Images: Asking Alexandria, Miss May I, Upon a Burning Body July 10, 2014 at Hard Rock Live

Right now Mayhem Festival, one of the biggest touring metal festivals of the summer, is making its way around the western United States. While we didn’t get a full Vegas stop of the tour, we did get three of its bands, Asking Alexandria, Miss May I and Upon a Burning Body, on a one-off show at the Hard Rock Live. I’ve missed Asking Alexandria the last few times they came through town, so I made sure to free up my calendar far in advance – and I wasn’t the only one. When I arrived before doors opened, security had concertgoers lining up around the building in our summer heat.

The show kicked off with San Antonio’s Upon A Burning Body, who made headlines for a publicity stunt days before the kickoff of Mayhem Festival. The obviously not missing vocalist Danny Leal came out to get the mosh pit moving as the band played a mixture of popular hits from Red.White.Green. and tied in some new songs from their upcoming release The World Is My Enemy Now. Having never been a listener of theirs, I still found myself entertained by the music and stage energy, and I really enjoyed crowd-favorite “Sin City.”

Miss May I followed up with an energy-packed set of their own, starting with “Refuse to Believe” from their newest record, Rise of the Lion. By this time, all the concertgoers that I had seen outside wrapped around the building were now inside and all going absolutely crazy. Over and over, one by one, crowd surfers came tumbling over the barrier. Security definitely had their hands full catching kids all night. As a tour prank, Ben Bruce of Asking Alexandria came out during the 2nd song wielding a vacuum cleaner and proceeded to “vacuum clean” the stage. As they played crowd favorites like “Relentless Chaos,” “Day by Day” and closed with “Hey Mister,” lead singer Levi Benton expressed excitement at being able to play longer sets at these few off-date shows. The crowd was obviously just as excited at getting to spend extra time with the band.

England’s Asking Alexandria are no strangers to the Vegas desert. They’ve played all over the valley from The Farm, Area 702, House of Blues, and on festivals such as Extreme Thing, Warped Tour, and Rock the Block. But their frequent visits didn’t keep the crowd from going nuts as the house lights went dark and the beginning of “Don’t Pray For Me” started. Cheers of joy along with the occasional “I love you Danny” burst from the enthusiastic crowd. “Run Free” and “Break Down The Walls” followed, and again, one by one, crowd surfers came tumbling over the barrier. After the first three songs, coming from their latest release From Death to Destiny, the middle of the set was all older hits from their first two full lengths. To my delight, they played my personal favorite “Someone, Somewhere.” I will say, frontman Danny Worsnop did seem to miss the mark on a few of those older songs which was sort of a disappointment, but that’s bound to happen when you’ve abused your voice as much as he has over the years, even having gone through surgical repair of a torn vocal cord. To go along with what Levi Benton had said earlier in the night though, I was very pleased with the longer set times because I’m sure most of the older songs would have been cut out of the set if it was any shorter. Asking Alexandria ended the night with “Killing You” and “Death of Me,” leaving the young crowd with smiles on their faces.

You can catch all of these bands on the remaining Mayhem Festival dates.

-Tylor Thuirer | https://www.flickr.com/photos/thuirermedia/