On November 2, I had the chance to road trip from my usual stomping grounds in Nashville to see Thousand Foot Krutch's Born This Way Tour in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Given that TFK has been a Christian hard rock mainstay for a decade and a half, it might be easy to pass this tour up if you've already seen them or else plan on seeing them later on down the road.
After spending an evening enjoying one of the most exquisitely on point rock shows I've seen in years, I've collected for you my five reasons why passing this one by would be a mistake.
1. Righteous Vendetta is an opener worth arriving early for.
Although a lot of people either choose to arrive late to shows and only catch the headliner, on this tour that would be a mistake. Righteous Vendetta brought the hardest sounds of the night with their metal-infused set, sending the energy levels crashing through the ceiling. This is a band that's worth your time.
2. We As Human is willing to break the stage to bring the rock.
At the stop I attended in Chattanooga, guitar pedal boards, the drum riser, and frontman Justin Cordle's dignity (he tripped off the drum riser and still passed it off as totally rock and roll) were all fair game. The band's raucous energy by no means inhibited their infectious, crushing brand of hard rock from washing the audience in adrenaline-infused perfection.
3. TFK's bringing the best of OXYGEN:INHALE to the stage.
This tour follows hard on the heels of recently released concept album
OXYGEN:INHALE. As a result, the band played new songs "
I See Red," "
Like A Machine" and album lead single and tour namesake "
Born This Way." All three tracks translated to the live environment incredibly well, bringing out the harder edge in each of them for a blistering performance.
4. The energy levels are never set to anything less than 11.
Most bands structure their sets with slower songs set in the middle to give both themselves and the audience a break. None of the bands on the Born This Way tour chose to do this. Though the result would likely not work for every hard rock outfit, Thousand Foot Krutch in particular managed to pull it off with an impressively constant level of fist-pump-inducing fervor.
5. Thousand Foot Krutch sets the bar for other rock shows.
By this point, the three guys that have made up the core of TFK since its inception (Trevor McNevan, Joel Bruyere and Steve Augustine) are so completely coordinated and connected musically and personally that the resulting performance is incredibly tight from start to finish. This is rock and roll as it should be: infectiously passionate, complex yet instantly accessible, rebelling against cultural norms to free up listeners to be who they were created to be.
In conclusion: rarely have I attended a rock show so completely free from missteps. Thousand Foot Krutch's explosive performance sent the message out loud and clear: they are at the top of their game, a juggernaut only continuing to gain momentum. Their music is a movement well worth getting on board with.
