Poison The Well Took Brooklyn Back to 1999

1999 was a special year for metalcore as it was the year one of the genre's most influential album was dropped; The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation, from the one and only Poison The Well. 25 years later, the band took the album across the country, playing it in full to celebrate the album's 25th anniversary. The tour was starting to wrap up and Brooklyn, New York was one of its last stops, making an appearance at the beautiful Brooklyn Paramount with Teenage Wrist, Better Lovers and New York's own, Glassjaw as special guests.

Fans lined up around the block, waiting to get in and relive their youths live and those that got in early were welcomed by the first band that went on Teenage Wrist. Teenage Wrist is an alternative/shoegaze band from Los Angelas, California that was formed in 2014. The band consists of Marshall Gallagher (vocals/guitar) and Anthony Salazar (drums) and are currently signed to Epitaph Records where they have released all three studio albums under. Teenage Wrist eased the crowd into the night and while there wasn't any movement, the crowd was watching them and were vibing to it. Most of their set contained songs from their third studio album Still Love, playing songs like "Cigarette Two-Step", "Dark Sky", "Humbug" and "Sunshine" but also touched on their first two studio albums Chrome Neon Jesus and Earth Is A Black Hole. For the song,"Cigarette Two-Step", Teenage Wrist brought out a special guest to sing the song with them; David Marion, the vocalist of the band memorydrip. Teenage Wrist ended their set by going old school, finishing up with "Sparkle/Fade" from their 2019 EP Counting Flies.

Next up was the chaotic hardcore supergroup known as Better Lovers. Better Lovers hails from Buffalo, New York and features some very familiar faces like Greg Puciato (vocals) (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Will Putney (guitar) (END, Fit For An Autopsy) Jordan Buckley (guitar) (Every Time I Die), Steve Micciche (bass) (Every Time I Die), and Clayton "Goose" Holyoak (drums) (Every Time I Die). Better Lovers in 2023, following the dissolution of Every Time I Die and added Puciato and Putney to the mix. The band released their debut studio album, Highly Irresponsible, on October 25th, 2024 via SharpTone Records. Better Lovers' set was chaos from start to finish, with the mosh pit opened up during "A White Horse Covered In Blood" and was filled with dancers and moshers while the front got pelted with crowd surfers. The chaos kept going with songs like "Drowning in a Burning World", "Future Myopia", "Sacrificial Participant" and "Love as an Act of Rebellion". The band did however slowed things down a bit with "At All Times" but that didn't stop the moshers from getting their two stepping in. The band wrapped things up with "30 Under 13" and Buckley called for more crowd surfing and a massive circle pit towards the end and in an instant, the biggest circle pit I've ever seen that night formed and people just kept running, and running, and running, and running in a circle up until the final breakdown that turned the pit into a war-zone.

The night was halfway over but it was time to get some home-state action going on. Coming up next, from Long Island, New York, was the legendary Glassjaw. Glassjaw is a post-hardcore band from Hempstead, New York that was formed in 1993 by Daryl Palumbo (vocals) and Justin Beck (guitar) whom have remained stagnant in the band's lineup since its inception. The band has been considered a prominent figure in the Long Island hardcore/emo scene and have established a strong following after the release of their debut benchmark album, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence in May of 2000.

Glassjaw kicked things off with "Cut and Run", a nice song to ease into, which lasted for only two minutes because in an instant, Beck played the intro for the next song, "Tip Your Bartender" which made the floor open WIDE for the chaos to commence. The mosh pit for them was larger than Better Lovers and I believe that it was because of the hometown love Brooklyn had for Glassjaw. Palumbo was screaming his heart out all night and the crowd joined him in every single word he sang and he even gave a shout out to Long Island. Members of the Long Island Hardcore scene were out in full force and were throwing spins and kicks in every direction, showing Brooklyn how Long Island gets down. To make up for the fact that there was a barrier, preventing stage dives, the scene doubled up on the crowd surfing, putting security to the WORK. The chaos didn't stop there because the band segued straight into "You Think You're (John Fucking Lennon)" and the crowd screamed every single word as well.

