On February 10, 2024, Silent Planet headlined at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia with special guests; Wiltwither, Aviana, Johnny Booth, and Thornhill. The night was like a dream with the venue completely packed from upstairs to the bottom floor with supportive fans. The amount of love towards these bands from everyone in the room is something we need to see all the time in the scene, especially towards local musicians.
The opening band for the night's show was; Wiltwither. They were added to the lineup as a result of Garrett in Silent Planet seeking local bands to perform at their shows as the support, afterall everyone starts as a local band trying to make it. When I got to the show, I went over to their merch table and you can see the excitement in their faces and how honored they feel for being able to open up for all these other bands. Wiltwither formed in the Carolinas consisting of; Nick Rendelmen (Vocals) , Dakota Brown (Guitar) , Anna Harper (Bass) , Tyler Syphertt (Drums), and Joshua Davis (Guitar). They currently have almost 4,000 Spotify listeners with The House I Lived In being the most popular with 13,000 Spotify plays from the EP "The House I Lived and Died In" released February 16, 2023.
Wiltwither opened their set with No Worries, and that song did not fit for what was happening. Between the bass player spinning consistently in circles and the vocalist constantly jumping or kicking in the air. I was worried that someone was definitely going to get knocked out on stage because when Wiltwither performs, they PEFORM HARD. And they will cause complete chaos and mayhem ON and OFF stage. The number of attendees at the barricade who were wearing Wiltwither shirts was very heartwarming because the musicians in this band deserved to be recognized in the scene and to have opportunities such as this one
They performed their newest single; "For No One Else To See" and this is one of my favorite songs by far from Wiltwither. Within the first 15 seconds of the song, the build-up occurs from the instruments' peaking to the most volatile and brutal vocals I've heard in a song. During this song, I noticed 3 guys at the barricade head banging and I thought they were going to break the barricade with how hard they were holding onto it and pulling it back. The last song they played was Become One and this song has not been released yet. So this was the first time anyone had heard this song and I knew since it was the last song, Nick (Vocals) was going to jump off the stage and crowd surf. Nick crowd surfs at every show or stage dives. Either one. And I was right. He jumped down from the stage and went straight to the crowd. This is why I love Wiltwither. They are not afraid to get in the crowd to get everyone involved in their set.
I had a chance to talk to 3 of the members and this is what they stated;
Tyler; "Atlanta was something special, the air was different and everything became one"
Dakota; "I just want to say that we wouldn't be anything without our team and the family we have in the music scene. We owe it all to them"
Nick; "Last night was a movie directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Explosions everywhere, amazing action set pieces, and the good guy got the girl in the end. Words can’t describe how thankful we are to Silent Planet for giving us the opportunity to play in the first place and the sense of love and community we received from the rest of the package, venue crew and staff, and the crowd was immeasurable. The greatest night of our lives by far"
Next up was the famous Swedish band, Aviana! I saw them last year when they toured with Invent Animate, Thrown, and Void Of Vision. The mysterious musicians in this band are what keep everyone intrigued and I highly respect Aviana hiding identities because it allows people to listen to the music instead of worrying about what everyone looks like. Aviana consists of; Joel Holmqvist (Vocals) , Fear (Guitar) , Death (Guitar) , and Dark (Drums). Aviana released their newest single; As Above, So Below on September 14th, 2023
During their set; I actually bumped into someone I met when I first photographed Aviana and they were so excited about the whole show. They told me; "I am so proud of you and I SEEEE YOUUU doing big things the last few months! But you know I love Aviana, so I had to COMEEE and support. This whole lineup makes my mouth water with excitement"
Aviana performed songs from their album "Corporation" released back in September of 2022 including; Rage, Illuminate, Anomaly, and Obsession. The reason why I am completely obsessed with Aviana is that Joel (Vocals) performed vocals in one of my favorite bands; Oceans Red.
The musicians in this band perform almost like theatrical movements especially those who play the instruments. The movements are very eye-catching and it's different to see especially since other metalcore bands do sometimes have very fast pace movements compared to Aviana.
When Aviana performed Anomaly and Obsession, I swore the crowd sounded like an army of soldiers ready for battle. Anomaly is a slow song at first, Joel stated initially he wanted this song to be soft to be able to explain his story with the lyrics. The song is about abuse and I know a lot of fans can relate to the lyrics and understand what Joel went through for several years. For a musician to be open about abuse and be able to tell their story through music is amazing because I know people tend to open up more to music instead of talking about it. You see Joel embracing all his emotions during this song because he was on his knees singing this song almost demonstrating how small he felt and isolated during the abuse and when the heavier vocals were performed; he got up and embraced the new freedom of not allowing anyone to abuse him like that again
Johnny Booth was next up and the last time I saw them was when they did their "The Moments Elsewhere Tour" in August of 2023 in Columbia, South Carolina with special guests; Earthgroans and Thoughtcrimes. That show was one of the most brutal shows I think I've ever gone to during that time and I had no idea how energetic and ballistic the vocalist was until he went on stage that night. Johnny Booth consists of; Andrew Herman (Vocals) , Adam Halpern , Ryan Strong (Guitar), Nick Martell (Bass), and Scott Owens (Drums) Everyone knows once Johnny Booth is on stage, you will see passion and lots of groovy dances from the vocalist. What do you expect from a New York band? They know how to start complete chaos in the moshpits and the venue in general
Johnny Booth currently has 113,000 Spotify listeners with Rebuttal and Thief being the top-played songs with over 2 million plays on each from the album "Firsthand Accounts" released in 2019! They just dropped "Johnny Booth on Audiotree Live" with songs remastered in live renditions, which gives you a hint of how they sound when they perform at shows!
