Touring in support of their newest record, Polar Similar, metalcore veterans Norma Jean rocked Grizzly Hall Friday night with a set that embraced the power of change and the transition into modernity.
Norma Jean have been a band now for 20 years, but front man Cory Brandan Putman is the longest standing member at this point, having joined in 2004. Confused? As Putman explained at the show, while playing some classics no current member had a hand in writing, Norma Jean has evolved into a collective, with contributions across the board from the larger Norma Jean family. In a way, it allows them to maintain a vitality when most bands would be slowing down. Fresh members mean fresh ideas and fresh stage performances.
Putman is obviously the band’s undisputed leader and creative force at this point. That means Norma Jean is not your daddy’s Norma Jean anymore. Friday night’s set embraced that ideal, leaning particularly heavily on new material. Up until Putman declared they were going to “play some old shit,” the set featured nothing older than 2010’s “Anthem of the Angry Brides” and was mostly culled from Polar Similar.
But this is how Norma Jean lays out a blueprint for going forward. For a band that cut its teeth in a scene that largely died almost ten years ago, staying relevant means staying modern. Songs like “1,000,000 Watts” from Polar Similar or Wrongdoers’ “The Potter Has No Hands” don’t necessarily lose the distinctive Norma Jean flavor, but they’re trekking in a direction that a new generation of metal fans unfamiliar with early 2000’s metalcore can appreciate. That remained the theme of the set, as Norma Jean proved they might as well at this point have reinvented themselves as a whole new band.
Of course, they walk a delicate balance here. That means not totally alienating their most diehard fanbase, including those who have been listening since before Putman was even in the band. A medley of songs from a bygone era, including “The End of All Things Will be Televised” from 2006’s Redeemer and “I Used to Hate Cell Phones, but Now I Hate Car Accidents” from their 2002 debut Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child, made sure those fans left happy. Closing with their biggest hit, “Memphis Will be Laid to Waste,” was even sweeter, though they might have started a riot if they hadn’t played it.
Polar Similar features a single titled “Forever Hurtling Towards Andromeda” and that sentiment largely sums up where Norma Jean stands as a band in 2017. They continue to hurtle into the future, with a new cast of musicians and a more streamlined creative direction, but their roots will always be a part of them. It’s the reason that 20 years on, the Norma Jean brand name can still pack a house. The fact that they still utterly destroy every stage they take proves the brand is in good hands.
