Author and Photographer: Josh Justice

Fans packed the aptly named Majestic Theatre for indie pop rockers lovelytheband’s “Finding It Hard To Smile” Tour stop in downtown Detroit.  For their second headlining tour, lovelytheband brought along newcomers New Dialogue, and filling in for an ill Flora Cash, local musician HALA.
 
Detroit’s own Ian Ruhala and his band HALA kicked off the night with a bang. With John Kick on drums, Jake LeMond on bass, and Austin Blicher playing a “sexy” guitar (as one fan in the front row exclaimed), HALA turned the Majestic into a college basement party, perfect for the beautiful night in Motown. With a sound reminiscent of mid 2000s Peter, Bjorn and John, the crowd was captivated with “She” and “What Is Love? Tell Me, Is It Easy?” (songs from HALA’s debut album Spoonfed) and their latest single “Sorry”.
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​Taking the stage next was the female fronted, Los Angeles based New Dialogue. Fresh off tour with Marianas Trench, the alt-pop quintet, led by Ela Kitapci, serenaded the crowd with their melodic syth-powered singles “Neon Ocean” and “Fake Smile” from their debut EP “Teach Me How To Feel.” The band even treated the crowd to a fantastic cover of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” Ela and crew finished off their set with “Pilgrims,” offering words of encouragement with lyrics like “It’s a story for the ages, living off the pages. Where we’re going you can be anyone.”
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​With a stage lit by neon lips, headliners lovelytheband took their places. Kicking off their set, lead singer Mitchy Collins led with “Emotions” and “Stupid Mistakes” from their debut album “finding it hard to smile.” The fans in attendance were hardly finding it hard to smile as the band pounded through their 17-track set, including their radio smash hit “Broken.” A personal highlight from their set was their rendition of The Killer’s “Mr. Brightside.”

​By: Anthony Cannella

As the Chaos & Carnage Tour comes to an end, all we could say is that we hope you were able to catch this tour at one of the dates! As the tour was just kicking off, we were able to catch this show at the Concord Music Hall in Chicago, Illinois. It was the perfect venue for a tour such as this one, due to the fact that everything was compact, personal and had a sound system that went unmatched, which set the mood right for a night of various styles of Metal. Chaos & Carnage 2019 was definitely one to remember as you can tell each band fed off of each other’s energy perfectly. It was as if each band owned the night in their own unique way, which is rare at times in the Rock and Metal industry. Each band brought their own heavy styles and never allowed the crowd to have a break from start to finish. 

​Each band gave the crowd an opportunity to hear their venue shaking hits along with their new headbanging music. Headliners, Whitechapel did that perfectly as they destroyed the Concord Music Hall with their crowd favorites along with their music from their recently released album “The Valley”, which can be heard in full at the link above! Whitechapel, along with the other extremely talented and powerful bands came out intensely with their sets and gave Chicago a night of Metal that people will be talking about for a while. Check out the photos below to have a small preview of what we are talking about and don’t forget to keep Chaos & Carnage on your radars for next year’s tour!