Hail The Sun and Intervals Co-Headline Irving Plaza on Spring Tour
- Emily Agnesini
- Apr 14, 2024
- 6 min read
Hail The Sun and Intervals hit up Irving Plaza on their spring co-headliner tour with support from Body Thief and Makari. The line for doors stretched multiple blocks as spectators waited to enter the venue. The clock hit 6 p.m. and people started piling on to the main floor with drinks and their merch in hand.
The first band taking the stage was Makari. Makari is an American rock band originating in Orlando, Florida and have been active since 2011. The band consists of vocalist Andy
Cizek, guitarists Matt Beljan and Eric Stewart, bassist John Tomasso and drummer Kevin
Beljan. Makari has released two studio albums. Their first release in 2018 was called
“Hyperreal” and their second on March 8th, 2024, called “Wave Machine”. Makari took the stage to a loud cheer from the crowd. Makari had a great showing in the crowd. Makari doesn't tour very often so their fans knew they had to come out and put their full passion on display. Fans were pleased to hear four songs from their new album.
Those songs were “Eternity Leave”, “Closer”, “Breakers” and “Soul Stealer”. Cizek expressed his gratitude for the amazing crowd as the crowd followed every order given.
Matt Beljan and Stewart shredded away on guitar as Tomasso’s bass work complimented
them perfectly. And of course, Kevin Beljan slammed away on the kit. Makari ended their
set with “Transient” which has accumulated over 7 million streams on Spotify”. Makari shared their gratitude one last time as they walked off the stage making plenty of new fans.
The next band up was Body Thief. Body Thief is a three-piece American rock band from
Maryland. The band consists of vocalist Daniel Hawkins, guitarist Greg Chipkin and
drummer Sebastian Ramos. They have been active since the early 2010’s and are signed
with Blue Swan Records, which is under Rise Records. Body Thief has released three
studio albums. Their first release in 2015 was called “Speak in Hibernation”, their second
in 2019 called “Travel Glow” and their most recent in 2022 called “Every Ending”. Body
Thief specializes in a combination of post-rock and post-hardcore elements in which they
found major influences from their hometown music scene. That style combined with their
unlimited skill created a sound that their fanbase has come to love. Body Thief took the stage at 7:40 on the dot and got a massive cheer from the crowd.
They opened their set with “Sufrimos” from the album “Ever Ending”. Body Thief’s whole set was songs off that record. Fans heard the graceful guitar work of Chipkin and opened the
pit. The guitar work combined with the skills of Hawkins and Ramos created an infectious
energy. The energy turned up a notch when people began crowd surfing. The other songs
played were “Death, Drugs and Dancing”, “Dead Hearts”, “Stimuli” and “Ego Displacement”. “Death, Drugs and Dancing” is their most streamed song on Spotify with
over 440,000 streams. The band ended their set with “Ego Displacement”. Hawkins
asked the crowd for everything they had, and they did not disappoint. An active pit combined with the voices of fans singing sent off Body Thief on the highest note.
The show's first headliner was ready to take the stage. This band was Hail the Sun. Hail
the Sun is an American post hardcore band from Chico, California. The band consists of
vocalist Donovan Melero, guitarists Shane Gann and Aric Garcia, bassist John Stirrat
and drummer Allen Casillas. Hail the Sun has been active since 2009 and has released
six studio albums. Their most recent album release is called “Divine Inner Tension”
released in 2023 under Equal Vision Records. Hail The Sun most recently released their
single “Secondary Worship” on March 1st, 2024. Hail The Sun was most recently in New
York City in 2023 on their headlining tour for their 2023 album release. They played the
Gramercy Theater which is only a few blocks from Irving Plaza.
Hail the Sun has been labeled as post hardcore but uses elements from screamo and progressive rock. All these elements were on full display tonight. The band took the stage to a show of colored flashing lights that amped up the crowd. They opened with
“Maladapted” from their latest album release. The crowd went insane from the start. The
energy of the band was infectious. Each member jumping around and constantly moving was loved by the crowd as they had to top the band’s energy. It was a back and forth all night with the two parties. Each time Melero asked for more, the fans did that and more. Crowd surfers were pouring over the barricade as security had to be on their toes all night. The band took a moment to show gratitude to security for keeping everyone safe. The pit was even crazier. The pit swallowed the floor whole as it pushed everyone back in every direction. The pit was moving from front to back left to right as people were having the time of their lives.
Hail the Sun was soaking in that moment. They loved every second of this show. Melero
took a moment to share their band’s story and when they first played in New York City.
They described this show as one of the craziest they've ever seen. Just as crazy as the first time they played here in 2012. Hail the Sun finished their set with “Human Target
Practice”. That song comes from their 2014 hit album “Wake”. The band dedicated this
song to anti police brutality and the crowd kicked into high gear to finish the set. The fan catapulted crowd surfers in the air as moshers claimed the middle of the pit. Hail the Sun Thanked everyone for an insane evening and walked off the stage
Finishing the show would be Intervals. Intervals is a Canadian instrumental progressive metal band from Toronto, Ontario. Intervals has been active since 2011 and is a purely instrumental band. There is only one full-time member of the band. His name is AaronMarshall. Marshall has recruited 3 highly talented people to be his touring musicians.They would be Nathan Bulla on drums, Jacob Umansky on bass and Travis LeVrier on guitar. Marshall is the band's lead guitarist. Marshall formed the band as a creative outlet after departing previous bands. Intervals has toured with other titans of the genre such asBetween the Buried and Me, Polyphia and Periphery. Intervals has released four studio albums . Their most recent one being “Circadian” released in 2020. Intervals fifth studio album “Memory Palace” will be released on May 17th of 2024. The lead single “neurogenesis” was released on March 7th, 2024, featuring KOAN Sound, an English electronic duo from Bristol. Intervals were most recently in New York City in October of2023 supporting Tesseract and in May of 2023 supporting Spiritbox for two consecutive nights all at Irving Plaza.
Most people would expect a whole different vibe when an instrumental band takes the
stage. This wasn't the case. Fans kept up the same energy when the band took the stage.
Intervals opened the set with their latest single “neurogenesis”. This single has already
received over 230,000 streams on Spotify. A hot start in anticipation of the release of
“Memory Palace”. Intervals checks all the boxes for metal fans. Marshall is an absolute
wizard at writing and creating music. Each riff is unique and special in its own way. These mesmerizing riffs combined with slamming breakdowns are not like any other. The rest of
the touring band kills it as well. LeVrier and Umansky are wizards on their respective
instruments. Bulla then crashes away on the drum kit creating loud booming sounds that
bounce off the rest of the band's instruments.
The pit was moving the whole set. Fans were jumping around putting on their best dance
moves. One fan had LED light up glasses on as he had the time of his life in the pit.
Intervals played a snippet of the Seinfeld theme as fans got a good laugh out of it.
Marshall every show will ask the crowd “Do you all f*ck with heavy music?”. The crowd
gives a rousing yes without fail. Intervals played “Nootropic”, a currently unreleased song.
It was time for the last song of the set. Intervals played hit song “String Theory” from
“Circadrain”. This song has accumulated almost 5 million streams on Spotify and has
been the closing song for their sets over the last few tours. Marshall asked the crowd for
one more round of applause for all the bands that played and for his incredibly talented
touring crew. Intervals shredded away one last time and thus completed a successful
show. Intervals walked off the stage as fans wanted one more song, but unfortunately
could not get one due to curfew restraints.
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