They performed 2040, The Ladder, and Full Tilt from "Moments Elsewhere" released July 20, 2023!
When 2040 started, there were well over 3 crowd surfers coming and when I say Johnny Booth had the crowd becoming absolutely feral, I mean it. Between the crowd surfers, moshers, and those at the barricade; you felt like you were at a hardcore show at a small venue raising hell.
Andrew had no problem jumping from the stage and standing right at the barricade performing Deepfake. And here comes most of the members of Wiltwither joining the vocalist in the crowd!
Next up was Thornhill; An Australian band formed in 2015 from Melbourne. The band consists of; Jacob Charlton (Vocals) , Ethan McCann (Guitar) , Ben Maida (Drums) , and Nick Sjogren (Bass) In 2015; the band started performing at Battle of The Bands competitions while in High School at the time. I saw Thornhill in April of 2023 when they toured with The Plot In You, Holding Absence, and Banks Arcade. Thornhill is currently signed to UNFD record label founded in Melbourne, Australia
Thornhill currently has 226,000 Spotify listeners with Where We Go When We Die being the most popular song with almost 7 million plays off of the album "The Dark Pool" released in 2019. They released their newest single Viper Room on October 9, 2023, with 600,000 Spotify listeners. When they performed the new song; it reminded me of Deftones and no wonder why everyone was screaming in the crowd. Jacob's voice and the range he has when he performs remind me of when sirens sing to sailors on the ocean to lure them in. Very ethereal and now I understand why they have such a large fan base. The band stated in an interview about the meaning of the song; "Viper Room discusses a one-sided urge to keep pursuing an individual out of stubborn lust and fear, even when given explicit warning to move on"
Thornhill performed other songs such as; Arkangel, Lily & the Moon, and one of my favorites Casanova! Two of these songs are on their 2022 album "Heroine" and this is when I started listening to them. When the album was released, I saw many fans skeptical of it due to the "new sound", but after a while, I saw that everyone was enjoying it. Bands involvement in producing new albums with a different sound compared to their previous work will not only gain a new following for them, but make those realize that it is okay for a band to change their sound.
Once we saw Silent Planet start appearing on the stage; we already knew we were going to dive deep down into our souls due to Garret's emotive vocals and the visuals were the backdrop capturing our attention immediately. Silent Planet is a metalcore band from Azusa, California formed in 2009 consisting of; Garrett Russell (Vocals) , Mitchell Stark (Guitar/Keyboard/Clean Vocals ) , Alex Camarena (Drums) , and Nick Pocock (Bass). Silent Planet writes music about politics, war, and personal experiences.
Currently; Silent Planet has over 500,000 Spotify listeners with songs such as; Animatter, Collider, and Offworlder off of the "Superbloom" album released November 3, 2023. One of the songs that they performed was Antimatter and this song is one of my favorites off their recent album. The song was created based on the event in 2022 where the musician's van hit black ice and ran off the road flipping the van onto the roof. Garrett explained; "This song is an extension of this experience we shared while huddled in the wreckage together, my friends helping me to stem the bleeding of my head wound. Temporarily under the effects of a concussion, strange visual distortions began to form, inspiring many of the themes in this song: The fragility of life, the way we make sense of it all, and wondering what awaits us on the other side" You can see the raw emotion in Garrett when he performed this song clearly impacted by the storyline sung. You can hear and feel the passion in his vocals.
Silent Planet is all about supporting local musicians and giving those a chance to perform at large shows such as this one. Silent Planet had special guests; Nick and Tyler from Wiltwither to perform songs; Dreamwalker and Collider. The amount of respect I have for this band increased once I saw the guys in Wiltwither perform vocals with Garrett
Another song they played that had the crowd going absolutely insane was; Euphoria. Between the clean and heavy vocals; this song gave me such ecstasy. This song originally featured Alejandro Aranda from Scarypoolparty on the track but the live rendition had Nick and Tyler from Wiltwither embody those featured parts.
This was by far my top three favorite shows I've ever been able to photograph due to the amount of support for local musicians from the national bands and watching friends in Wiltwither live out one of their biggest dreams and perform one of their biggest shows yet. The show was filled with so much respect, special guests on stage to have everyone involved, and most of all let's give it up to the crowd coming out and supporting every single band on the lineup! The tour will continue until February 23 and end in Nashville, Tennessee, and by the looks of it; the tickets are almost entirely sold out. So this is your sign to go and buy a ticket!
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