If you were in The Academy on Tuesday night, you experienced a band at the absolute peak of their powers. The Plot In You has spent the last few years transitioning from standard metalcore into a highly cinematic, emotionally volatile force. The Academy’s intimate, high-energy layout was the perfect pressure cooker for it.
Connecticut’s Boundaries set the bar incredibly high. Their brand of metallic hardcore is notoriously chaotic and punishingly heavy. They did exactly what an opening act is supposed to do: turned the floor into an immediate mosh pit and left the crowd covered in sweat before the headliners even stepped on stage. This was their first time playing in Ireland, and after that performance myself (and the crowd if the raw energy was anything to go by) will look forward to their return, hopefully playing their own headline gig. They definitely won over a lot of new fans after that relentless performance.
Then…the lights went down and the giant screen came to life as The Plot in You took to the stage, and no one was prepared for what happened next.
The absolute centerpiece of any TPIY show is frontman Landon Tewers. What makes them so compelling live is the sheer contrast in his performance: Towering, R&B-infused melodic choruses that sound crisp and massive live that blend seamlessly into visceral, gut-wrenching lows that sound completely terrifying in a smaller venue like The Academy.
The band did a brilliant job balancing the dark, electronic-tinged alternative metal from Swan Song and their recent EP releases with the absolute staples the crowd came to scream along to.
The sound was fantastic, the set was non stop banger after banger and the lighting was amazing…it’s no wonder the room was filled with hardcore fans of all ages screaming the chorus’ back to the band, and between the crowd surfing and the whirlpool-esque pit you could tell they were there for one thing and one thing only, to see a band at the top of their game and currently on a European tour that (if that gig is anything to go by) will be absolutely unmissable.
If you want a night of heavy, unrelenting hardcore chaos, these are your guys.
Boundaries photos:
The Plot In You photos:
Photos & Words – David McEneaney @experimentzero
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