Above image via Instagram: @underoathband
Giovanni Mori | Posted: December 9th, 2024
After the coronavirus lockdown, music in the 2020s thrived in many ways with bands and artists going back on tour, as well as a competitive rise of new artists making their mark in the music world. However, as for the more nostaglic listeners who wish to cling to the old ways, it has become more common to celebrate the anniversary of a popular album from an older artist, all while wondering where the years behind us went.
The early 2000s was an iconic era for all genres of music, and although popstars dominated the mainstream, even the scariness of loud rock and heavy metal bands had their moments. This proved to be the case in the Fall of 2024 when fans of the legendary screamo band, Underoath, got to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their most popular album to date, They’re Only Chasing Safety.
Naturally, the band announced a Fall tour across the US on their Instagram, where they would play the full album, also commonly known just as Chasing Safety, to celebrate. What fans were not expecting to hear was that anybody who bought a ticket would also get a chance to vote for a custom encore setlist in their city. Any hit song or deep cut in the band’s discography that came before or after Chasing Safety was fair game, as long of course as the majority of concert attendees voted for that particular tune. Imagine you’re a real superfan of a band or artist, and you’ve been told you may get to hear that one special song that crawled its way into your heart, regardless of how well known it is or how often it’s played live. This was the case for anybody a fan of Underoath, and the pressure was on for voters.
As a huge Underoath fan who has listened to all of their music an unhealthy amount of times, it was shaping up to be one of my biggest “must see” concerts of the year, and it was all happening on September 24th in my city, Pittsburgh, PA. As you could probably guess by now, I purchased a reasonably priced ticket and prepared for a damn good concert.
Above image via Instagram: @underoathband
they’re only chasing safety in its entirety
This would be my 4th time seeing Underoath live, once in 2019 opening for a co-headlining tour with Alice in Chains and Korn, and the others as headliners for their own US tours: 2022’s Voyeurist tour and 2023’s Blind Obedience tour. After the opening band, Static Dress, warmed up the crowd with their aggressive and terrifying sound, it was nearly time for us to not only hear, but live one of our favorite albums.
The stage was surrounded by lamps with a couch on a high platform, and made us feel like we were in a living room together. It was an eerie atmosphere at first glance, but also strangely resembled some kind of warmth since concerts usually tend to make the audience feel like they’re part of one big family. The back drop was a brick wall with the number “20” scrawled on with the band’s signature slash through the “0.”
When the stage went dark, in came the silhouette of drummer and vocalist Aaron Gillespie, who then reached the platform and nonchallantly sat on the couch. Gillespie, with a voice as rich as melted butter, began singing a haunting version of the first song, “Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape.” While this song is actually the tenth and final track of Chasing Safety, it turned out to be a fascinating opener as each of the other band members’ silhouettes entered the stage one by one, adding more to the song’s buildup.
Youtube: underoathmusic
Right before the song would’ve reached it’s climax, as Gillespie rasped only part of his final line, “Jesus, I’m ready to come…,” all goes quiet. Everything remained dark for what felt like an eternity, but luckily, it didn’t take much longer for the blinding stage lights to fully unveil the band along with harsh vocalist Spencer Chamberlain front and center. At the que of Chamberlain’s first growl of the night, the band exploded into the album’s true first track, “Young and Aspiring.”
Photo by Giovanni Mori
Instant chaos emerged where I stood in the front row as Chamberlain held the microphone over the crowd. Concert attendees and crowd surfers around me suddenly dogpiled to get close enough to Chamberlain, this continued as the band went into the next song, their most streamed track to date, “A Boy Brushed Red Living in Black and White.” What I’ve learned, having been to many concerts by this point, is to try to hold your ground so you aren’t getting toppled over like a domino, and outwardly cross your arms so you won’t be pressed against the person in front of you. Easier said than done, but this not only allowed me to breathe properly, but also soak in every one of Chamberlain’s roars in the verses and sing back to Gillespie’s rasp during the chorus.
From there on, things would get a little easier to manuever in the crowd as the band went into a less popular song, “The Impact of Reason.” Even though the crowd movement had relaxed, each band member continued violently shaking their heads and bodies to every beat like they were being electrocuted. We later reached another popular track from the album called “Reinventing Your Exit,” and whether you’re by yourself or among a crowd of Underoath fans, this song is always fun to sing or scream along with, and that night was no exception.
Youtube: underoathmusic
As the band and audience was given a much needed break during the album’s instrumental track, “The Blue Note,” the brick wall back drop was changed to the album’s cover art of a woman in an oxygen mask with glowing green eyes. It wasn’t long before the band kicked back into maximum overdrive with “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door,” another fun sing-along for the crowd that is frequently added to a standard Underoath setlist. It’s always been Gillespie’s drums that never fail to keep me moving, and of course past the hypnotizing drumming, fans get another chance to gather around during the song’s bridge, singing “I’m drowning in my sleep” (2:42 – 2:56) with a choir, which to me is about as emo as you could get in 2004.
