Set It Off Brings The Deathless Tour To A Sold Out Irving Plaza In New York City
Photography By John Campise
It’s a Saturday night in New York City, both school and work are out but instead of spending it at the bars, fans spent it at a sold out show in Irving Plaza witnessing Set It Off with Crown The Empire and DeathByRomy as part of The Deathless Tour. The UK-based metalcore band Caskets was set to be a part of the tour but due to visa complications, the band had to miss a handful of dates and was therefore not present for the show.
The first band up was the solo artist, DeathByRomy. DeathByRomy, is from Los Angeles, California and has been playing music since she was a teenager. She has released three studio albums; Monsters, Songs For My Funeral, and Entropy in 2018, 2021 and 2022 respectively but broke out in 2019 with the release of her song “Problems” after the song went viral on TikTok, amassing over 65 million streams on Spotify.
The whole stage went pitch black as a robotic voice played over the speakers, chanting “DeathByRomy”. DeathByRomy then made her way on stage and started her set with “Vicious Bliss” which is the first song off her 2022 album Entropy. The song starts off with Romy singing the intro then the band comes in, picking up the energy. The crowd was dazed by her smoothing voice, only to be caught completely off guard by her screaming. She then played her next song, the recently released “City of Angels”. Fans in the crowd recognized the song as some of them were singing along to the words. She thanked Crown The Empire and Set It Off for bringing her out on what is her first ever, full US Tour. DeathByRomy finished her set with “Day I Die” which is off her 2021 album Songs For My Funeral. DeathByRomy incorporates her Mexican heritage and takes influence from its traditions when writing her songs and has even written some songs on Mexican holidays such as the Day Of The Dead. The crowd was very responsive to DeathByRomy and a mosh pit opened up for her after she demanded one. She thanked New York for giving her their energy and walked off the stage.
Next up was the Texas - based metalcore quartet Crown The Empire. Crown The Empire hails from Dallas and has been a prominent band in the scene since 2010. The band’s lineup currently consists of Andy Leo (vocals), Brandon Hoover (guitars), Hayden Tree (bass/vocals) and Jeeves Avalos (drums) and is signed to Rise Records. There has been a long history of Crown The Empire being a strong pillar in the cane for years, having played Warped Tour four times and have toured with bands like Underoath, Asking Alexandria, The Word Alive, and Blessthefall, to name a few. The band has released five studio albums over the course of their career with their latest album, DOGMA, being released on April 28th, 2023.
Crown The Empire started off with “DOGMA”, the title track off their latest album DOGMA. The song starts slowly with just the drums and Leo singing softly to the crowd before the rest of the band comes in, bringing the energy up two levels. Once the band went hard, so did the crowd as the pit opened up instantly. Leo and Tree were bouncing off each other with singing and screaming while Hoover was hammering away on the guitar. Fans in the audience started crowd surfing in the next song “Black Sheep” and the pit got chaotic during the lead single off of Retrograde, “Zero”. The whole venue was singing every single word to the singalong song “What I Am” which is the second single off their 2019 album Sudden Sky and Hoover stole the crowd’s attention with a mini guitar solo before the song’s bridge.
Leo took the time and introduced the band to the crowd. He then told the crowd to get the pit ready for the next song. Some members of the pit shouted for Leo to get in the pit with them which Leo said he was too old for. The next song was another one off DOGMA called “In Another Life”. The song features Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante and is the lead single off the latest release. While LaPlante was sadly not present for the performance, Leo and Tree excelled at covering her parts of the song.
The band slowed it down for “Superstar”, giving the pit and crowd surfers a chance to catch their breath.
With the majority of their set being made up of songs from their most recent album DOGMA and a select few off the its predecessors Retrograde and Sudden Sky, the band threw in a surprise for their old school fans and went back in time, all the way to the first album,The Fallout. The next song they played was its title track, “The Fallout” and the pit took itself to the next level and the number of crowd surfers increased. Leo took over both cleans and screams while Tree covered the heavier and deeper growls. Crown The Empire had two songs left, “BLURRY (Out Of Place)” and “Makeshift Chemistry”. The fans were chanting along with Hoover to the hook, “WHY DO I? WHY DO I? WHY DO I?”. The band ended their set with a bang by playing “Makeshift Chemistry” another older song that’s off The Fallout. It was a special treat for old school fans to hear two older songs as well as newer fans so they could get a taste of what Crown The Empire used to be. Fans continued to crowd surf, putting security at work and the pit gave it everything it had left for the breakdown, with Leo screaming “I DON’T GIVE A F*CK!”, signaling the pit to let loose. Crown The Empire got the blood pumping for the New York crowd, which is good for what’s about to come next.
We have now reached the end and it was time for the main event to go on. Set It Off is an alternative pop punk band from Tampa, Florida and consists of Cody Carson (vocals), Zach DeWall (guitar), and Maxx Danziger (drums). The band has released five albums since forming in 2008 with their first album, Cinematics, in 2012 and their latest album Elsewhere, in 2022. The Deathless Tour is the next step in the band's new era following their departure from Fearless Records and going independent in 2023. Since the band’s departure from Fearless, they have released the following singles, “Punching Bag”, “Win Win” which features Scene Queen, “Evil People”, “Parasite” and their latest single, “Fake Ass Friends.”
