Show Review, Photos: Motionless In White Celebrate Decades As A Band in Wheatland
Motionless In White
Support: Lorna Shore, Fit For A King, Static Dress
Toyota Amphitheatre
Wheatland, CA
August 1st, 2026
Review and Photos by Jared Stossel
I once saw Motionless In White open for Slipknot at an amphitheatre, the first on a four-band bill as people were barely starting to make their way inside. Last night, over a decade later, I saw that very same band headline an amphitheatre of that size on their own just a few miles outside of Sacramento. Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Motionless In White played the biggest Northern California show of their career at Wheatland’s Toyota Amphitheatre, a culmination of nearly two decades’ worth of effort building their band and cementing themselves as a major power player in metalcore. After years of seeing them perform everywhere - from the tiniest stages on the Vans Warped Tour to theaters as both headliners and opening acts - this felt like the show that the band has always wanted to put on for themselves and their fans.
As the heat outside rose into the 100-degree range, thousands of fans packed in for a chance to see one of the biggest metalcore shows of the year. With the sun still beating down, UK-based outfit Static Dress took the stage for a high-energy set. Static Dress are relative newcomers to this scene, and they have a unique brand of post-hardcore and screamo that is evocative of the early days of the MySpace era of the genre. They blasted their way through several particularly heavy numbers, including tracks from their most recent album, 2026’s Injury Episode.
A ridiculously brutal set from metalcore veterans Fit For A King followed, the sun finally starting to take mercy on everyone in the crowd. I have seen this band three times now, and they are absolutely astounding with every set they bring forth. With only seven songs packed into a half-hour set, they left a lasting impression. It’s hard not to when your first song, “Backbreaker”, features some of the heaviest breakdowns of the night and vocalist Ryan Kirby holding out a guttural scream for thirty seconds.
While Motionless In White were the stars of the show, there is no band in the metal scene that is being hyped as much as Lorna Shore. It is not an exaggeration for me to say that they are the heaviest band in the world right now. Their set was flawless, opening with the track that managed to catapult them to the forefront of the genre, “To The Hellfire”. The haunting guitar track played as the band took the stage at twilight, with fans chanting the band’s name well before they were even visible on the stage. What followed was a forty-five-minute onslaught of some of the most vicious-sounding deathcore imaginable, with vocalist Will Ramos sounding like a man possessed. Lorna Shore is the sound of Hell personified. I can’t recommend them enough.
Darkness had consumed the venue by the time that Motionless In White took the stage for their massively theatrical headlining set. The band’s nearly-twenty-song set list was a journey through every album released since 2010’s Creatures, with most tracks coming from their 2022 effort Scoring The End of the World. Tracks from their new album, Decades, were played with great reception, including “Afraid Of The Dark”, “Playing God”, “R.I.P.” and their electrifying cover of Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses At Night”. For older albums, only the heaviest tracks were featured like “Thoughts and Prayers” (Disguise), “Abigail” (Creatures), “Reincarnate” (Reincarnate) and “A-M-E-R-I-C-A” (Infamous). Songs like “Meltdown” and “Slaughterhouse” became larger than life, their breakdowns nearly exploding from the speakers as the band let off an ungodly amount of pyro during each. Four dancers joined the band onstage throughout the night, adding a theatrical touch to numerous songs.
Last night’s Motionless In White show felt like an encapsulation of the band’s last two decades. I remember seeing this band on the Vans Warped Tour using fog machines in place of cryo cannons because that was all they could afford, yet they still wanted to make sure that theatrical flourish was present in everything that they do. The band has incorporated theatrics into their shows since their inception, but nothing on this scale. Last night, it felt like the band was finally given the keys to the souped-up sports car they’ve always wanted to speed down the highway at 120 MPH in, with a note attached that simply read, “Have fun.”
Motionless In White Set List
Sign of Life
Playing God
Meltdown
Voice
A-M-E-R-I-C-A
Afraid of the Dark
Hollow Points
Reincarnate
Thoughts & Prayers
R.I.P.
Sunglasses At Night (Corey Hart cover)
Undead Ahead 2: The Tale of the Midnight Ride
Not My Type: Dead As Fuck 2
Slaughterhouse (with Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King)
Rats
Masterpiece
Abigail
Scoring The End of the World
Eternally Yours
