Celebrating ten years of On Letting Go with Circa Survive

Circa Survive | Photo by Sydney Schaefer for WXPN | sydneyschaeferphotos.com

Earlier this week, iconic Philadelphia suburb rockers of Circa Survive kicked off a month and a half long tour with their fellow Philly dudes of mewithoutYou, and Turnover. This tour, however, isn’t just some random tour; 2016 (finally) ended two weeks ago, which means that all of those great emo/punk albums released back in our youth (2007 to be exact) have some possible 10 year anniversary tours happening, and Circa Survive happened to be the first of the year. In 2007, the band released their second studio album, On Letting Go, making 2017 its 10th birthday. And what better way to celebrate the new year, but more importantly, the end of 2016, than by paying tribute to this great album being around for a whole decade?

The tour kicked off in Boston on Thursday night, making its way to Philly last night for just the second night of tour, which sold out pretty early on following the tour announcement. First to play last night were the shoe-gaze masters of Turnover. The band took the stage with a more than ready crowd waiting for a good time; playing songs off of their 2015 hit release, Peripheral Vision, the band dazzled the audience from start to finish.

Next to play were Circa’s fellow Philly-area rockers, mewithoutYou. These guys are super fun to see live, and especially shoot; the energy they bring with them on stage every single time embodies who they are as musicians and the music scene of the city they come from (aka our GREAT city of Philadelphia). Lead singer and frontman Aaron Weiss does whatever the hell he wants on stage, to say the least. When he came out on stage last night followed by the rest of his band (wearing sunglasses even though it was night time and we were inside???) he and the band jumped right in to a high energy and all around fun performance. Weiss experiments with his vocals in a variety of ways, so getting to watch him do it in real time on stage was a cool thing to watch. He bounced around wherever he pleased on stage last night; going behind the drum kit, sitting on monitors, you name it. He even sunk down to his knees at one point (bringing the microphone with him) and sang from down there (photo below).

All in all, mewithoutYou put on a stellar performance last night and was definitely the perfect band to get a more than ready crowd riled up to see Circa Survive hometown gig.

I still remember the first time I ever saw/photographed Circa Survive — it was the first show I ever shot with a real photo pass — and being bowled over by the unpredictable energy of Mr. Anthony Green. I rememberthinking WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING THIS IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO PHOTOGRAPH. Green is the heart of Circa, to say the least. When the background music faded away and the lights went out, the crowd erupted in a roar of cheers. The On Letting Go hot air balloons began to light up and the band came out on stage, followed last but not least, by Green himself. Since this is a tour dedicated to On Letting Go’s 10th birthday, the band rightfully so kicked off the show last night with the first song off the album, “Living Together”, followed by the rest of the album, front to back.

Although the beginning of “Living Together” isn’t necessarily intense, as soon as the chorus began, Green makes it so and followed suit the rest of the set. He runs and jumps around stage literally all the time, making for a really fun performance to photograph. Shows such as these ones are always super fun because everyone is screaming every single word back at the band. For instance, when the band went into “In The Morning and Amazing…”, the whole audience was screaming “AND I CANNOT SLEEP WITHOUT THE RADIO ON” right back in Green’s face.

Green and the rest of the band were definitely feeding off of the energy the crowd was radiating. “This is definitely the biggest show we’ve ever played in Philly, holy shit,” said Green, following with a shoutout to the intimate connection with his crowd: “I can’t say it feels any different than playing the North Star Bar.” The hometown crowd was feeling the love from Circa and cheered even louder (if that’s even possible).

The band played the rest of On Letting Go straight through, making for a great night in their hometown to pay tribute to an album that did so much for them and so much for their fans.

As previously stated, since Circa was the first real show I ever shot, I feel that my past two and a half years shooting shows prepared me to shoot them again, and I think I did a pretty good job; I definitely feel I gave justice to just how insane Green is while on stage. Check out more photos below!