u/Aggressive-Moose7929

On Letting Go: Ten-Year Anniversary Tour

w/ mewithoutYou, Turnover

Stage AE

Pittsburgh, PA

Tuesday, January 17th, 2017

With the announcement of Circa Survive’s reunion after a five-year hiatus (which apparently happened back in February, but I didn’t find out about it until a few days ago), I thought it’d be fun to share some of my most memorable Circa experiences.

PROLOGUE: Shot by Glass Arrows

I don’t remember exactly when I discovered Circa, but I believe it was between 2010 and 2012, since they had not yet released their album, Violent Waves, but Blue Sky Noise was still pretty new. I was big into watching drum covers on YouTube, being a new drummer myself at the time, and after watching one of my favorite YT drummers cover a Paramore song (I don’t remember his username, unfortunately, or if he’s still active) one of the suggested videos was him covering a song called “Glass Arrows” by this band I had never heard of: Circa Survive. I was curious enough to check it out, and aside from being impressed by the drumming, I thought the song itself was really good too. Now, since I had just watched a Paramore cover prior, my initial thought during my listen of “Glass Arrows” was “Wow, I really like her voice.” I know, I know, this is basically blasphemy in the Circa fandom, but honestly, I feel most first-time listeners of them or any other post-hardcore bands at the time who had male vocalists with a higher range have made this mistake. It could have also been the way the drum cover audio was edited to trick the copyright bots. Either way, it didn’t take long for me to realize my error, but this realization kinda made me like Circa even more. Eventually, I would get their Blue Sky Noise album and became pretty obsessed with it.

On September 15th, 2012, I saw Circa for the first time on their Violent Waves tour. Now, I was still a new casual listener at this point, and even though I had their Blue Sky Noise album, I only listened to a handful of songs on it, not that I didn’t care for the other songs, but songs like “Imaginary Enemy”, “Strange Terrain” and, of course, “Glass Arrows” were the ones most on repeat. I got my ticket on impulse without even being aware that they had a new album out because I was just excited to see them in a live setting. Well, safe to say, these guys did not disappoint. Incredible stage presence. Anthony’s wild energy. Giant beach balls. Showering confetti. The crowd absolutely losing their fucking minds when certain songs were played. Now, again, I was only familiar with a handful of songs, and I think the only one they played that I recognized immediately was “Strange Terrain” that they played for the encore, but still, that experience gave me that extra push to get into the rest of their music, as I had some catching up to do.

PART ONE: Boston, January 12th, 2017

Four years after seeing Circa for the first time, they announced a ten-year anniversary tour for their sophomore album, On Letting Go. At this point, any announcement of a Circa tour would give me heart palpitations. I could not get enough of these guys in concert. Every performance was better than the last. Naturally, I got my ticket, brought a few friends this time, and had a fucking blast, although we did get separated in the pit not soon after the music started, but we found each other in the end.

Because Boston was the first show of the tour, when it ended, I felt…unsatisfied. Yes, the show was fucking phenomenal, but I felt like my Circa dosage hadn’t been filled yet. The next day I looked at their tour dates again. That night, they were playing in Philadelphia, which obviously was too far and too soon to attend. The next two shows were in NY, and if there’s a city I hate being in more than Boston, it’s NY. But four days later on the 17th, they would be in Pittsburgh, and with not much thought at all, I said, ‘fuck it’ and got myself a ticket for that show. The gig fell on a Tuesday, which was my scheduled day off for my job at the time. I figured I would drive to Pittsburgh, stay the night at a hotel or something, then call out in the morning and drive back later. Sounded like a good plan to me. So once again, I waited for the next date to arrive

PART TWO: Pittsburgh – Crossed Paths

Around 6AM on the 17th, I was out the door and started on the full-day drive to Pittsburgh. It’s funny, when looking at a map, you don’t realize (or at least I didn’t) how large states are until you have to drive across them. I also didn’t know that Pittsburgh was all the way across the state, practically on the line between PA and Ohio, so when I started seeing signs reading ‘x Miles to Ohio’, I thought for sure I had missed an exit or something, which thankfully, I didn’t.

When I entered the city, it was a pretty cool sight to see. It was early evening by that point, so the sun was leaving its last few embers while the city lights and everything were turned on, giving hues of white, yellow, and neon blue. The venue, Stage AE, was pretty much in the shadow of the Steelers football stadium, and that entire area was just a parking lot for it, but since there wasn’t a game that night and I had a couple of hours before the doors opened, there was plenty of spaces to choose. Now, seeing as I was in a new city with out-of-state plates, I didn’t want to give off “masshole” vibes, so I was extra careful driving in this area, which was a good thing because what happened next was something I did not expect.

As I pulled up to a parking area with available spots and was about to turn in, I saw a group of people, two guys and two women, on the sidewalk approaching the crosswalk of the parking entrance. Now, I didn’t want to be halfway through a turn and look impatient while they crossed (again, no masshole vibes), so I sat in my lane with my turn signal on (I was the only one on the road, so I wasn’t holding up traffic or anything) and waited for them to completely cross the crosswalk before I made any attempt to turn in.

