While most were putting on their floaties during the flooding in Raleigh, Saturday night, we were out at Southland Ballroom to catch a bunch of pretty awesome bands. The touring package consisted on Forevermore (promoting their upcoming album Integral), Dear Desolate (Raleigh locals), Kingdom of Giants, and Darkness Divided; and local openers Valleys, A Turning Day, and Friends As Enemies. 
The first couple locals struggled with keeping their energy up with just a handful of people in the venue early. 

Valleys:

As the night went on, the experience could be seen on stage. The bands that were more veterans of the stage, were able to really look past the small crowd and still have fun on stage. They weren’t demanding for movement or energy from the people standing around. But as the night went on, more and more people started to show up. 

Darkness Divided, a band from Texas, expressed their appreciation for all that showed up to see them even though they’re so far from home. 

Kingdom of Giants really had some awesome energy on stage and the crowd seemed to feed off of that. The vocalist even jumped off the stage and ran around amongst the crowd for a song.
 

The local boys, Dear Desolate, really brought out the most people. Their new music video debuted on RevolverMag.com this week, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they started to gain some recognition. 

And finally, Forevermore, the band is based out of Indiana but the vocalist is actually from North Carolina. I was really impressed by just how much I enjoyed their set. They were fun to watch, and tight musically. Their new album, Integral, comes out on July 22nd through Solid State Records and is definitely worth a listen for those that are into the heavier genres of rock music.