“Come on in, take a seat, make sure you can see,” Wage War brought their STIGMA Tour to The Fox Theater in Pomona, CA! This tour is in support of their latest album, STIGMA, that they released in June of this year. The only way to celebrate a powerhouse album is to bring along some powerhouse bands as well and Wage War did just that. Special guests on this tour included Erra, Thrown, and Fame on Fire!
The night kicked off with Fame on Fire, and they definitely are on fire! The Florida-based post-hardcore band just released their third studio album, The Death Card, in September of this year. Each song is named after a different Tarot card and the album uses each card to represent a different phase of the band's transformation. Five out of their six-song setlist included songs from this latest album, including “Welcome to the Chaos” off their previous album of the same name.
Next up, all the way from Sweden, was Thrown! Fairly new to the scene, Thrown debuted in 2021 with the single “greyout”. Absolutely crushing it right out of the gate, their music has consistently been featured in Spotify’s Top 200 Global Metal Charts since 2022 and has placed in Spotify’s Viral Top 50 in both Australia and the USA. Their career is just beginning, and I can’t wait to see what the next couple years can bring for these guys.
Erra is one of those bands that I’ve been dying to see for years, but somehow every time I’ve had the chance to see them, I always miss them. I finally got to see them on this night though! They just released their latest album, Cure, back in April and a majority of their setlist came from this album, including a live debut of “Idle Wild” on this tour. They also played classics like “Gungrave” and “Snowblood”. They had an insane light show that added so much dynamic and power behind their performance.
I first saw Wage War in 2022 at 98Rockfest and I didn’t know much about them back then. I was focused on lead vocalist Briton Bond when I realized he wasn’t the one singing clean vocals. In the dim light on stage left is Cody Quistad playing guitar and singing beautiful clean vocals. Little fun fact, Cody has written/co-written over 97 songs for different bands including Falling in Reverse, Memphis May Fire, A Day to Remember, and The Ghost Inside just to name a few. They have quickly become one of my favorite bands and we’ve seen them four times in three different states this year. Wage War just released their 5th studio album, STIGMA, in June of this year. They kicked off the show with album opener, “THE SHOW’S ABOUT TO START”. It’s funny how songs can grow on you. When I first heard the album, I wasn’t crazy about this one, but now I play it over and over. It’s the perfect song to kick off the show. The lights dimmed, a countdown lit up the screen, and as the clock hit zero, confetti cannons exploded. I’ve never seen a confetti pop within the first song and you could tell the fans were not expecting that one, as it’s usually the end of the show fun. Love that they did something out of the ordinary though and caught us all of guard! Wage Wars setlist was a perfect mix of their discography, though mainly focusing on STIGMA, we also got ten other songs off Manic, Pressure, Deadweight, and Blueprints. They closed out with hit, “Manic”. Can you even read that without screaming Manic!? Me neither!
The STIGMA Tour only has a few dates left before it concludes in Alanta, GA on Novemeber 3rd. These will be last Wage War shows for 2024 but they’ll return in 2025, kicking off the year with a European tour!
Remaining dates on the STIGMA Tour:
November 1st - Orlando, FL - Addition Financial Arena
November 2nd - Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues
November 3rd - Atlanta, GA - The Eastern
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