Can someone tell me how I managed to never see The Amity Affliction live? Because these dudes absolutely rip!
When the invite to the Spring Horizons Tour popped into my inbox a month or so ago for Friday, May 8 at The Riviera Theatre in Chicago, I jumped on it primarily for August Burns Red. I’ve been a fan for about 18 years now and they’re a regular play on my gym playlists, and the first time I saw them live was also at The Riviera in 2018 with Parkway Drive.
But I don’t think I’ve even heard a song by The Amity Affliction in years. So my plan was to shoot the set, stay for about half and leave early.
Instead, I stayed until the very end.
HEAVENSGATE and Boundaries
I arrived late due to prior obligations, so was unable to shoot HEAVENSGATE but caught the last few bits of their set. It was heavy, and a perfect appetizer for the crowd.
Boundaries was next, and brought their brand of hardcore to Chicago. Before the show, the band had shared on social media that the venue was not only taking a 30% cut of their merch sales, but also wouldn’t allow the band to sell their own merch in favor of venue staff. So the band encouraged fans not to tip if fans bought their merch. Upon seeing this, I have expected Boundaries to bring it up during their set.
Unless I missed it, they instead talked about 30 years of hardcore and how it’s become a more popular and viable music genre. The roughly 30-minute set saw fans headbanging and moshing along.
August Burns Red
But then we come to August Burns Red.
Taking the stage at 8:15, ABR came out hard with “Meddler” followed by “Back Burner” — the first song I had ever heard by the band. During Boundaries, there were a few crowd surfers coming over the barricade but as vocalist Jake Luhrs was screaming into my camera, things picked up as I was getting kicked in the back of the head by waves of crowd surfers.
As the photographers were ushered out of the barricade, Luhrs introduced the crowd to a pair of new songs due out on the upcoming Season Of Surrender — “The Nameless” and “Behemoth.”
August Burns Red touched on every major era of their history, but ended the set with a series of classics.
“Marianas Trench” bled into a drum solo where much of the band joined drummer Matt Greiner in a drum solo (Luhrs ran out to hit a triangle and then left stage again). This then led to my favorite August Burns Red tune, “Composure,” before the set ended with “White Washed.”
Fans crowd surfed in waves and moshed around throughout the set as it felt like they played their 14-song set without taking a breath.
The Amity Affliction
The Amity Affliction came out roaring, and once again, I was dodging crowd surfers as they came over the barricade (though not as much as during August Burns Red).
And the truth is, I can’t speak with too much knowledge on The Amity Affliction as I’ve not really listened to them since college. But as I said at the start, these dudes rip (and learning they’re from Australia, yeah, that tracks.)
They focused heavily on 2026’s House of Cards, playing four songs including my favorite of the set in “Heaven Sent” largely due to the blend of heavy and clean vocals. The full set was 14 songs long, and they touched on nearly every release in the band’s history. The Amity Affliction won me over here with their style and sound.
The Spring Horizons Tour ends a week from now on May 17 in Philadelphia. Both The Amity Affliction and August Burns Red are playing at Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio the day before.
August Burns Red is heading to Australia and New Zealand this fall while The Amity Affliction heads to Central and South America later this month.
If able, catch this tour before it ends!
