South African hard rock band Seether has been busy in 2014 with plenty of touring and gearing up for the release of their highly anticipated sixth studio album Isolate and Medicate. On Tuesday July 1st, the big unveiling occurred in North America when Isolate and Medicate hit the shelves of music stores nationwide. What better way to celebrate than an exclusive album release show in New York City at Gramercy Theater. With fans lining up around the block early, everyone was amped up to party with Shaun Morgan (vocals/guitars), Dale Stewart (bass), and John Humphrey (drums).
Getting the festivities going were guest opening band A Balance Between. Formed in Northern New Jersey back in 2009, the band is signed to Broken English Records. Taking the stage, they played a heavy guitar brand of music with many progressive and dark elements. Lead vocalist Jeremy Hernandez’ voice echoed loudly over the top of the textured instrumentation that reminded some of bands such as Deftones. Playing compelling original tunes such as “Stale Hearts Sway”, “The Ruse”, and “Your Own Hell”, this band definitely has a lot of skill and should be on everyone’s radar to check out. Their EP Negative Space is available on iTunes now.
Patiently awaiting Seether’s arrival on stage, many were seen talking about Isolate and Medicate and how great the record sounds. It has been a long three years since the release of Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray (2011), but now the time has come for some new Seether tunes for fans to fall in love with. Packed solid, Gramercy Theater was swelling when Seether walked out on stage and started with the opening track off Isolate and Medicate called “See You At The Bottom”. With a strong bassline of Stewart present, the classic mellow approach of Morgan’s vocals during the verse gave way to a raw sore throat yell during the chorus. Wasting little time, they went into their early cuts such as “Gasoline” and “Fine Again”. As the audience sang along with enthusiasm the feeling of excitement generated in the front and circulated to the back.
Known through the years as an emotional musician, Morgan has always been known to get lost in his music and covey all feelings in his performance while on stage rather than conversing with the audience. Interestingly enough, this exclusive show would be a slightly different experience for long-time followers as Morgan spent a decent amount of time speaking about songs and telling stories associated with them. He explained that “69 Tea” was the first song Seether wrote together when they were actually called Saron Gas. In honor of the song there was even a specialty drink available at the bar announced and with that they kicked into the post-grunge laced track. Immediately following they went into “Broken” which received a huge crowd response of cheers. Difficult to believe the song is over a decade old now, it is still as moving as ever and is a testament to the band’s song writing abilities. After a hard hitting drum solo by Humphrey, the band played the live debut of new track “My Disaster”. Conveying a distinct Seether style, Morgan’s voice sounded powerful and matched the intensity of the lyrical content.
Known for their ability to touch on a variety of feelings such as anger, frustration, happiness, and sorrow, Seether’s set moved into a series of emotionally touching songs such as “Rise Above This”, new single “Words As Weapons”, and another live debut with “Crash”. Bringing the music to life with every ounce of passion in their bones, the word going around the floor was Seether is even better live than on their albums. They continued to live up to that statement for the remainder of the night as they played on with “Tonight” and crowd movers “Country Song” and “Fake It”. Loud and adrenaline pumping, the multiple personalities of Seether shined through again with the beautiful new song “Save Today”. It was during the performance of this track that the audience was able to see all the dynamics and sensitivity in Morgan’s voice. To write music that people can relate with is one thing, but to be able to wear one’s heart on their sleeve in such a vulnerable way as Morgan does is breathtaking. The set could have ended on this note but the band had one more treat when they closed with the aggressive heavy track “Remedy” which had everyone screaming along.
Seether is without a doubt one of the top modern hard rock bands around today. Their live show was energizing and fascinating to everyone in attendance. After spending most of 2013 recording Isolate and Medicate, this was the perfect ceremony to kick off the release of the new material. Catch them on Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival when they co-headline with Godsmack later this summer.
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