The Amity Affliction at Red Flag in St. Louis Mo

Emo is NOT dead or a phase, says a sold out Silverstein and The Amity Affliction show at Red Flag in Saint Louis.

UnityTX kicked off the evening to a thick and sweaty crowd. By the time they went onstage the venue was well over two thirds to capacity. The band aggressively insisted on the audiences full attention and participation. With music style of a metal and hip hop mix it was clear the urgency was felt and appreciated.

So rare does the mosh pits and crowd surfing begin with the openers but not this evening. Everyone was amped. Just over a half dozen songs including “Ruckus”, “Agony” and “Walk With Me” was enough to get the show going.

Holding Absence followed and the band from Wales didn’t miss a beat with the energy level. For this being their inaugural trip to the ‘Lou you’d never know it by the amount of songs the crowd knew word for word.

The venue was over packed and room to move at all was sparce but it flowed nonetheless. Pharo from UnityTX joined midway in for “Aching Longing” and the set ended with “Wilt” as drummer Ashley Green held up his Pride flag wrapped cymbal stand. The crowd roared louder. It was assured this won’t be the bands last performance here by any means.

Holding Absence @Red Flag photo by Jen Ruff

With twenty two years in the game Silverstein took the stage with an absolute dominance. You’d never be able to tell that the bands most recent release was at the height of the pandemic. Fans screamed and shouted every word to every single song. Only a band of this magnitude could bring out a Wheel of Songs to which they would spin for three random songs completely in the middle of the set.

Some songs hadn’t been played live in a decade which sweetened the performance. The passion of the band intertwined with the heart of the crowd made this a truly unique show. By the encore most shows lose a bit of energy but not this one. “My Heroine” and “Afterglow” caused a fever pitch of excitement and unmatched elation.

This would have been enough for any other show to end on but alas there was more to come. The Amity Affliction started with “Coffin” and “All My Friends Are Dead” to an audience that seemed they just arrived with plenty of dancing and singing to release. Ahren Stringer’s soft melodic voice nicely juxtaposed with Joel Birch’s growl and screams is apparently a good formula for pop punk music.

With a setlist packed of songs related to dying and death it’s unreal that there was so much hope to be found. In fact mid set Birch conveyed as much with words of comfort and ensuring the bond was missed with over two years of a touring hault. As they rolled through their performance with no encore nor theatrics “Soak Me in Bleach” was a fitting ending to an absolutely crazy night. I don’t know whoever said that emo was dead but as band after band from the mid to late 90s resurface to massive crowds -it’s very clear we were all lied too.