Armor For Sleep Show Recap
Red Flag - St. Louis
10.28.2023 - It was 11:56 am - the email had arrived. I had the opportunity to take photos at the St. Louis tour stop at Red Flag. All of my gear was already sitting in a pile ready to load just in case.
Surreal… three of my favorite bands that I’ve been listening to since the beginning - The Spill Canvas, The Early November, and Armor For Sleep.
I open Google Maps because I reside north of Indianapolis - 4 hours and 12 min direct or 4 hours and 53 min if I made a stop at the American Football house for the Polyvinyl Records pop-up (too much emo history for one day?). I could enter the venue around 5 so elected for the direct route.
I pulled up to the venue around 4:40 pm and excitedly begin prepping all of my gear, not to mention the 4 or 5 times I checked during the drive to ensure I remembered my camera.
Early access/VIP
The doors opened shortly after 5:00 and I entered with a group of VIP ticket holders. It was a casual environment where we could ask questions, get pictures, obtain autographs, and collect the VIP swag. I highly recommend picking up any available VIP packages for upcoming tour stops if they are still available.
I had pre-ordered the new “Negatives” book by Amy Madden a couple months ago and it arrived just in time. Well, actually I ordered a signed copy by Amy that ships this week so I bought a copy from Barnes and Noble on its release date because there is no way that I could wait longer for this emo masterpiece. It has become my adult Disney autograph book where I hope to get as many signatures by bands represented as I can. Armor for Sleep and Ace Enders (The Early November) were kind enough to sign it which was amazing.
The Spill Canvas
The Spill Canvas was the first band to take the stage. I first saw them in Buffalo, NY in 2006 with my girlfriend (now wife). House of Heroes opened and Mae closed out the show. I have never forgotten how great Nick’s vocals are live. I was able to track down this photo I took from that night in 2006.
Turn the clock forward 17 years and they sounded even better. I would say that it brought back so many memories, but honestly, I’ve never stopped listening to The Spill Canvas. I know I have numerous versions of songs, particularly from Sunsets & Car Crashes that landed on nearly every mixtape I made that I need to dig up and preserve. Unlike the audiences for many opening bands, we all knew every word as these songs carried us through times of heartbreak, sadness, and even joy.
The Early November
The Early November was up next. Their set was an emo celebration in the fullest sense. Energetic, emotional, raw and everything a fan could ask for. Hearing “The Room’s Too Cold” in its entirety is something that I could return to nightly. If I’m remembering correctly, songs from this album lived on the top of PureVolume consistently and was another consistency across mixtapes. Ace delivered raw emotion in songs like “Ever So Sweet” while hitting us hard with infectious (and some of my favorite) lyrics from “The Mountain Range In My Living Room”… “It’s never been harder to fall, there’s nothing to grab and that’s all I want to hold onto. Just another sweep and it’ll be fine, but this carpet’s got hills and I can’t see this helping at all”.
Ace spoke about the collective of the emo scene showing up, touring with friends, and the joy of playing these songs night after night. It resonated as I grew up in this scene. It was a place to belong, a home for the outcasts, the creatives, the artists. We search for those moments in songs that carry us onwards to our next breath, words of hope, shared emotions, lyrics that are engrained into memories. Reminiscing to our fellow emo waiting for the shows, telling stories from other shows, and singing to the soundtracks of our lives. Thank you for bringing these songs to life and sharing them with us.
Armor For Sleep
Closing the night was Armor For Sleep. The opportunity to take photos for Armor For Sleep alongside a lineup of some of my favorite bands of all time was a dream and I still can’t believe it was real.
I first saw Armor For Sleep perform at the House of Blues in Cleveland, OH on Halloween night in 2005. They performed alongside a line-up of Lovedrug, Gatsby’s American Dream, and Matchbook Romance. I was able to dig up my ticket for the show with an autograph from Matchbook Romance. $13.50 for entry although one thing has not changed, Ticketmaster still tacked on an additional 36% in service fees.
Dream to Make Believe is a top 10 album for me and one that I listen to on regular rotation. Hearing it in its entirety was amazing. The energy was electric, the crowd singing every word, and the talent of the band performing these songs that shaped our lives was unforgettable. I am ready to join the tour to hear these songs live night after night. In many situations, I’ve struggled to feel the same connection to new releases by many of the emo bands of this timeframe. However, “The Rain Museum” is a major exception. If you have not given their latest release (2022) a chance, you need to listen now. I love that album and was a refreshing release that in my opinion is also a no-skip album.
Armor For Sleep wrapped up their set with “Car Underwater” as the crowd joined in with every word capping off an amazing night.
The Aftermath
It was around 11:00 pm CT when I reached my car from the venue. In an effort to ensure triple redundancy, I immediately transferred the photos to my computer so that I could have copies across dual cards and my laptop. During the transfer, I entered the destination into Google Maps - 4:15 am EST arrival. Multiple iced teas and beef sticks later, I arrived home around 4:30 am from an amazing night.
I am both a perfectionist and extremely competitive in everything. Now that the shock is over, I will refer to it more as a humbling experience of being human, but I woke up in the morning excited to edit the photos. I had over 1600 photos from the night with nearly all of them with LED bands (the streaks across all of my photos). I noticed it to some extent while getting the shots but it was not pronounced in the viewfinder. I changed the shutter speed with numerous variations with confidence that it was just a photographic challenge of the environment. It was an hour later I realized that the e-shutter (I had on from astrophotography) was the culprit and having mechanical shutter would have avoided the issue altogether. To make matters worse, all of the typical editing steps made the lines worse, not better. A very hard, disappointing lesson learned although knowledge gained that will make me better (and will with certainty never happen again).
In an attempt to cheer myself up, I resorted to the best ailment around - repeat listening to a few legendary albums - “Dream to Make Believe”, “The Room’s Too Cold”, and “Sunsets & Car Crashes”.
Thank you again to Armor For Sleep for allowing me to photograph the night! It was unforgettable experience and hope to see you again on the next tour through Indianapolis!
