The guitars were screaming and the dreadlocks were spinning this past Tuesday evening as Nonpoint made a stop in Charlotte at The Underground. The band is out supporting their tenth studio album, appropriately titled “X,” on the Chaos and Earthquakes Tour. Nonpoint is one of those bands that tours relentlessly and whether headlining clubs or performing in front of tens of thousands of people at a festival, they can always be counted on to give a balls to the wall performance each and every time they hit the stage.
The band has been around since 1997 with original members, vocalist Elias Soriano and drummer Robb Rivera, leading the charge. Joining them are guitarists B.C. Kochmit and Rasheed Thomas along with bass guitarist Adam Woloszyn. It was a fairly late start for a Tuesday show with Nonpoint getting started just after 10:30 in front of a crowd that was amped up and ready to go. The pitch dark stage burst into life with strobe lights going off at a frenzied pace and plenty of fog as the band kicked things into high gear with “Empty Batteries,” a track off their latest record. From that point on, it was a flurry of activity and nonstop energy all night long. Lead vocalist Soriano sounded in peak form as he stood on the small risers at the front of the stage pointing and encouraging the fans up front smashed against the barricade. Thomas and Kochmit provided riff after riff with sizzling leads flipping their hair to the beat. Rivera was in absolute beast mode, pounding away on his kit which was situated sideways on a riser at the rear of the stage. I really like this set up for a drum kit because you can actually see what the drummer is doing and Rivera was definitely putting on a show accompanied by Woloszyn’s driving bass lines. Soriano kept the chit chat to a minimum but took a moment to thank the crowd for coming out and the audience showed their appreciation by forming a pretty good sized circle pit in the middle of the venue floor. The newer tracks like “Dodge Your Destiny” and “Chaos and Earthquakes” fit nicely into the set list and people seemed to already be very familiar with the new songs. Of course, there will always be some songs that are crowd favorites and as the band started in with the first few notes of “Bullet with a Name,” the intensity could be felt throughout the venue as fans jumped, moshed, and went crazy. The band hadn’t even left the stage before the chants of “Nonpoint! Nonpoint!” bellowed across the floor. Nonpoint happily obliged as Soriano and company came back out with huge smiles on their faces as they took the crowd down a notch for their brilliant cover of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” before ramping things up into hyper drive with a raucous version of “What a Day.”
There is absolutely nothing better on this planet than a live rock show and getting to experience music up close and personal. Tonight, Nonpoint made that possible and showed exactly why they have been a force to be reckoned with in the metal universe. What a day indeed!
Set List:
Empty Batteries
Buscandome
Endure
Circles
Wheel Against Will
Broken Bones
El Diablo
Breaking Skin
Dodge Your Destiny
Chaos and Earthquakes
Fix This
Bullet With a Name
Encore:
In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins cover)
What a Day
We would like to thank Amy Sciarretto from Atomsplitter PR for the credentials to review the show.