Well, as they got closer to my field of view and came out of the shadow of the building they were walking in front of, my eyes were able to focus on their faces. There, enjoying a casual evening stroll with their partners, was Nick Beard and Stephen Clifford, Circa’s bassist and drummer! Ho-ly SHIT! Keeping my cool at this point was turning into an endurance test, especially as I watched them cross, Nick gave a subtle “thanks” wave at me, which I returned with a “no problem” nod. When they were safely across, I turned in to the parking area, pulled into the next space I saw, turned off the car, and, after checking to see they were out of earshot and there were no other witnesses, I let out a full-volume fanboy scream. I could not believe my timing. Leaving at the crack of dawn, driving for hours and hours and hundreds of miles, and arriving just as Nick and Steve were just out and about in the city, crossing right in front of my car. It was fucking wild! Well, after calming down and allowing enough time to pass so I wouldn’t accidentally catch up with them and look like I was following them, I got out of the car and headed up to the venue to wait with the other fans.

PART THREE: Balloons and Beer Cans

After doing a couple laps around the venue to stretch my legs, and booking a hotel room for the night, I got in line and went inside. The venue reminded me a lot of the House of Blues, but it definitely had a larger floor and a higher ceiling. I made my way right up to the right side stage and just waited for the show to begin how every other fan was: doom scrolling, aimlessly looking around the venue, drinking, and making small talk with other fans.

As a quick side note, this tour was also my introduction to mewithoutYou and Turnover. I just loved the chill ambience of Turnover and the very chaotic and melodic style of mewithoutYou. I have since seen Turnover multiple times on their own headline tours and have all their albums up to Myself In the Way. Sadly though, I was only able to see mwY twice when they opened for Circa on this tour before they broke up a few years later. I had thought of going to a show on their farewell tour but figured since I only really knew their album Pale Horses, it would be best if a fan who had listened to them far more than me should go.

Anyway, it’s taken a minute to get here, but now we are at the main event of the story. Circa came out on the stage, the twin balloon projector screens flashing to life with colorful graphics and strobes and rocked the fuck out as they always do. Where I was facing, I got a great view of Colin Frangicetto tearing it up on the guitar, completely lost in a trance; his eyes closed, and head rolled back as his fingers glided effortlessly over the strings. At some point early in the set, he had moved a little way toward center stage when the beginning of “The Difference Between Medicine and Poison is in the Dose” began. It didn’t matter that I had just heard this song live a few days ago or that I had heard it live multiple times before this on other tours. Every time Circa played anything live, it was like hearing it for the first time, blasting through the speakers and making my whole body vibrate, and I just couldn’t control what my body was doing. I reared back and shot my fist into the air in a very enthusiastic “YEAAAAHHHH!!!” fashion. But at some point as I extended my arm, I felt my hand connect with something for a brief moment and before I could even finish the thought of “shit, did I just hit someone?!” I saw a tall can of beer, flying almost in slow motion, high over the heads of fans in the pit and landing on the stage with a wet metallic clatter…exactly where Colin had been standing.

Whelp, so much for trying not to be a masshole. Fuckin' figures, right?

Time froze. I could see the can on the stage and the pool of beer it was laying in. I looked over at the band. Luckily, they didn’t seem to notice, and Colin was still hanging out near the center stage, so he wasn’t even splattered with a beer shower. I was so relieved it didn’t hit anybody; I would have been devastated and probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep that night knowing I had inadvertently injured someone from Circa or their crew.

Okay, the band is good. Everyone on stage was safe. Thank fuck for that. But…who’s beer was that? Well, I turned to my right, and I got my answer. Standing behind my shoulder was this girl (I wanna say mid-20’s?) who was looking at me with the biggest, saddest, puppy-dog eyes. She showed me her hand where her beer had once been. Both of us turned to where it was laying on the stage and looked back at each other, my eyes saying, “I am so so sorry.” And hers saying “Beer…go bye-bye.” This girl was having a great time, watching Circa, drinking her beer, when all of a sudden, me, some random dude who wasn’t even from around there, knocked it right out of her hands with a sniper’s precision.

Now, it didn’t matter if this had been her first beer or her third, although I could tell she was a little tipsy, I still obviously felt bad about what happened. I had to make it up to her so I reached into my wallet, pulled out a five, and handed it to her. Quickly, her expression went from sadness to pure joy. She honestly looked like I had just proposed to her. She took the five and then took my hand as if to kiss it but put her hand on top and kissed hers instead. She mouthed “thank you” and headed back to the bar to grab herself a fresh beer. I turned back to the stage as one of the crew was rapidly wiping up the spill was like “Okay, that girl was pretty fucking funny.” I didn’t see her again for the rest of the show and the show continued as if nothing had happened. By the end of it, I was damp with sweat, my throat was raspy from all my singing/screaming, and I was dead-tired. Thank fuck I had a hotel room waiting for me.

The next morning, I woke up in my very nice hotel room, called out of work (I don’t think my boss bought my excuse of "not feeling well", but it’s not like I gave a shit, I was in fucking Pittsburgh, man), and then laid in bed for another half hour or so before hitting the road again. Safe to say, I now make sure I watch my surroundings before I do any sudden body movements.