The Grammy-nominated group RED recently made a stop in Wilmington, NC at the Throne Theatre on October 15th during their “End of Silence” ten-year anniversary tour. RED was accompanied by support acts, Disciple, Spoken and Random Hero.
As an avid, RED fan, this show was one that did not disappoint. I was honestly not familiar with any of the opening bands, but RED has a very good habit of bringing incredible acts along on the road.
The show started out with Random Hero, and boy, it did not feel like an opening act. Random Hero brought down the house as an opener. Lead singer, Aaron Watkins was such an interactive force with the crowd, jumping from the main stage into the media pit and singing along with the fans. One of the most unique things that really caught my interest bout this particular band was the fact that the bassist, Rob McDonough sported a full ‘steampunk’ outfit including these incredible goggles on stage. I had a chance to connect with him after their set and the outfits are based on personal journeys that they want fans to communicate with them about.
Spoken was number two on the band roster for the night, and once again, the momentum didn’t stop with the first band. Led by lead singer Matt Barid, Spoken raised the energy in the room past level ten. This group has so much energy and moves around stage so much, it is almost difficult to keep up with them, and that is not a bad thing at all. The guys are absolutely welcoming and loved to interact with the crowd. Like Random Hero, Matt was jumping in and out of the media pit and on to the barricades held up by fans. After their set, I had a chance to speak with Scoop, their guitarist, and pick up some incredible merch including a beautiful red vinyl record and the band’s very own hot sauce.
Disciple had an incredible stage set up. They had two sets of box lights that were similar to big box speakers that were filled with LED lights. You could feel the anticipation in the air like they were the headliner. When they started they came out with a force. Though the crowd was a younger crowd, they had high energy and were singing along to every note.
RED was absolutely amazing, and using the word amazing definitely doesn’t do the show justice. Being the fourth time that I have seen RED live, I can tell you, it definitely didn’t get old. RED, just like previous times, had amazing stage lights, strobes, and a beautiful stage set up. Being the tenth-anniversary of the release of their debut-record “The End of Silence”, the group had beautiful scrims that was in relation to that. RED featured some of their best songs with a main focus on playing songs from “The End of Silence”. Best part was, even though it was a focus on the originally released album, they didn’t leave out other popular songs from some of the more recent albums. I can definitely tell you there wasn’t a quiet voice in the room. The energy was absolutely electric and it solidified my urge to see them even beyond this particular show.
RED is currently on tour with Random Hero, Spoken and Disciple on their tenth-anniversary celebration of the release of “The End of Silence” through the beginning of November and kick off a Winter Jam tour through the end of December.
