It’s been 20 years since emo outfit Armor for Sleep released their record What to Do When You Are Dead, so the NJ rockers have been touring to celebrate their fan-favorite concept album. The band made their return to a packed house in Detroit at St. Andrew’s Hall, with lead singer Ben Jorgensen fondly bantering about returning to the venue (and its downstairs stage/venue, the Shelter). With strong support from Hellogoodbye and Boys Night Out, it was a night full of callbacks to the mid-00s era of emo, post-hardcore, and pop-punk. Here are five moments that stood out:
Hellogoodbye Take It Back to Square One
Sonically, Hellogoodbye were on a different wavelength than Boys Night Out and Armor for Sleep, but lead singer Forrest Kline proved the band’s punchy, synth-inflected pop-punk still resonated with an audience that grew up on that era of emo music. Early cuts from Hellogoodbye’s self-titled EP and Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! era got the crowd bouncing along through hits like “Here (In Your Arms),” “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn,” and “Touchdown Turnaround.”
Boys Night Out Preview Their Own Album 20th Anniversary
Between Armor for Sleep’s What to Do When You’re Dead and Boys Night Out’s Trainwreck, there was good company for grim concept albums. The tracks Boys Night Out played from Trainwreck elicited some of the biggest responses from the audience, as lead singer Connor Lovat-Fraser told the crowd, “We’ve got new music coming, a Trainwreck 20th anniversary coming, so exciting times.” The cut “Medicating” put all the band’s talents on display – from the balance between Lovat-Fraser’s clean vocals and guttural roars to the driving guitar riffs that propelled the second half of the track. Set closer “I Got Punched in the Nose for Sticking My Face in Other People’s Business” (from the band’s debut studio album) showed there were plenty of early fans in attendance, as the crowd thrashed to the song’s pummeling riff.
Armor for Sleep Start in the Middle
A common approach for bands on album anniversary tours is a sequential, front-to-back setlist, but Armor for Sleep bucked this trend in favor of a more unique approach. They did play What to Do When You’re Dead in the order of the track listing, but they picked up the main portion of the set in the middle of the album, starting with the driving rocker “Remember to Feel Real.” (More on the tracks that weren’t featured in the main set later.) This and the ferocious cut “Stay on the Ground” provided bursts of energy early, but the band showed they could shine in quieter moments like the ethereal “A Quick Little Flight” and the start of “Basement Ghost Singing,” which served as worthy vocal showcases for Jorgensen. Elsewhere in the main set, guitarist Erik Rudic impressed with his versatile guitar work, from the lush textures of “Walking at Night, Alone” to the chunky breakdown of “I Have Been Right All Along.” Main set closer “The End of a Fraud” invoked a huge singalong with the crowd over the anthemic riffs of the track’s second half.
A Completionist Run in the Encore
After briefly leaving the stage, the band returned for an encore that rounded out the What to Do When You’re Dead experience, along with an assortment of bits from the band’s other eras. Armor for Sleep delivered a completionist’s dream come true with What to Do When You’re Dead rarities, like the hidden track “One Last Regret,” B-side “Very Invisible,” and “Who’s Gonna Lie to You” (from the extended 15th anniversary edition of the record). “Very Invisible” impressed with its opening shimmering guitar texture, while “Who’s Gonna Lie to You” electrified the audience with the combined force of its opening guitar riff and bassline. Otherwise in the encore, Jorgensen also taking up a guitar helped deliver even more uniquely intersecting guitar sounds when teamed up with Rudic, like on “Smile for the Camera.”
Finishing at the Beginning
As the band started in the middle of What to Do When You’re Dead, there were a couple big hitters remaining as the set reached the finish line. The band kept the intrigue of the full-album performance to the end, wrapping up with “The Truth About Heaven” and “Car Underwater,” ending where the album begins. On the former, the crowd roared along to the track’s anthemic chorus and driving guitar riff. And on the latter, Jorgensen honored the crowd, explaining that how much audiences have connected with What to Do When You’re Dead has been life-saving since the album’s inception in the darker days of his past.
When Jorgensen introduced this final sequence, he said, “We skipped the first two songs when we started the set, so we’re gonna end this shit together.” The crowd gladly obliged, bouncing and singing along to the final track, a testament to the staying power for the album in the two decades since its release.
