Review: Andy Black and “The Ghost of North America” tour

On May 7, 2019 Andy Black brought his “The Ghost of North America” tour to Chicago at The Metro with special guests Kulick and The Faim.

The lights set and Pennsylvania-natives Kulick took the stage, giving off a lot of confidence with their first song “Crawling,” displaying immense energy while lead vocalist Jacob Kulick was all over the stage. With a catchy chorus, it was hard not to have fun and bop to the beat. The second song performed was one of the most surprising of their set. With Kulick on acoustic guitar the atmosphere changed. The energy was still high but it became eerily quiet as his voice filled The Metro with the soft tone of “City.” As the song progressed, the other instruments joined to create a soulful, powerful sound that made me cry. It all blended together beautifully and the emotion in Kulick’s voice pulled at my heartstrings. Toward the end of their set while playing “Ghost,” Kulick jumped onto the barricade, running up and down, singing in the faces of the amped up crowd.

Australia’s very own The Faim took the stage next with a powerful performance that made me dance, headbang and overall have a great time. They opened their set with “Saints of the Sinners,” with an overly-hyper vibe that made me want to hear more. Lead vocalist Josh Raven crossed the stage multiple times, singing in the faces of fans and getting the crowd involved. Throughout their set, bassist and keyboardist Steven Beerkens and guitarist Sam Tye both moved around the stage interacting with both sides of the crowd while getting as close as possible without jumping into the crowd.

Halfway through the set Raven eventually made his way into the crowd, starting from the left side and stopping in the middle, jumping up and down with the audience. He made his way back to the stage only to return to the crowd during “Amelie,” finishing their set in the middle of the audience with a lot of new fans.

The moment everyone in the venue waited for, the stage was draped with Black’s backdrop, a simple outline of Ohio with “AB” in the middle of it. Sage Weeber and Lonny Eagleton made their way on stage and the crowd roared with excitement as Black entered and started off the night with “They Don’t Need to Understand,” the first single he ever released as Andy Black.

Throughout the night Black would take breaks and have dialogues with Weeber and Eagleton, creating a conversational atmosphere between the audience and performers. Before playing “Broken Pieces” Black asked the audience if anyone still had their appendix, with the majority raising their hand. Black laughed and talked about how he was told by his doctor it was normal to have the appendix taken out as it is a useless organ, yet every city he asked this question the majority still had theirs. He dedicated “Broken Pieces” to his appendix and made the entire Metro crowd laugh before Black’s gravelly vocals filled the room.

Even though there was a fun conversational atmosphere, Black used his time to talk about serious topics before playing “Saviour.” Written for Black Veil Brides, Black talked about how suicide and depression are prevalent, how everyone is dealing with issues and that we all are truly never alone. He invited the crowd to sing along and only played a few verses. During the song Black actually dipped into his heavy, screaming vocals, bringing the Black Veil Brides vibe to the song before completely cutting it off and moving on to another Andy Black original.

Overall the concert picked up my mood and created a fun, one-of-a-kind feeling that will carry with me for the rest of my life. Andy Black, The Faim and Kulick are all bands to watch out for as they are creating fun, safe environments for fans of all kinds of music. If I could go to another show on the tour I would, just to see all the bands fill the venue with their strong vocals, instrumentation and messages.

TAGS: Andy Black | Kulick | The Faim