Its a Monday, and I am in Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena for the second of five shows on Spiritbox’s UK tour with Jinjer and Dying Wish. As you’d expect from a band of Spiritbox’s calibre, it turned out to be a pretty impressive night, led by some of the most formidable women in the scene right now.

Up first on the bill was Dying Wish, who I’d heard about before the show, but never really had a chance to listen to. A few songs in I realised what they were all about. Fast, heavy and screaming in your face. Right up my street, no questions asked.

Their stage presence was great and even though I didn’t know many of the songs, I had an absolute blast, the only negative I can pull from seeing them is that the guitarist was incredibly eager to get crowd surfers over the barrier and to start pits. Normally, I can get behind this as I love a high energy crowd, but in an arena for 10,000 people, with people still coming in it felt just a little early to be pulling that trigger on a room that was still getting its bearings. Regardless of that, they’ve got a new fan in me and listening to the setlist back, their music is produced incredibly well and listening to the tracks sounds like seeing them live, and seeing them live was pretty damned awesome.

Following on from Dying Wish is Jinjer, who again, I’d never really paid much attention to. This said, the company I was with were insistent they were a very good act. Whilst my knowledge of the band wasn’t as great as it could have been, I did know that Trivium’s Matt Heafy was a big fan, and that has got to mean something. Overall, Jinjer were amazing. Tatiana’s vocal range is outstanding and I asked my friend multiple times “Are you sure there’s not 2 singers and one is in the back?”. Again, the stage presence was very impressive and combining that with some absolutely insane vocals only made Jinjer even more inspiring. The main criticism I had at the end of their set was that they should have balanced the guitars and vocals a little better as I felt that Tatiana was drowned out just a little bit, and when you have a vocalist with that level of skill, it just needs to be heard. A small side not I wanted to add about Jinjer is the merch line up they had is *mwah* chefs kiss. It was the usual black shirt affair, but the designs were immaculate, if I had £85 spare I would’ve purchased the ‘Quick Draw’ Hoodie very quickly.

Finally we have the main event, Spiritbox. I’ve been a fan for a long time and after missing them in Birmingham a few years back I managed to see them support Linkin Park at Wembley, where they put on a show to remember. The second I saw the dates for their own headline tour I text my friend and said “Get the day off, we’re going to Nottingham”. Before they started the show, they had a curtain fall which featured the Tsunami Sea logo, and the big drop was just as the vocals hit in the opener, Fata Morgana which honestly just felt like a perfect way to open up the set. The setlist they played on a whole was a solid 9/10, my only gripe is that seeing them twice now, they’ve not played Rotoscope. In the grand scheme of things I can’t complain too much, seeing Courtney LaPlante is never a bad thing. I did feel sorry for the chap next to me though, who’d I’d never met before, when they played Holy Roller, Soft Spine, The Void, Perfect Soul & No Loss, No Love. I may have got a bit too into the set at those points.

The lighting rig they used for this tour was nothing short of spectacular, the constant moving parts in tandem with the smoke and pulsating colours (Reminiscent of Ghosts Skeletour) was an absolute treat for the eyes and truly enhanced the equally beautiful and crushing music that Spiritbox bring to the table.

One thing I really enjoyed from the show was when they slowed it down just a little between Tsunami Sea and No Loss, No Love, where a poem was read out with the words being reflected onto the fabric stage side, it really sold the concept of what they were going for

I’m always happy to see Spiritbox and they blew me away, looking forward to seeing what the next show they play brings! (Hopefully Rotoscope!)