Images: Finch, Wounds, Helen Earth, Caravels October 8, 2014 at Hard Rock Live

Last year, a reunited Finch played their first show in Vegas in five years, playing their classic What it is to Burn LP in full. That show, and the tour it was a part of, ended up being a huge success, resulting in Finch deciding to upgrade their reunion from temporary to permanent. A year later, following two Vegas festival appearances (Extreme Thing and Warped), the post hardcore band returned to the Hard Rock Live in support of their first new album in nine years, Back to Oblivion, and unfortunately, I’ve never seen a larger drop in fanfare in such a short amount of time.

The show was originally set up with Maps and Atlases and Weatherbox as support, but for a variety of reasons, both bands had to drop off the tour. The loss of Weatherbox in particular was a huge blow, with a lot of locals losing interest once they dropped off the bill. So unfortunately, local opener Caravels played to a nearly empty room.  After seeing the post-hardcore screamers play countless house shows, it was an incredibly weird experience seeing them play on the big Hard Rock stage, particularly because their familiar group of fans weren’t there to scream the lyrics back with frontman Michael Roeslein. Despite playing to a crowd that at this point was infinitely smaller than most house shows, the band still gave it 110% and I saw a handful of new fans being won over during their varied set.

Up next was San Diego’s Helen Earth, who cites Weatherbox as one of their main influences, so they were a good enough fit to replace them. The band, which formed during Finch’s hiatus, seemed overjoyed to be playing with them and tried their hardest to win over the small handful of concert goers milling around the venue.

Finch’s labelmates Wounds, who came over all the way from Dublin, were up next, in the spot originally held by Maps and Atlases (Maps and Atlases will be playing Beauty Bar in Las Vegas on November 9). This was definitely not a direct substitution, as Wounds sounded nothing like the more mathy Maps and Atlases, playing a form of heavy rock that is far outside my usual tastes. The skinny-jean-and-black-booted group seemed like they’d appeal to a much younger crowd than the mostly 21+ Finch fans. The vocals were screamed, the music fast, and the band detached, and while it wasn’t really my thing, I saw a few people in the crowd tapping their toes.

Now it was finally time for Finch, though you wouldn’t know it by the sparse crowd, most of whom were still attached to the bar in the back. The low energy in the room seemed to really effect the band’s performance, which was markedly more mellow than my last few times seeing them. What it is to Burn was still the obvious crowd favorite, with the audience and band perking up for tracks like “Letters to You,” “Stay With Me” and the title track. Frontman Nate Barcalow seemed anxious, pacing back and forth through the band’s set, never really making eye contact with the crowd. Finch just started a new chapter with their reunion and new album and given more time, I’m hoping people will come around to the new material and provide the energy this band needs to keep going.

-Hunter Wallace | https://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter_wallace/