Sleeping With Sirens – Skyway Theater – January 11th 2020

Sleeping With Sirens with Set It Off, Belmont, and Point North
Skyway Theater
January 11^th, 2020

Sophiea Owen

It was a bitterly cold January night, but pop punk was keeping bodies and hearts warm at the Sleeping with Sirens show on Saturday night at the Skyway Theater in Minneapolis.

Point North opened things up. They are a California-based progressive rock band.

Belmont is a pop punk band hailing from Chicago, Illinois. Though a fairly recent band, they encompassed the classic emo vibe that’s been prevalent all throughout the last decade. They had an infectious energy, lead singer Taz Johnson instigating lots of jumping and crowd surfing. Limbs flew through the air to the post-punk-hardcore guitar riffs and heavy drum beats. From the very start of the show they commanded the stage and got the crowd jumping with their mix of pop-punk, hip-hop, prog, and a little bit of djent.

Set It Off took things in a wholly different but still completely relavant direction. Leaning more on the pop side of pop-punk, with electronic synths sizzling and club bass beats pounding underneath classic hardcore guitars, they got the crowd dancing more than moshing but still having a completely enthralling time. When lead singer Cody Carson walked on stage, screams immediately erupted from the crowd, and every hand was in the air. His clear, bright vocals with poppy, jazzy snaps got the dance party going. He would range from hitting high falsetto notes to nearly rapping at certain points, exemplifying the diversity that the genre “pop-punk” has to offer. Cody went into the crowd near the end of their set to the delight of everyone, proving that emo music is nothing if not passionate.

Sleeping With Sirens has been a band since the late 2000s/early 2010s. Their fanbase is strong, passionate, and ranging from old-school emo fans to people who just discovered them this past year with their latest album. Their setlist ranged from the very beginning of their career to their most recent efforts. The energy in the room was buzzing before they came on, smoke filling the room with a soft blue haze. The reaction when this band walked on stage was just immense. They immediately commanded attention, reaching out to the crowd and egging them on. When lead singer Kellin Quinn told them to jump, the entire crowd did. People from the barricade to the back of the room were moving. You could literally feel the whole room shaking with the bouncing around and moshing. Crowd surfers were numerous, legs and arms flailing in the air almost constantly. The entire band looked like they were having the time of their lives as well, evidence of the passion and love that the community and fanbase has with this band. Kellin’s vocal range went from soft singing to gutteral screaming to high bright cutting notes, along with many impassioned speeches about community, love, and the power music has to bring us all together.

This show really proved that in the wake of “Twenty-Nine-Scene” and “RAWR-ing 20’s” jokes, emo really isn’t dead. In fact, it’s going stronger than ever.