Switzerland’s finest heavy music made its way to the Roxian Theatre when Paleface Swiss brought their Cursed tour to Pittsburgh.
Kicking off this night of carnage was Belgium hardcore band Nasty. I’ve been to enough hardcore shows to know that when the vocalist is wearing a tracksuit, you die in the pit. So when Matthias hit the stage looking like he was fresh off a set at the gym, I knew we were in for it. Nasty may have been playing a larger venue, but they started the show off with the energy you can (usually) only get from a small town beatdown. Matthias sent himself off the stage into the crowd and passed the mic around so fans could take over on vocals. Guitarist, Paddy, was no frills playing a single humbucker guitar with just a volume knob. Who needs tone? Not Paddy. Paddy’s low riffs and breakdown chugs slammed right through you. You didn’t need to be in the pit to get smacked around. Nasty’s tight and heavy style of no-nonsense hardcore turned the whole venue into a pit. It was an incredible way to start the night.
Who do you sandwich between two giant sounds like Nasty and Paleface Swiss that can keep the night as heavy as possible? You use hardcore punk icons Stick To Your Guns, duh. Hailing from Orange County, California, which I would argue gave us some of America’s heaviest hitters in the hardcore scene, Stick To Your Guns wasted no time showing the crowd why they have been a staple in hardcore music for nearly 20 years. Stick To Your Guns stays true to hardcore’s heavy roots while adding catchy hooks and choruses to their songs. You can’t help but sing along to their songs, even if you don’t know the words the first time around. Stick To Your Guns’ setlist covered half of their latest album release, “Keep Planting Flowers,” with songs like “Invisible Rain”, “More Than a Witness” and “Spineless.”
I have been to many sold out shows at The Roxian, but I have never seen this iconic Pittsburgh venue as packed as it was by the time Paleface Swiss took the stage. I have to give a shoutout to the crew working at the Roxian on this night for quickly attending to the needs of the crowd and keeping that many people safe. There were a few scuffles that broke out, but security was quick to handle the situation before things went south for everyone around them.
Paleface Swiss released their latest album, “Cursed” earlier this year and it has quickly taken over their top songs on Apple Music and Spotify. They opened the show exactly how “Cursed” begins with “un pobre niño murió” ripping right into “Hatred”. If you haven’t heard it yet, “Hatred” reminds me of an early Slipknot song turned up to 11. It is amazing to see vocalist Marc “Zelli” Zellweger rip through that song without missing a beat. “Cursed” is quite the change to Paleface Swiss’s previous deathcore sound, but clearly it’s working for them. Nearly every stop on this US tour is sold out. Tracks like “Enough?” really pull away from deathcore, but it fits in nicely with the album as a whole—it definitely had the crowd anticipating its unique drop. “River of Sorrows” slows things down a bit and gives the crowd the chance to sing along, and also sets us up for an encore. I’m not going to tell you which songs are played after the band returns, but I’m sure you can figure it out. There’s lots of sorrow, pain and burns at the end of the show… maybe a little love too. Come on, I gave you all the pieces, now put the puzzle together.
As “Zelli” says in “Enough?” – “Bring back that old school shit” – the entire evening felt like an old school beatdown hardcore show with a renewed energy. Zelli ended up dropping a fantastic atomic elbow from the side stage straight into the crowd. It’s interactions like this that bring you into the show. You’re not just watching it because you’re a part of it.
The Cursed Tour is still young, so be sure to check it out in a city near you. For more information, check out Paleface Swiss’s website to get the details.