On Saturday, September 27th, the Sonic Unrest Tour rolled through Pittsburgh and stopped to play at Mr. Smalls Theatre. The tour lineup featured Toothgrinder, Chon, Sikth, with Periphery as the headliner. Periphery is a progressive metal band hailing from Washington D.C. and is known as a pioneer of the “djent” movement within progressive metal. This particular tour was to promote the band’s new album Periphery III: Select Difficulty.
What I love the most about metal concerts are the fans. You will never see a more dedicated group of people to their genre of music. When Periphery took the stage, every single person in the venue immediately stopped socializing and began singing back the lyrics for the entire set. Periphery played the perfect blend of songs from each of their albums, my favorite being Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal.
One of the best parts of the concert was getting to see a few bands I have never heard before such as Chon and Toothgrinder. I believe the best way to be introduced to new music is to really give the opening bands a chance at a show. Chon, in particular, had a really impressive set. Their music style is considered a mix of progressive rock and jazz fusion. They also do not use a vocalist, so their set was completely instrumental and each song flowed into the next, which made for a very captivating set.
Periphery closed out the night by adding an extra song to the encore and opening the stage up to the audience to come sing with them. The stage was holding around 100 people all singing at the top of their lungs while Periphery continued to play “Lune.” It was an awesome end to the night!