a message to their fans every night, one that typically promotes self-love and following your passion no matter who tries to bring you down. Aside from their powerful message, Jenna’s presence is powerful in and of itself as she takes over the stage and commands the attention of everyone in the room. The singer recently shaved her head as a symbol of letting go of materialism and defying beauty standards. I’ve spent so much time talking about the message and power of this band that I have almost forgotten to mention Jenna’s powerhouse of a voice. The ease at which this woman can belt some of the notes she does baffles me every time I see them and her vocal range alone is bigger than my future. Okay, okay, I need to stop talking about these guys because there’s still two more bands I have to talk about.

State Champs! Ah, yes, State Champs. The first time I saw State Champs back in March, I crowd surfed the entire set and ended up dropped on my head on a concrete floor during the encore, but that is beside the point. The pop punk band from Albany, New York never disappoints, even if they might have a leaning toward a more pop sound than what I typically listen to. I wasn’t sure what to expect photographing them for the first time but there is a chance that front man Derek Discanio might be one of the hardest singers to photograph that I have experienced in the past year, simply because of how much he runs around on stage. A+ on stage presence boys. Keep it up.

Finally, we have Sleeping With Sirens. Now, I’m not going to lie, I have never really been a fan of Sleeping With Sirens but that isn’t going to stop me from doing my job, taking their pictures, and reviewing their show. While I personally do not enjoy Kellin Quinn’s high voice or fan base, I definitely can not say that these guys are not talented. I know I talk a lot about stage presence and high energy bands but these guys know how to play to their crowd of teenage girls that swoons every time any member looks in their general direction. Also want to throw out a huge thanks to whoever designed their stage and lighting because… well… just take a look at the photos and you’ll see why.

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