Beartooth Prove They're Ready for Their Own Arena on Bad Omens Tour Stop at TD Garden
There's a version of Wednesday night at TD Garden where Beartooth blends into the background. Middle-slot act on a three-band bill, tasked with warming up an arena crowd still finding their seats and finishing their beers. That's not what happened.
When Beartooth kicked off their set, TD Garden was damn near full. The crowd that packed in for them wasn't just there early by accident. They were there for Beartooth, and the band made sure they got their money's worth.
The eleven-song set pulled from across the band's catalog, opening on “Might Love Myself" and building through “Doubt Me”, “Disease", and “The Lines" before hitting its stride. Frontman Caleb Shomo is the kind of performer that makes a large venue feel small. He tears across the stage, plays into the crowd, and brings a physical intensity that doesn't let up for the duration of the set. The rest of the band locks in behind him, but Shomo is the engine driving the whole thing.
The standout moment came mid-set with "Free," the band's first new single since signing to Fearless Records, released just weeks ago. On record, it's already an earworm, built around a chorus designed to be screamed back from exactly the kind of room Beartooth was standing in. Live, it somehow hits harder. When Shomo delivers the line "I'm free, I'm free, I'm free," with a full arena behind him, the moment writes itself.
The set closed on “Riptide" with the kind of finish that leaves a room buzzing heading into the headliner. President opened the evening, and Bad Omens closed it out to a crowd that filled TD Garden to near capacity, an impressive sight for an arena of that size, on a Wednesday night in March.
But the story of the night, at least for anyone paying attention during that middle slot, was Beartooth. Playing arenas as direct support is one thing. Filling them as a headliner is the next step, and based on what went down at TD Garden, that conversation isn't far off.
