Show Review: Summer of Loud Brings Beartooth, I Prevail, Killswitch Engage, Parkway Drive to Concord
Summer of Loud Festival
Beartooth, I Prevail, Killswitch Engage, Parkway Drive
w/ The Amity Affliction, The Devil Wears Prada, Alpha Wolf, Kingdom of Giants
Toyota Pavilion at Concord
Concord, CA
July 6th, 2025
Review and Photos by Jared Stossel
If you are a fan of metalcore in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon, you were most likely moshing your way through a crowd of thousands gathered under the roof of the Toyota Pavilion at Concord during the inaugural edition of Summer of Loud, a festival featuring some of the biggest and brightest acts in the metalcore genre. While traditional heavy metal and thrash have gotten their own stomping grounds with festivals like Mayhem Festival, metalcore hasn’t really seen its own iteration of a one-day festival. Sure, there was the Vans Warped Tour, essentially the boot camp for a majority of the acts that were headlining on the bill today, but this tour felt like something completely different. For the first time ever, fans of the genre got to see some of the heaviest hitters in this scene bring their music to life with a full stage production (the pyro budget must be massive for this tour). With tickets in the $30-100, this may have been one of the best-valued tickets of the year for concertgoers.
This was an all-day affair, with the doors opening to the amphitheater grounds at 2 PM, with fans flocking their way to the front of the general admission pit in time for local act Kingdom of Giants (who are opening the tour through July 15th) and the brutal Australian act Alpha Wolf. Both of these acts were given about 25 minutes to open up, and it hadn’t even been an hour before a wall of death occured and crowdsurfers were being hurled over the barricades at the front. Both Kingdom of Giants and Alpha Wolf delivered powerful opening sets, punctuated by downtuned guitar chugs and guttural screams. If you weren’t awake when the doors opened, you were now.
The next two acts were established artists in their own right, bands that have been touring for nearly twenty years and slogged it out on countless Warped Tours and worldwide runs. The Devil Wears Prada, who have been performing the best sets they’ve ever put on in the last decade, took the stage and slammed their way through an impenetrable performance of tracks from their latest effort, Color Decay, along with a handful of fan favorites like “Danger: Wildman”. Australia’s own metalcore titans, The Amity Affliction, followed with an eight-song set that provided one of the rowdiest crowds of the day, with fans screaming every word back as they played songs like “All My Friends Are Dead”, “Drag The Lake”, and “Soak Me In Bleach”. Even with vocalist Joel Birch having a broken foot, necessitating the use of a stool, he was all smiles as he watched the crowd scream back every word and mosh.
Summer of Loud is unique because it features not one, not two, but four headliners, all of whom rotate spots on the lineup throughout the tour. For the Concord date, Australia’s mighty Parkway Drive took the stage for their fifty-minute performance. Parkway Drive’s performance was probably the most anticipated set of the day; they rarely come to the Bay Area any more, with their last big performance at San Francisco’s Warfield in 2018. In their home country, the band can play arenas and stadiums with ease, allowing them to bring crazy amounts of stage production to life. Thanks to this tour, Bay Area fans were able to get a taste of exactly what fans Down Under have been getting for years. “We know it’s hot out, I’m sorry for what’s about to happen,” vocalist Winston McCall says with a smile as the entire stage (with a neat effect) lights on fire as they head into their set closer, “Crushed”. More fire shoots up from below and on the side of the stage. Drummer Ben Gordon’s kit spins upside down as the sides of the cage he’s affixed to go up in flames. This is the shit that Spinal Tap could only have dreamed of doing, and it was the most exciting part of the day.
With a blast of pyro and a scream that could shake you to your core, the one and only Killswtich Engage opened their set with “Rose of Sharyn”, and proceeded to play through ten of their greatest hits. I’ve been lucky enough to see Killswitch a handful of times over the years, and the crowd reaction blows me away every time. If you ever get a chance to see Killswitch, wait until you see them play “The End of Heartache”, everyone will be screaming the words. Killswitch delivered one of the most commanding sets of the entire day, continuing to cement their status as legends in this genre.
As the sun finally set on the Bay Area after beating down on the crowd for a majority of the day, I Prevail stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park with an elaborately staged performance that found drummer Gabe Helguera and bassist Jon Eberhard on a platform above the crowd, while guitarists Steve Menoian and Dylan Bowman shredded their way through song after song below. Vocalist Eric Vanlerberghe brought forth a spectacular performance, commanding the audience to scream, mosh, and move through every single track, never letting up once. It is the best performance I’ve ever seen from this band, bar none.
Closing the day was none other than Beartooth, a band that I have not shut up about for the better part of a decade. They get better and better with every single performance, Caleb Shomo running around the stage like a madman shot out of a cannon and screaming away his pain. He is maybe the most dynamic frontman in the genre today, and Beartooth closed out the day with the best performance of the evening. Even with a shortened setlist, with each band playing just under an hour, the band left quite the impression, with Shomo that this was by far his favorite date of the entire tour. Whether singning the chorus of “In Between” with the crowd or ripping throug emotional tracks like “I Was Alive” and “Might Love Myself”, the crowd was all smiles.
The Summer of Loud was created and booked by agent Dave Shapiro. If you haven’t managed to keep up with scene news over the last few months, Shapiro tragically passed, along with five other people, in a plane crash. This was the last tour that he ever booked. Many bands mentioned throughout the day that this tour was dedicated in memory of Shapiro and how much they missed their friend. There were a lot of emotions for myself throughout the day. Back when I was entering this scene and trying to book shows, I knew who Dave Shapiro was. If there was a metalcore or pop-punk band in the scene, he was most likely their agent. People gravitated towards him because he understood this music and saw its potential. I am lucky enough to say that I got to see all of these bands at some point or another when they were starting out, fifteen years ago, because of Dave Shapiro booking and taking a chance on them. Summer of Loud is not just a great day of music, but a testament to the scene that was built by people like him. I hope that, wherever he is out there, he was able to see how much happiness was brought to those in attendance in Concord on Sunday evening. Thank you, Dave.
Beartooth Set List
The Lines
The Past Is Dead
Sunshine!
ATTN.
Disease
Doubt Me
I Was Alive
Might Love Myself
The Last Riff (partial)
You Never Known
Riptide
In Between
I Prevail Set List
Bow Down
Body Bag
Self-Destruction
There’s Fear In Letting Go
Violent Nature
Blank Space (Taylor Swift cover)
Into Hell
Bad Things
Choke
Hurricane
Gasoline
Killswitch Engage Set List
Rose of Sharyn
In Due Time
This Fire
I Believe
Hate By Design
Forever Aligned
The Signal Fire
Aftermath
The End of Heartache
My Last Serenade
Parkway Drive
Glitch
Prey
Vice Grip
The Void
Soul Bleach
Carrion
Sacred
Bottom Feeder
Wild Eyes
Crushed
