Images: Memphis May Fire, We Came As Romans, Miss May I, For Today May 10, 2016 at Vinyl Las Vegas

Last Tuesday I hit up the Las Vegas stop of the Bands vs. Food tour featuring Memphis May Fire, We Came As Romans, Miss May I and For Today. Vinyl inside of The Hard Rock Hotel Casino played host to the night and a good part of the small club quickly filled out before the first act of the night even took the stage.

For Today were the first ones to take on the night and get things rolling. Opening with “Forced into Fire,” things kicked off to a great start. This was my first time seeing For Today and one of my thoughts throughout the set was wondering how I went so long without ever listening to the guys before. I was very much into their material and could see myself throwing them into the mix on a playlist. With an opening act’s shorter set, they made the most of their time and were able to play songs spanning from 2010 up until their most recent release, 2015’s Wake. The set was capped off by their hit “Break the Cycle,” which features Memphis May Fire’s Matty Mullins on the album version. Unfortunately, there was no appearance by the MMF frontman that night, which might have been slightly disappointing to some fans.

Ohio’s metal outfit Miss May I took the Vinyl stage in a room now full with concertgoers. Seeing Miss May I before, I knew a little of what to expect from their live show. Rolling straight from a little intro track and into “I.H.E.,” the guys sounded great right away. They sounded much tighter than what I remember the last time I saw them and others in the crowd took notice. By the 3rd song  “Masses of a Dying Breed,” an old fan favorite from 2010’s Monument record, the circle pits were in full swing and the first crowd surfers of the night started to come over the barrier. Throughout the set, Levi Benton’s and Ryan Neff’s vocals continued to be tight and sound great. The band ended on two older songs, “Forgive and Forget” and “Relentless Chaos.”

It’s been awhile since We Came As Romans played in Vegas last but it was great to see them again up on stage. The Detroit grown rockers have been on my iPod ever since high school and the days of MySpace. It’s great to see just how far these dudes have come since those early Dreams  EP days. The set got started with “Regenerate,” the opening track to their 2015 self-titled release. As the set continued on, vocalists Kyle Pavone and Dave Stephens never broke their smiles as they gave it all the crowd sang every word back to them. The band played several other new songs from the self-titled release such as “12:30,” “Tear It Down,” The World I Used To Know” and “Who Will Pray,” all of which sounded great. My favorite parts of the set were when they busted out the deep jams like “To Move On Is To Grow” and everything from 2009’s To Plant A Seed. These are the songs that got me into the band originally so it’s always great when you get to hear those live.

Closing out the show was Memphis May Fire, who are always awesome to see live. At this point I’ve seen the guys perform live 5 times and they seriously never disappoint me. Like WCAR, Memphis May Fire is a group I’ve been following since 2009 and I’m always excited to see them play in town. The band’s headlining set had consisted mostly of newer material from their last two releases Unconditional and Challenger such as “Beneath The Skin,” “No Ordinary Love,” “Alive In the Lights” and “Legacy,” but they didn’t forget about old fan favorites later in the set.

Just like Miss May I earlier in the night, I felt that the band’s sound was very tight together and solid, one of the best performances I’ve seen them do. Vocalist Matty Mullins was spot on all night and had the crowd behind him to harmonize and sing along. Mid-set we were treated to two songs – “Speechless” and “Miles Away” – that Matty Mullins explained were written for his wife. Both are slower songs, so it was a nice change of pace to the set. To wrap up the great night of music, MMF played old fan favorites “The Sinner” and “The Victim” before capping off on “Vices.”

-Tylor Thuirer | https://www.instagram.com/thuirer/