Hawthorne Heights broke through with a song called “Ohio is for Lovers”, as it started to get airplay on MTV, and national radio. Signed to Victory Records at the time, they became their highest selling debut act. Their debut album, “The Silence in Black and White” released on June 1st 2004, peaked at number 56 on the Billboard Charts, to date it has sold upwards of 816,000 units. It also featured the song “Niki FM” and “Silver Bullet”.
“If Only You Were Lonely” burst onto the scene on February 28th 2006, and it is the second and final album to feature guitarist, Casey Calvert before his tragic death. The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 charts and spent 17 weeks in the chart. Their following album “Fragile Future” which was released on August 5th 2008 was the last record that they would release through Victory Records. It debuted at number 23 on the Billboard 200 and spent 5 weeks on the chart.
After departing with Victory Records, the band moved to Wind-up Records and released their fourth full-length studio album on June 1st 2010. It peaked at number 50 on the Billboard 200 Charts. Victory Records released a greatest hits record without the band being involved entitled “Midwesterners: The Hits” on November 9th 2010. Following a couple of EP releases after the greatest hits record, Hawthorne Heights released their album “Zero” on June 25th 2013, which was released through Red Entertainment. “Golden Parachutes” was the leading song released prior to the album on May 18th 2013 and then the single “Taken By the Dark” was also released before “Zero”.
Combining technically driven guitar with impassioned vocal delivery, letlive.’s brand of progressive post-hardcore, spans various genres including alternative metal, experimental rock and hardcore punk. The band’s debut came in 2003 with the EP “Exhaustion, Salt Water, and Everything in Between" released on At One Records, with the line-up consisting of vocalist Jason Butler, bassist Christian Johanson, lead guitarist Ben Sharp, rhythm guitarist Keeyan Makif, and drummer Alex Haythorn.
letlive.’s full-length debut “Speak Like You Talk” arrived two years later in 2005 and marked the beginning of a series of line-up changes that resulted in Butler remaining the only original member in 2007. The band’s popularity grew at this point with a extensive touring schedule across Canada and the U.S. and the group returned to the studio to release their sophomore album “Fake History” in 2009. The album, released on Tragic Hero Records, was supported by another relentless tour including parts of Europe and produced by Kit Walters.
After Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oliver Sykes saw a letlive. performance in 2008 he arranged for the band to sign with Epitaph Records who rereleased the band’s sophomore album. With greater exposure the album earned high praise both critically and by fans and led to appearances at Download Festival, Leeds Festival and support slots for Enter Shikari, Your Demise and Underoath.
Subsequently, letlive. released their third full-length album in July 2013 peaking at No. 74 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and No. 62 in the UK album chart. Featuring the singles “That Fear Fever” and “Younger” the band proved their critical and commercial viability; achieving universal acclaim.
Emo band, Hawthorne Heights, has been dedicated to putting out highly emotive and meaningful songs that strike a deep chord with their fan-base ever since their formation. Their live performance is a testimony to the caliber of sincere music they create.
At live shows the band puts on high-energy performances with hard guitar riffs and loud thunderous drumming. Vocalist, JT Woodruff, also puts much effort into the music yelling out his lyrics that touch on such topics as teenage angst. Other members of the band also provide background vocal duties by harmonizing with JT’s singing, which provides a deeper sound to the performance.
Audience members are also deeply focused during the performance, yelling out every lyric to the songs with intense vigor and ecstatically crowd surfing through the venue. It is hard not to be so enthusiastic about Hawthorne Heights when they play such classics as “Saying Sorry” and “Ohio Is for Lovers”, which is considered the quintessential “Emo Anthem”. Members of the band often incite the glee of the audience by getting up close to the crowd making them feel like they are part of the show and expressing that their fans are an integral part of making the show special. The guitarist from Hawthorne Heights has also been known to stage dive into the crowd, which is followed by him playing the guitar while crowd surfing. There have also been times when JT has jumped into the crowd to sing his songs with audience members. When you attend a Hawthorne Heights concert you can expect to be in awe of their sincere delivery of the classic emo songs that they have brought to the main stream, continuing to wow fans and critics alike.
Letlive, are an American post-hardcore band from Los Angeles, who bring quite a heavy sound to the table, laden with big technical riffs and distorted dissonance amongst the guitars. The drums are that of a machine gun kind of speed when it comes to the fills. I’m still trying to figure out what post-hardcore actually means. It could be a fancy name for screamo, as this is definitely the music that is being performed before me. I’ve always understood it as very melodic choruses complimented by heavy verses complete with screaming. One thing is for sure when this band perform live and that is that the lead vocalist Jason Aalon Alexander Butler, is giving the vocals 110%, each scream sounds more painful than the last as though he is lacerating his vocal folds. From this performance I can see the passion that these guys have alongside a fantastic work ethic, it is no wonder that they have toured with A Day to Remember, Achitects, Enter Shikari, Underoath and Every Time I Die.