Happy Holidays, long time no see! As much as I could go on and on about how much we’ve all missed shows, that’s pretty cliche right now, so let’s jump straight the facts. The facts are this was a banger of a lineup, for my first show covered since January 2020.
Miss May I flew to Orlando early on a Saturday morning, fresh off their own “Relentless Eve” Holiday show in Dayton, Ohio the previous night. While they’ve been on the quieter front since Live Music has returned, they didn’t miss a beat and were their usual highly energetic selves on stage. Their set was around 40 minutes, and produced “Under Fire”, “Casualties”, “Relentless Chaos”, “Architect”, “I.H.E.”, “Hey Mister”, “Swallow Your Teeth”, “Forgive and Forget”, and “Shadows Inside”. Miss May I has new music on the way, so be on the lookout for that at some point this year.
Onward. I’ve been following Wage War for years, and they keep getting progressively bigger and better, respectively. When I listened to their new album “Manic” for the first time, my mind was absolutely blown. It’s their best work to date, and there isn’t a bad song on the entire album. While I had high expectations for it, it surpassed every single one of them, and earned my personal “Favorite Album of 2021” honors. Now I’ve got that cat out of the bag, we can talk about the show. Wage War had a huge fall tour, supporting Beartooth, and a festival appearance at Welcome to Rockville, before concluding their 2021 schedule with this “Hometown” Holiday show at the House of Blues in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The band took the stage and opened with “Relapse” off “Manic”, which saw a total of 7 songs get ripped live, including the live debut of “Indestructible”. After 17 songs, and a brief breather, Wage War returned to the stage with an encore of “Johnny Cash”, before finishing off the night with “Stitch” and colorful confetti engulfing the crowd. I didn’t attend very many shows in 2021, but this was by far my favorite, and I can’t wait to see what these guys do next. Until next time, enjoy the photos. Full setlist below.
Wage War Setlist:
1. Relapse
2. Low
3. Who I Am
4. Prison
5. Teeth
6. Godspeed
7. Manic
8. Indestructible (Live Debut)
9. Don’t Let Me Fade Away
10. Gravity
11. High Horse
12. The River
13. Alive
14. Youngblood
15. Me Against Myself
16. Death Roll
17. Circle The Drain
Encore
18. Johnny Cash
19. Stitch
Wage War is:
Briton Bond – Vocals
Cody Quistad – Guitar
Seth Blake – Guitar
Chris Gaylord – Bass
Stephen Kluesener – Drums
