Poison the Parish Tour featuring Seether, Letters from the Fire, and Big Story

Seether

Howdy-ho from the pit! We’re back again, this time to recount the Poison the Parish tour featuring Seether, Letters from the Fire, and Big Story. The Uptown Theater hosted this grouping of hard rock acts on Tuesday, August 8th

Every day when I drive home, I pass the Uptown Theater. Usually when there is a show playing that night, a small line can be seen lining up around the venue. Bigger acts usually generate bigger lines, but the line to get into Tuesday’s show was nearly wrapped around the building. Kansas City’s cooler than normal August also help a little.

Entering the show was more difficult that usual, due to the throngs of people lined up to get beer and merch. Traditionally, a merch booth is a table or two, but this one seemed like it took up nearly half the entrance to the Uptown. Inside the theater wasn’t much better – fans were clamoring for floor space and seats before the openers took the stage.

First to the stage was a five piece out of Dallas, TX called Big Story. Just finished wrapping up production on their debut record, this band was eager to show Kansas City what they were made of. Big Story banged out a seven-song set list to the delight of a full floor of fans. As openers, these guys really set the pace for the show to come. I doubt this is the last the world has seen of Big Story, as I feel they have a bigger story to tell in the future.

Next up was the hard rocking group Letters from the Fire. This musical ensemble from San Francisco was founded in 2012 by guitarist Mike Keller.  Rounding out the band is Alexa Kabazie on vocals, Cameron Stucky on lead guitar, Clayton Wages on bass, and Brian Sumwalt on drums.

Letters from the Fire’s set opened with track one, “Perfect Life” off of their studio album Worth the Pain (it’s always kind of cool when a band opens up the same way their album starts) Their singles “Worth the Pain” was featured in the middle of the set, and the band closed their set with their other single, “Give in to Me”.

At this point in the show, people were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the headliner, Seether. Bathroom lines were long, drinks were being purchased, merch was being sold, and space on the floor was becoming limited.

Hailing all the way from South Africa (and a little from Oklahoma) Seether formed in 1999, originally under the name Saron Gas. Seether consists of lead vocalist/guitarist Shaun Morgan, bassist Dale Steward, and drummer John Humphrey. Joining them on stage was Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery.

Backlit by a sea of multi-colored lights, Seether opened up the set with “Gasoline” from their first official album Disclaimer. Next up was “Truth” from their third album Karma and Effect. The band continued to delight fans with a smorgasbord of their biggest hits, and within the 15 set song list, found time to cover “Black Honey” by metalcore band Thrice. Seether closed their dark and moody set with another hit “Remedy”

Tuesday night was a big success for the bands and the fans – evidence by all the merch sold and the thousands of people leaving the Uptown Theater with smiling faces and ringing ears. 

Photos by Josh Chaikin
Words by Dallas Hessel