Set It Off kicked their set off with the 2023 single “Parasite” and the energy was through the roof almost instantaneously as fans were already singing along word for word and jumping up and down. The singalongs continued into the next song “Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing” which is off their 2014 album Duality. The song features William Beckett from The Academy Is… and is the band's most streamed song, sitting at #1 on Spotify with over 244 million streams. The fans were deep into this song as this was one of the band’s most popular songs, they were singing along, crowd surfing and waving their hands back and forth with Carson. Carson welcomed the fans to The Deathless Tour and introduced the next song which was the 2024 single “Fake Ass Friends”. Fans continued to wave their hands back and forth with Carson as he told them to put their hands up. Carson let out an emotional scream during the second chorus which radiated off the crowd as they were screaming in response.
The next song they played was “Partners In Crime” which is a bonus track off of the expanded edition of their debut album Cinematics which was released in 2012. The song features Ash Costello from New Years Day on co-lead vocals and the band brought DeathByRomy out on stage to sing her parts of the song. Both Carson and Romy demanded the pit open up and the pit responded, as participants pushed it back as far and wide as they could. Once the breakdown hit, chaos broke out in the pit. Carson had the fans hold their hands up and sing as loud as they could for the next song which was “The Haunting”. The band then played “Evil People” which was released in October of 2023. Carson wasn’t impressed with how the pit died down after the last two songs and demanded the crowd to open it up again. There were people who knew exactly what was about to come so they reopened it back up as far as they could. Carson would then let out a deep growl, signaling the breakdown which caused everyone in the pit to lose their minds.
The stage production Set It Off had for this tour was very unique. The backdrop had “SET IT OFF” on a red flag and in front of it was a huge cutout of The Devil with its mouth wide open, which is also on the tour flyer. The drumkit was centered right in The Devil’s mouth where Danziger would come out of. The drumkit was also set on a platform with the The Deathless Tour written on it and it was set to look like it was on fire with gargoyle statues set on opposite ends of the stage. You could tell Set It Off was trying to make their stage production resemble Hell. The stage lighting was very colorful, with multiple colors of light flashing the stage. Carson came out on stage with a white trench coat that had a yellow stitch on his right shoulder and a large black batch on the lower left side which he would ditch after “Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing” and wore a black cut off tee for the rest of the set. DeWall wore a black jacket with green, red and blue paint strokes all over and black ripped jeans. The band has a very dedicated fanbase, singing along to every single word and raising their hands and jumping up and down anytime the band told them to. I noticed someone in the crowd that was holding a “Set It Off” sign which Carson pointed at.
Moving deeper into the set, the band played “Ancient History” off Duality. Carson hopped on an air mattress and was crowd surfing on it while singing the rest of the song. Fans gathered together and held him up as high as they could and kept him surfing all around the room and got him safely back on stage. For the song “I'll Sleep When I’m Dead”, the band did something different and had Carson and Danziger switch roles with Danziger singing the song and Carson playing the drums. Set It Off then played a one minute melody of ten songs that spanned their career which included “Bad Guy”, “Projector”, “Dancing With The Devil”, “Different Songs”, “The Magic 8”, “Duality”, “Skeleton”, “Horrible Kids”, “N.M.E”, and “Bleak December”. The challenge was to fit ten songs into ten minutes as they were making it a mission to add eighteen songs into two hours.
Set It off then played “Swan Song” the third song off Cinematics. Carson started off the song acoustically then the band finished the rest of the song loud. The fans continued waving their hands and singing along to the song. The band had one more song left but before getting into it, Carson thanked the fans for coming out and reflected on the struggles the band had over the years. He then gave a shout out to both Crown The Empire and DeathByRomy and apologized to the crowd on behalf of Caskets for not being able to make it to the show and the crowd cheered for them Set It Off closed their set with “Punching Bag”. The single was released on March 24th, 2023 and was the first song the band released independently. The song sits at #3 on Spotify with over 13 million streams and Carson dedicated the song to anyone who considered themselves “people pleasers.” He wanted everyone to let it all out, the anger and frustration of being taken advantage of and being walked on by other people, and wanted the pit to get bigger and for people to jump higher than they ever could. Carson urged the crowd to give him every last bit of energy they had and then the band went right into the song. Looking at the pit, there were a lot of angry people because they were using the pit to let out any frustrations they had and those who weren’t moshing, were crowd surfing with Carson high fiving every surfer he could that came over the barrier.
Set It Off has been a band since 2008 and it looks like 2024 is shaping up to be one of their biggest years yet. With multiple sold out shows and others coming very close to selling out, The Deathless Tour has been a massive success for the band. Since leaving Fearless and going independent, the band has gotten their first radio airplay and made it to the Top 20s on Mainstream Rock Radio for the first time ever. The band took a bet on themselves and it paid off. New York showed Set It Off love and their loyalty to the trio was shown in full force at the sold out Irving Plaza. This was my first time seeing Set It Off and I think I picked the right time to see them. This, for sure, will not be the last time I’ll see them too. If you haven’t seen them yet, they are still on tour until April 30th so go and see them if they are playing in a city near you.
