All Time Low

These Warped-Tour era icons have been releasing albums consistently since 2006, their newest project “Everyone’s Talking,” released just a couple weeks ago on Oct. 17, diving straight into an immediate tour for the band starting out with When We Were Young Festival. I recently learned their name derives from the song Head On Collision by New Found Glory, so I have a new found trust in their dedication to the craft. Throughout the decades, fans have been loyal to this Baltimore pop-punk boyband for a reason, they’ve been putting out consistently exciting music backed up by their playful humor and personalities, they’ve maintained their popularity and have stood out in the genre for decades. All Time Low has collaborated with artists like Demi Lovato, Blackbear, and Vic Fuentes, while this new album features JoJo and Ruston Kelly. They maintain their hold on the pop-punk scene, and are sure to put on a great show in Waukee. They’ll likely play a good chunk of their newest album this time, with a few select tracks featuring from across their greatest hits.

Mayday Parade

Another pop punk legendary act, Mayday Parade returns with their album Sad in 2025, following a seven year break since their last album. The band formed in Tallahassee in 2005, and celebrates their 20 year anniversary as a band this year with Sad, amazingly with nearly all of their founding members still together. They have upcoming plans to release 2 more parts of the Sad album in the upcoming months, much to look forward to from them. I’m anticipating a pretty even mix of their classic hits and tracks off their newly released album tomorrow evening, drawing into a classic pop punk experience.

The Cab

Best known to me for having a song in Rockband 2, this Las Vegas-based band returned in 2025 with a reuniting following a decade long hiatus. This year, they released their long-awaited EP, Road to Reign: A Prelude. It’s a catchy pop EP, supported by a bit of their grittier punk background seeping through into something that could’ve been featured in a early 2000s romcom movie. It’s a strong, and characteristic follow up after 11 years of a break, they’ve managed to come back still sounding like The Cab that we remember. Expect to relive their biggest hit tracks at the show, with a new song or two in between.

The Paradox

This up-and-coming pop punk band out of Atlanta might be young, but are putting out music that sounds like a skatepark in 2005. Their recent and rapid rise to popularity has them opening for icons like Green Day and Jack White, and recently also performed at When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas. They’ll play at this show with high energy, and bring fun to pop punk at Vibrant Music Hall tomorrow. They have multiple singles out now, and are currently in the works getting together their first EP released.

Tickets for the event are for sale from First Fleet Concerts here.

The post Concert Preview: All Time Low, Mayday Parade, The Cab, & The Paradox at Vibrant Music Hall on Oct. 29 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The night commenced with A Crimson Sea, a young band from Elgin, Iowa. The most notable part of their short set was when their vocalist gave a lovely song dedication to his five month old daughter, and proceeded with blood curdling screaming over thrashing guitars. I couldn’t catch a single lyric but I’m sure it was very heartfelt.

The second local band to play was A Casual Affair, from Cedar Rapids. This hardcore band literally was running, jumping, spinning, and rolling across the stage throughout their whole set, thus energizing the crowd to follow suit. Then they did something that I never would have guessed: The vocalist asked the crowd to calm down, and then actually stopped a song halfway to get security to escort one overly violent mosher out of the venue. Good for them to put safety first. To add to their already memorable performance, they gave an intense and interactive cover of Rage Against The Machine’s “Guerrilla Radio” and announced this was their drummer’s penultimate show, so if anyone in the crowd was any good at drumming to talk to them after the show.

Next up was Dallas’ Crown The Empire. This batch of guys hands down were the best dressed of the night, sporting either full suits and ties or collared button-ups with bow ties. An interesting aspect of this band is that they had two vocalists that did not play any instruments. It’s very common in metalcore to have two vocalists, usually one for clean singing and the other for screams, but often at least one plays an instrument. Regardless, their vocal interplay worked well, but I just couldn’t get over how sharp these guys looked. I would have guessed that they were going to some kind of classy reception, not a metal concert.

Baltimore’s I, The Breather followed. This Christian metalcore band is quickly gaining recognition, evident of their side stage slot at this past Summer’s Mayhem Festival, and obviously now with this stop in Iowa City. Their instrumentals were impressive but slightly too overpowering, as the vocals at times were drowned out. When audible, their lyrics speak of their faith, exemplified in “Forgiven” from their 2010 debut These Are My Sins.

The most acclaimed band of the night, Atlanta’s Norma Jean, blessed us with their music next. Along with Underoath, As I Lay Dying, and Demon Hunter, these four make up the “Holy Alliance” of Christian metalcore, appointed by the rock magazine Revolver. In addition, Norma Jean has been nominated for a Grammy, 2005’s O God, The Aftermath, so I was very surprised and ultimately disappointed that they were not the climactic performance of the night. Cory Putman’s brutal screams plus their oddly timed mathcore arrangements made for an intense and barbaric mosh pit, especially in their classic, “Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste.” My only critique is that I would have switched them with The World Alive’s slot, because Norma Jean was the best performance of the show.

Chicago’s Born Of Osiris was very impressive as well. They literally rocked harder than any other band; During the fan favorite finale, “Recreate,” drummer Cameron Losch managed to break one of his drums, and other members threw their massive banner into the crowd, which security did not seem fond of. Another thing they did that no other band did was feature a keyboardist, Joe Buras, in which I was torn on. On one hand, I don’t believe the electronics added anything to their harsh instrumentals, however his high pitched shrieking complimented Ronnie Canizaro’s low death-growls beautifully.

The final performance was Phoenix’s The World Alive, who started in 2008 as a side project of vocalist Craig Mabbitt (Escape The Fate, ex-Blessthefall), but the rest of the members kicked him out and carried on as a full time band. Something about their set that astonished me was the departure of half the audience. The venue was a pack of sardines for the last two bands, but half believed that they had already seen the best acts and there was no need to watch this attempt to top them. And that was the only bad part of The World Alive’s performance. Had they switched slots with Norma Jean, then the order of bands would have been perfect. I was very impressed with their instrumentals, especially during guitar solos, and with Tyler Smith’s Mabbitt-like vocals, which I would call a compliment.

I walked out of Blue Moose with minimal hearing left and a case of whiplash, which by metal standards means I was extremely satisfied. Metalcore is not for everyone, but Tuesday’s concert definitely was a pleasure to those who do like it. It is certainly an experience unlike any other kind of concert, and I look forward to the next time.

The post Show Review: The World Alive, Born Of Osiris, Norma Jean appeared first on KRUI Radio.