Feb 6, 2018 - For Beatroute BC. Review by Brendan Lee.
Post-Hardcore band Sleeping With Sirens, who released their fifth album, Gossip, on September 22nd via Warner Bros., which featured the singles “Legends”, “Empire to Ashes”, and “Cheers”, performed at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver with support from Florida-based pop punk band Set It Off who released their third album, Upside Down, on October 7, 2016 via Equal Vision.
"There’s something about Sleeping with Sirens and, lead-singer, Kellin Quinn’s slightshot leggero tenor vocals that may not click on first listen. High-pitched and surprising, they begin in the mind as a gimmick, a sort of unnecessary flare for the dramatic. It’s only three songs deep before the realization that he’s not so much singing with those lungs, but playing an entirely unique vocal instrument that carries every piece of the band along with it.
Nearing a third of their way through The Gossip World Tour, Quinn and the guys stormed into the Vogue and put on a spit-shined show that pounced between uplifting and flat out F-U-N. Sleeping with Sirens is mainly tailored to the younger generation, with archetypal teenage heartbreak tracks like, ‘If You Can’t Hang’, or power-anthem, ‘Legends’, a newer song about being wild, free, and “anything in life we want to be.” So, of course, the crushing majority of the crowd were fresh-faced teenagers perhaps desperate for a night away from ordinary, undoubtedly troubled lives.
The key word weaved in and out of the set, both lyrically and through Quinn’s words in moments between songs, was inclusivity. In a genre where piercing clean vocals crunch against guttural screams and chaotic double-bass drums, Quinn knows his fans form their own band of misfits. But he’s also attuned to the importance of nights like these and using his time to remind the crowd that no matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you’re going through, you’re important, included, and part of the same unique family.
Kellin Quinn’s light, wailing screams may have caught some off guard early in the night, and, to many, this style of pop-infused metal may never make sense. But by the encore, and the last two songs in what turned out to be an ecstatic live performance, Quinn had done each fan a lasting favour by bringing them all a little closer together, at least for the night, no matter any differences that might normally divide."
Sleeping With Sirens
Set It Off
