Sleeping With Sirens Usher In New Album With Sold-Out Show in Raleigh

Out of the dozens of musical genres born from the punk scene since the 80s, post-hardcore and pop-punk are so common that their definitions have blurred over time. Fans fight over whether a band is one, the other, a mix of both, or something else but can never seem to agree on an answer for any group. Listeners, new and old, have tried to define these genres only to land themselves a headache, and ya know what? I’d probably wind up with the same result if I thought about it too hard. Luckily, the band of the day for today’s review is none other than Sleeping With Sirens - one of the few groups that dance effortlessly along the line between these two genres and somehow manage to keep most of their fans from arguing in Twitter threads about it. This past Thursday, on their way to perform at Warped Tour in D.C., they shook Raleigh with a killer sold-out performance right before one of the biggest punk festivals of the year!

Formed in 2009 by Brian Calzini of Paddock Park, who left to form another project before the release of the band’s first record, Sleeping With Sirens stormed into the scene with Kellin Quinn as its lead singer with their debut album, With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear, in 2010. Its very first track, “If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn,” was an instant hit, and 16 years later, it has remained one of their most influential songs for millions of fans. Even if you don’t know the band, if you’re in the scene, you’ve almost definitely heard either this song or their other massive hit, “If You Can’t Hang.” Yesterday, Sleeping With Sirens released their eighth studio album, An Ending In Itself, after playing a number of the new tracks at their show at The Ritz this week!

The opener for the band of honor would have been The Haunt, a sibling hard rock duo hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but they sadly had to cancel at the last minute due to a surprise illness. Instead, we had the local DJ Phist perform, who played a ton of wicked emo and punk hits, as well as snippets from the new SWS album to warm the crowd up for the main attraction of the night. With Kellin on vocals, Nick Martin on rhythm, Justin Hills on bass, Matty Best on drums, and Tony Pizzuti on lead, every member of the band looked absolutely ecstatic to be on a smaller stage like this with the gargantuan Warped Tour just on the horizon. Right off the bat, Sleeping With Sirens opened with “Kick Me,” from their album Madness, and every single one of the 1,300 fans in attendance collectively lost their minds. A sold-out show at The Ritz isn’t the most common, but when it is, the energy is off the charts like it was for this show! 

Instantaneously, the band started running around the stage at full throttle, kicking, jumping, and adding flair to every single step they took. It was so chaotic that even photographing them from the distance I was at was a challenge. As their new album would drop in mere hours, Kellin and the band played two of the singles from An Ending In Itself, marking the live debut of “Forever/Always.” The balance between hardcore and punk wavered with every song to mix things up, but the crowd stayed consistently hyped no matter what was blaring through the speakers. To my surprise, fans didn’t crowd surf much during the first half of the show but made up for it with some crazy mosh pits and jumping around, with over 2,500 footsteps rattling the venue to its core. Die-hard listeners from across the country were in attendance due to this being a standalone headliner for Sleeping With Sirens, and they sure as hell made their presence known at The Ritz. I genuinely think this was the craziest floor I’ve seen at this venue over all my years of attending shows here, and that’s saying something!

As the band ushered in the second half of the show, Kellin took some time to slow things down a bit and thank the fans for all of their support throughout the years, whether they had been there since the beginning or were just getting into the band. With their eighth album mere hours away, it was time to go back into the past and celebrate the records that paved the way for this very moment. Fans roared as Kellin announced the entire second half of the show would be packed with old songs and shot into the intro for “Go Go Go” with all hands in the air from the eager crowd. As the mood sombered two songs later, with the playing of “Scene Five - With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear,” the acoustic rendition of their debut album’s title track, Kellin let the fans take control as they sang the lyrics perfectly in a gorgeous love letter to the band.

Right afterwards, to everyone’s surprise, Sleeping With Sirens began to play the intro to their cover of “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Kellin joked that he always tells himself that “he’ll never play it again,” but when do the fans ever believe him? After another fan-led vocalization, the tempo picked back up with three more fast-paced bangers. As the show came to a close with “Who Are You Now,” I started getting antsy from the balcony with how crazy the crowd was in the pit and decided to rush down to the floor and into the pit to crowd surf on the hands of all the incredible fans up to the stage - I couldn’t just let them all have the fun! Something was still missing, though…

With all the hard-hitting bangers from Sleeping With Sirens throughout the night, the show was about to end with the members walking off the stage, and they still hadn’t played their two biggest songs. Of course, everyone knew that this wasn’t the end and screamed for an encore, as there’d probably be a full-scale riot if the band just didn’t play these iconic tracks. Thunderous applause erupted across the venue when Sleeping With Sirens took the stage again with “If I'm James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn” into “If You Can’t Hang.” It was eight minutes of pure chaos and carnage as mosh pits broke out across the pit, and crowd surfers poured in from all corners as venue security struggled to keep up. For the last chorus of the night, Kellin brought every single fan off their feet as they jumped in unison, with the top of the crowd looking as fluid as water from my view from the balcony. With a final two-minute send-off and thank you from the band, they tossed picks and sticks to the fans who lost their minds when their hands wrapped around these treasures.

For a band this big to play a standalone show right before such a big festival, there’s no doubt that Thursday night was as big a hit as it was. With their new album out now (and it’s absolutely incredible if you haven’t listened) and taking the stage at Warped Tour today, this week has been one for the history books for Sleeping with Sirens and all their fans. In my 15 years of being a fan, this was hands-down the best performance from them that I’ve seen, and I’m sure most of the fans in attendance would agree. While the band rocks out on the big stage today, I’ll be jamming out to the new album again and eagerly waiting for their next tour across the USA. And when it does happen, I’ll see you all there!