Concert Review: The Gossip Tour 2018

The Gossip Tour 2018 by Gina Dierolf

On January 27th 2018, I saw Sleeping With Sirens with opening bands The Gospel Youth and Set it Off at the Reverb in Reading, Pennsylvania. A friend and I decided to go to this concert because of Set it Off performing, since we have liked them for some time. I knew all of the songs except maybe two from Set it Off, nothing that The Gospel Youth played and maybe only two of the songs from Sleeping With Sirens; since most of what they performed was all newer music.

As for the venue, I find the Reverb to be a pretty decent sized venue with pretty many seats, good standing space in front and around the stage and it is also handicap accessible. The only issue there seems to be with a lot of bands that play at the Reverb is that their instruments always seems to be amplified more than the singer’s microphones, so it’s almost always impossible to hear the lyrics being sung or what is being spoken.

The Gospel Youth were one of the first bands that played. While I knew none of their songs I thought their lyrics were good and their lead singer has a marvelous voice. But it has come to my attention that they had to let the singer go. I don't know the details surrounding it, but if they do find a replacement singer, they'll no longer sound the same.  As for Set it Off I knew almost 100% of the songs that they played and loved the whole time. They do a lot of fan interactions and Cody Carson has an amazing stage presence. They even broke out their wind instruments! I was quite disappointed, however, that they didn’t play “The Haunting” or “Wild Wild World.” Sleeping with Sirens wasn’t bad but I knew maybe two of the songs that they played since most songs performed were from their newest album and Kelvin Quinn doesn’t seem to move around much on stage.

During Set it Off’s Set they had a ‘friend’ come out on stage and said that they had been planning on performing a song with this man for a while now. So he introduced himself and then said that for this song he was going to bring his girlfriend out on stage. Well instead of them singing a song he got down on one knee and proposed to her in front of everyone. She did say yes, so hopefully everything works out for them. It was quite a beautiful thing to see happen.

Overall, the show wasn’t bad, however, there was a group of teenagers behind my friends and I who got very upset and angry at an older woman who ‘pushed’ in front of them. Due to this happening they were yelling all types of foul and profane things at this women that were completely uncalled for and could have ruined the night for anyone. I feel that if you aren’t able to handle getting bumped around at a show and have to be a dick then maybe a non-seated venue just isn’t for you. I think that seeing all three of these bands once is good enough for me. I would possibly consider seeing Set it Off again maybe if they came back to the Reverb since it is close to my residence and their ticket prices are fairly cheap.