As the summer tours come to a close in August, hard rock/metalcore group I Prevail made a stop on their tour for their new record, Trauma, in Myrtle Beach this past Thursday. I’ve seen these guys multiple times, first opening for Pierce the Veil, then at Carolina Rebellion 2017, and finally in Charlotte on their own headline tour. Every time I’ve seen them I have been continuously impressed, and was even more so after their latest performance.
Kicking the night off was Justin Stone, a hard-working rapper based out of Ohio. He truly killed it onstage and off (literally), as he continuously crowd surfed, ran through the crowd, and even rapped on top of a bar in the audience. Very rarely does crowd interaction reach that high of a level, and it was a nice change of pace.
Next up in the night was Tyler Carter-fronted band Issues, who rocked out heavily with their dialed-in mix of rock and pop. As they played, it became clear that just about everyone in the building knew all of the words to all of their songs, which was pretty impressive.
40-minutes or so later, Eric Vanlerberghe took the stage, belting out the opening scream of “Bow Down”, as the hard riffs and bombastic drums kicked in to accompany him. Shortly thereafter, clean vocalist Brian Burkheiser joined him, marking a welcomed comeback, as the last time I caught them playing live he was absent due to a vocal injury.
Throughout the medium-length set, the band stopped multiple times to observe the massive crowd that had descended on the medium-size club. Right before jumping into the third song, a fan farther in the back held up a sign showing the words “1 year cancer free”. Eric, who immediately noticed, said “that last song [“Scars”] is dedicated to you”, as he obviously held back tears.
Roaring through the whole new record, as well as some older cuts, I Prevail played an absolutely terrific set, and proved once again they are here to stay.
I PREVAIL Setlist:
Bow Down / Scars / Rise Above It (Ft. Justin Stone) / Gasolina / Hurricane / Lifelines / Stuck in Your Head / Face Your Demons / Deadweight / Goodbye (interlude) / Paranoid / Low / Everytime You Leave / DOA
Encore:
Breaking Down / Come and Get It
PICTURE GALLERY