Glassjaw continued to show that they are that band to see live when they played hits like "Pink Roses", "Ape Dos Mil", "Mu Empire", and "The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports", all of which are off their second album Worship and Tribute. For this tour, the band played a deep cut, one that they have not played since 1999 called "Harlem". The song is off of their 1998 EP called Monster Zero, and while it's not on any streaming platforms as of yet, you can look the album up on YouTube. This song was a special treat for the old school 90's Glassjaw fans that have been there since the band's beginnings. It was very refreshing to hear the band play something that predated their first album and the older fans were happy to watch them play it live again and they even knew all of the words too.

Saving the best for last, they closed with their most popular song, "Siberian Kiss", off of their debut album Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence. Everyone kept screaming the words out meanwhile I was holding it down in the pit with the rest of the Long Island crew. Glassjaw doesn't play shows on a regular basis but when they do play, it's always something special and worth going to see.

It was now time for the main event of the evening; the one and only Poison The Well. Poison The Well is a metalcore band from Miami, Florida that has been in the game ince 1997. The band is made up of Jeffrey Moreira (vocals), Ryan Primack (guitar), Vadim Taver (guitar), Noah Harmon (bass), and Chris Hornbrook (drums) and are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their debut studio album; The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation, an album that would redefine the metalcore genre and pave the way for the generation of metalcore and hardcore we have today. The band is currently signed to SharpTone Records where they have released their latest single "Trembling Level" under back in January.

Wasting no time, the band made their way onto the stage and got right into it with the well-known, "12/23/93", the first track off of The Opposite of December. The pit opened up instantly and the whole floor was either moshing, or singing along. This continued into the next song, "A Wish For Wings That Work", the second track off of The Opposite of December. In celebrating 25 years of The Opposite of December, the band played the whole album live, including songs like "To Mandate Heaven", "My Mirror No Longer Reflects", "Mid Air Love Message", and "Not Within Arms Length" as well as their known songs "Artist's Rendering of Me" and "Nerdy". The crowd was filled with new and old school fans alike. For some, this was replay of their younger years of when this album first came out and for others, it was their introduction to an album that would change the game for metalcore for the decades to come. My first introduction to Poison The Well was back in 2021 when they played a reunion show at Gramercy Theatre and my friend talked me into going. I had no idea who they were at the time or how important they were but I have been hooked on them ever since.

It wasn't all just The Opposite of December though, the band made sure to touch on their other albums like You Come Before You, Tear From the Red, and Versions. They played songs like "Crystal Lake", "For A Bandaged Iris", "Ghostchant", "Meeting Again For The First Time", "Botchla" and "Letter Thing". Even though this was an anniversary show, the band gave the fans a taste of new music. The next song was their brand new song, and their first piece of new music in 15 years, "Trembling Level". The song was released on January 29th and will be featured on the band's upcoming sixth studio album. The song was well received by the fans with some even going as far as to know the words and the pit went crazy for the song's closing breakdown.

Towards the end of the set was where Poison The Well would play some of their best songs and one of the first one's they played was "Artist's Rendering of Me". The mosh pit kept it open and opened it even wider and further back when Moreira told them to open it up. The whole room joined together in chanting the song's hook "I COULD! NEVER! SWALLOW YOUR FALSE IDEALS! OF A! LIFELESS! HAPPY ENDING!". The song is widely known for that one part and is always the part where the fans let out all they have on it before losing themselves in the breakdown that follows after. Moreira doesn't even sing the whole thing himself anymore, he just screams the first two words and let the crowd sing the rest. It is so much fun screaming that part live, something about joining everyone in unison to scream that part makes it such an unforgettable experience. The band slowed it down a bit with "Apathy Is a Cold Body" where Moreira's clean vocals shine. The moshing stopped but the singing didn't and the fans continued to assist Moreira for the whole song.

The night was almost over but it wasn't truly over until the band played THAT song. Yes, the song every Poison The Well fan knows and their most popular one, "Nerdy". "Nerdy" is the fifth track off of The Opposite of December and has been the band's closing song for every live performance. The fans gave the band everything they had left and continued to scream the words back to Moreira and the pit let out whatever energy they had left on the song's closing breakdown, brining the second to last date of the The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation 25th Anniversary Tour to an explosive conclusion. Moreira thanked the crowd for coming out and told New York that they would be back next year with a new album.