Nothing More, Veil of Maya, and Sleep Theory came to The Observatory North Park (my favorite venue in San Diego) on April 25th! Yeah, I said it, The Observatory is my favorite venue in San Diego. It’s a historic building with great restaurants, pubs, and shops all around. There’s a parking structure across the street and it’s free for concertgoers. It’s well-lit and I walk alone a lot of the time, so I feel very safe. Acoustics sounds great and has a slanted floor so you have a better chance to see over person in front of you. The staff is always pretty friendly and helpful from the box office to the stage. This was night two in a row for me for three of four bands. I was fortunate to see the show the night before at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, where Wage War headlined. They were not there this night as they were headed up to Vegas for their Sick New World sideshow on 4/26 and the festival on 4/27.
I’m not sure why, but the show started about 10 mins early. Unfortunately, that meant I missed my window to photograph Sleep Theory. I was disappointed because seeing them for the first time the night before, I loved them! I did get to catch most of their set though! I love their mix of metal, rock, and R&B. I will get to catch them one more time at Welcome to Rockville in Daytona Beach!
Direct support of the night came from Chicago’s own Veil of Maya. Lead Singer, Lukas Magyar really showed off his versatility with a mix of clean and dirty vocals. Five of their eight-song set was off their last album [m]other, which is celebrating its first anniversary on May 12.
No two shows are exactly the same, even on the same tour. Frontman Johnny Hawkings had different paint, his hair was up, and he wore different jeans that had a patch on the left thigh that read, “You can’t do epic shit with basic people”. That patch seemed to be eye level and I find myself saying it in my head, still days after the show. I noticed he kept looking to his left and even came out to the barricade during the second song. He told us later his family was there and gave a special shout-out to his nephew. During the third song, Guitarist Mark Vollelunga came out to the barricade. I love watching individual reactions, the pure happiness in the moment and the look of disbelief that moment just happened to them. I love that Nothing More is so engaging with their fans. They see you!
They played Mr MTV, which was on the setlist the night before. Of course, this is the one song Kaiya wanted to hear and she wasn’t there. I’m not sure if this is every Nothing More show, but every time I’ve seen them, they take a couple of Toms to the barricade and have the crowd hold them. Johnny pushes down on them to make sure they are holding on tight and then pounds away to close out the show. Nothing More does not do encores, they just tell you “This is the last song”, and believe them because it is for sure the last song.
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