Youtube: underoathmusic
The rest of the album’s tracks would bring out whatever energy was left starting with “Down, Set, Go,” which had Chamberlain standing over top of the crowd behind a drop tuned and brooding chord progression. “I Don’t Feel Very Receptive Today” is always fun for fans of Underoath’s heavier side as it features no clean vocals from Gillespie, and only harsh screams from Chamberlain. The song also breaks into an oddly timed math rock section reminiscent of other popular bands at the time like Norma Jean and The Dillinger Escape Plan, needless to say, it was very enjoyable to see live. The ninth and only remaining track from the album, “I’m Content With Losing,” turned out to be an excellent closer in a live context as all the instruments and different vocal melodies built up and clashed with each other towards the end. Just like that, the first half of the show playing Chasing Safety in full was over. The band closed with their final low and heavy chords, ripping the skin off our bodies before disappearing in the stage fog.
Photo by Giovanni Mori
fan voted encore set
After being kept in the dark in front of the looming stage fog for another eternity, it was nearly time to share the results of Pittsburgh’s votes for our encore set. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to vote since I foolishly purchased my ticket too close to the date. However, aside from the fact that it would’ve been as tough of a decision as picking a favorite child, I was more curious to find what Underoath fans of my city wanted to hear.
First, the band eased their way back with their most recently released song, “Teeth,” which likely wasn’t part of the voted set since the song came out only days before the tour started. Beginning as a smooth EDM track before breaking into the heaviest descending guitar riff ever made was a nice attention grabber before the set’s grand finale.
Youtube: underoathmusic
Pittsburgh’s voted set, funnily enough, began with the first two tracks off the band’s follow up to Chasing Safety, Define The Great Line. Die hard Underoath fans know these songs best by their proper titles, “In Regards to Myself” and “A Moment Suspended in Time.” These two songs were much appreciated by both the casual fans and the mosh pit starters since these songs were not much older than those from Chasing Safety. Sadly, much like what happens at any other concert, the 3-4 minute songs were gone in an instant.
As exciting as it would’ve been to continue down Define The Great Line‘s tracklist, the next song Pittsburgh picked was actually a bonus track to Chasing Safety, famously being one of the band’s most ridiculously long titles, “I’ve Got Ten Friends And A Crowbar That Says You Ain’t Gonna Do Jack.” As the band introduced the song, they explained how Chasing Safety’s surprising success led them to resissuing the album and including the new song at the end. As expected, the band played their hearts out during this one too, still shaking every hair and beads of sweat from their skin this late in the evening.
Photo by Giovanni Mori
Nearing the end of the show, the band broke into “When The Sun Sleeps.” This one was especially exciting for some audience members because this song came from the album before Chasing Safety called The Changing of Times. According to the album’s liner notes, only half of the bands’ classic lineup – guitarist Tim McTague, keyboardist Chris Dudley, and drummer and co-vocalist Gillespie – was in the band at the time. Yet there they were, performing the song as if it was written by all of them starting from the opening line that once again had the audience in a dogpile, “I thought you’d come back” (0:25 – 0:27).
Youtube: underoathmusic
The 16th and final song of the night needed no introduction, and every fan knew exactly what was coming next, the second most popular and usual closing song of an Underoath set, “Writing on the Walls.” It was the crowd’s last chance to let off whatever steam that was being built up in their everyday lives, and with every dissonant chord, Gillespie’s choir-like melodies, and even more of Chamberlain’s growls, Underoath successfully delivered their electrifying performance to Pittsburgh once again.
Youtube: underoathmusic
final thoughts
They’re Only Chasing Safety was the first album that got me into the band, and to this day is an album I praise not only in the genre of screamo music, but also in all of rock music from the early 2000s. Even though I have only been a true fan since 2019, the show was still very welcoming as though I had been there in 2004.
As for the fan voted set, while there were many different songs I would’ve voted for personally, I’d also argue that Pittsburgh was very lucky with what we got. All songs played that evening except for “Teeth” came from the band’s earlier years from up to the mid 2000s, which many would consider to be “classic” Underoath since this is where the band’s most popular music exists.
So why does all this matter? To me, there’s something about classic Underoath that captured how rock music was becoming more creative and emotional at the time, despite of course being outshined by the much less serious but still fun pop artists like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. It’s easy to classify music by the decade it came from, and although listeners will have to move forward from the past and look to new artists one day, there’s no denying the nostaglia that resonates with the music we once loved. I was only 3 years old when the album was made, so I may never feel that nostalgia the same way as others. But what I do know is that no matter what you listen to, music is and will continue to be timeless, and Underoath’s anniversary tour was a heartwarming reminder for someone who still clings to those old ways.
Sources
“It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door” Youtube, uploaded by underoathmusic, 3 Sept. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKPNyaqMB9s
Liner notes for Underoath, The Changing of Times, Underoath, Solid State Records, 2002. CD.
“Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape” Youtube, uploaded by underoathmusic, 9 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNGDHcx9aoc
“Underoath – Reinventing Your Exit” Youtube, uploaded by underoathmusic, 24 Feb. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOdfV1EjUgg
“Underoath – Teeth (Official Music Video)” Youtube, uploaded by underoathmusic, 13 Sept. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoOIl0SThrU
Underoath [@underoathband]. Album cover. Instagram, 15 June 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/CthRWi9OSUq/?img_index=1
Underoath [@underoathband]. Tour Promo. Instagram, 16 Apr. 2024, https://www.instagram.com/p/C50zG72gE1U/
“Underoath – When The Sun Sleeps” Youtube, uploaded by underoathmusic, 7 Aug. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aZus_-1MFI
“Underoath – Writing on the Walls (Official Video)” Youtube, uploaded by underoathmusic, 6 Nov. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaFZXbnLjoA
